POSTING TYPE: Journal News

Author: Mirella Kleijnen

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Journal of Business Research

Special Issue Guidelines

Co-Editors-in-Chief Dipayan Biswas and Mirella Kleijnen

February 1, 2023

Special Issue Background Information:

Journal of Business Research (JBR) will consider Special Issue (SI) proposals semi-annually, with deadlines on March 15 and September 15.

• Proposals for special issues should be submitted either between March 1–15 or between September 1–15 and emailed to the Editors-in-Chief (Dr. Mirella Kleijnen [Email: mirella.kleijnen@vu.nl] and Dr. Dipayan Biswas [Email: dbiswas@usf.edu]).
• The EICs (Editors-in-Chief) and related SEs (Senior Editors) will take a call on the submitted proposals within about 2 weeks of the deadlines. JBR tends to receive a high volume of SI proposals and hence only a small percentage of proposed SIs are likely to be approved.
• The EICs would occasionally reach out to specific scholars to solicit SI proposals.
• SI topics can be interdisciplinary in nature.

Special Issue Evaluation Criteria:

All special issue proposals would be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Relevance and Timeliness of Topic: Preference will be given to topics that are timely and emerging in nature. Such topics include (but are not limited to) Sustainability, AI/ML, Robotics, Digitalization, Health, and Technology.
• Potential Impact: Topics with broader appeal and the potential to have a higher impact will get higher preference.
• Credibility of Guest Editor Team: The Guest Editor (GE) team needs to have a highly credible track record of research and publication in the proposed topic area as well as editorial experience. Emphasis will also be placed on the integrity and overall reputation of the GE team as well as and the diversity of this team as a way to invite a wider set of voices and perspectives to the special issue topic.

Guest Editor(s) Role/Responsibilities and Procedures

The Guest Editor(s) is responsible for putting together the Call for Papers/contributors, communicating with the journal editor-in-chief regarding the progress of the issue and any changes to the schedule, ensuring the timely submission of manuscripts, communicating with prospective authors, coordinating the review of manuscripts, ensuring manuscripts conform to the journal style, writing a brief editorial providing an orientation towards and an overview of the content of the issue, and publicizing the special issue after publication. The Guest Editors need to ensure that the topic area is aligned with JBR’s policies.

The Guest Editor(s) handle the entire review process, including selecting reviewers, taking a call on rejections, revise-and-resubmits, and making the recommendation for acceptance.

The SI proposal should nominate a person from the EIC and SE team who is most closely aligned with the topic area of the SI. This EIC/SE member will be the “Consulting Editor” for the special issue. This EIC/SE will also be responsible for the final acceptance decision.

Restrictions for Special Issues:

• The Guest Editors cannot have any of their own papers published in the special issue. The Guest Editors would only have an editorial covering the published papers in the special issue.
• The Guest Editors need to be cognizant of any potential conflict of interest issues regarding the authors publishing in the special issue.

Special issues & Conferences

JBR would not have special issues organized around a specific conference or workshop. Conferences or workshops may be used to promote a special issue, but submission to the special issue is open to all authors who are interested and not attending the conference should not disadvantage authors in any way.

Proposal Components

Any ideas for Special Issue topics must be presented to the Editors-in-Chief via a formal written proposal. The proposal should include the following elements:

1. Title of the Special Issue.
2. Related track(s): Note that an SI proposal topic can be relevant to multiple tracks.
3. Nominating one of the EICs/SEs as the “Consulting Editor” for the SI.
4. Guest Editor(s): Their names and email address.
5. Motivation for the Special Issue.
6. Specific Focus of the Special Issue (suggested topics/research questions).
7. Review Process Timeline. (Please note that the entire process for a Special Issue from date of submission to publication typically takes about two years.)
8. Statement of ad hoc, editorial review board, and book and/or journal editorial experience for all Guest Editors.
9. References to key literature related to the motivation and focus of the proposed issue.
10. Current CV(s) for all proposed guest editors of the issue.

Typical proposals are about 2-4 pages in length (not counting CVs).