Management & Marketing - editorial policy

Editorial Policy of the Management & Marketing journal

1. Editorial focus
2. Open access and publication fees
3. Publication timeline
4. Overview of the review process
5. Indexing and abstracting
6. Formatting your manuscript
7. Submitting your manuscript
8. Authors’ resources

1. Editorial focus

Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Economy is the official journal of the association Society for Business Excellence (www.bizexcellence.ro), a group of Romanian scholars interested in contributing to the evolution of the fields of management and marketing.

The themes of interest for the journal are the following:

Business management Strategic management Supply-chain management Change management Intellectual capital Knowledge management Human resources management

Online marketing International marketing Strategic marketing Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial education International business Customer relationship management

The articles we publish are those that contribute to the theoretical development of the field, challenging the conventional wisdom in management and marketing, or those that present empirical or design based research results in business. Also, we welcome papers that present literature reviews, and papers that bring fresh perspectives on old topics. 

The four types of articles that the journal accepts, along with the requirements for each specific type, are presented in the table below:

	Types of manuscripts
	Perspectives			Articles
	Conceptual papers	Book reviews	Viewpoints	Literature reviews	Research
Description	These papers will not be based on research but will develop and provide arguments in favor of certain hypotheses. These articles extend current thought in a new direction, pose new questions, or propose a new paradigm. The criteria against which the manuscripts will be assessed are: creativity, coherence, logical argumentation, and the degree to which they can inspire other research.	Any book related to management and marketing can be subject to a book review, but we encourage authors to focus either on new releases or older publications that are relevant for contemporary matters. We do not accept reviews of “self-help” or “how to” books.  Reviews should present a characterization of the central theme of the book a description of the structure and contents of the book (avoid summarizing the book), a balanced appraisal of the book.	These papers may address virtually any important topic in management and marketing which is of current interest and stimulates a thought-provoking discussion. We welcome the presentation of new hypothesis and controversial views. Viewpoints follow the structure of essays, without chapters or abstract.	These papers provide a synthesis of a topic within management or marketing. We invite narrative reviews, quantitative systematic reviews (meta-analyses) and qualitative systematic reviews. The purpose of a literature review is to objectively report the current knowledge on a topic and base this summary on previously published research.	These papers present the findings of qualitative or quantitative original research.
Word count	3,000 – 5,000	500 - 1,000	2,000 - 4,000	5,000-7,000	6,000-8,000
No. of references	15 - 30	-	10-20	50-100	25-50
Max. no. of authors	2	1	2	3	4
Abstract required	yes	no	no	yes	yes
Peer-review	yes	no*	no*	yes	yes

* They are not subjected to peer-review, and acceptance is based solely on whether the editors think the opinion is worth airing and the case is cogently made.

2. Open access and publication fees

Management & Marketing applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to all manuscripts published. Under the CC BY license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in Management & Marketing, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

Management & Marketing does not require fees for publication from its authors, all the publishing costs being supported by the Society for Business Excellence.

3. Publication timeline

The journal Management & Marketing is published quarterly according to the following schedule:

Time period	Action
March 1	Deadline for submission of manuscripts for the first issue
March 31	Publication of first issue
June 1	Deadline for submission of manuscripts for second issue
June 30	Publication of second issue
September 1	Deadline for submission of manuscripts for third issue
September 30	Publication of the third issue
December 1	Deadline for submission of manuscripts for fourth issue
December 31 - January 7	Publication of the fourth issue

The editors of the journal accept manuscript submissions all year round, and the deadlines presented in the table represent the final date until which the manuscript has a chance to be published in the forthcoming issue, if accepted by the reviewers with no or minor changes. All the manuscripts received after that date are automatically considered for the following issue.

Authors should be aware that, most of the times, a single manuscript passes through two peer-review processes separated by a period necessary for improving the content, which can translate into 3-4 months before obtaining a final answer.

4. Overview of the editorial process

Book reviews and viewpoints are not subject to peer-review, they are assessed by the editorial team in accordance to the description found in Table 1. Grounds for immediate dismissal of a book review/viewpoint are:

1. Improper use of the English language (grammar, syntax, vocabulary).
2. The subject matter is not within the focus of the journal.
3. The manuscript does not present a balanced approach of the subject matter.
4. The manuscript does not have the required word length or the required number of references, if that is the case.
5. The manuscript is not creative or stimulating enough for the readership of the Management & Marketing journal.

The other types of manuscripts (conceptual papers, research articles and literature reviews) go through the double blind peer-review process described below.
The article is submitted at the following email address: office@managementmarketing.ro. Each submission is acknowledged by one of the members of the editorial team and then the pre-selection begins. At this stage, the members of the editorial team choose to either reject the article directly or to send it to the reviewers for a thorough review. The grounds for immediate dismissal (desk rejection) of a manuscript are the following:

1. The standard of English is not considered to be good enough for publication in the journal Management & Marketing. If English is not the first language of the authors they should make sure the paper is proofread by a professional or a native speaker.
2. The length of the article is not inside the interval provided above. We accept articles that have a lower or higher word count if they bring an actual contribution to the field (same rule applies to number of authors).
3. The abstract is not written in accordance with the rules explicitly stated on the journal’s website (See Authors’ Resources).
4. The data presented in the article are outdated (either the bibliography is not up-to-date or the research materials are too old).
5. There are not enough references, or the references are too local, too old or too focused on a certain perspective and do not present a balanced, current view of the state of research.

Also, if there are clear suspicions of fraud, the article will be rejected without the possibility of being resubmitted. By fraud we understand that portions or the whole text has been published elsewhere, that there are instances of plagiarism or that the data is suspected to have been faked.

Each author receives notice of the final decision made by the editorial team which can be of two kinds: a) decision to include the article in the review process or b) decision to reject the article followed by the list of reasons that have led to that decision. Authors whose articles have been rejected for reasons other than fraud can choose to resubmit their work for a second and third time. If after the third try the article is still not considered a good fit for the Management & Marketing journal, then the author is prohibited from resubmitting the work again.

If the article passes this pre-selection then it is sent for peer-review to two or three professionals with experience in the field. This stage lasts between four to six weeks depending on the complexity of the article and the availability of experts in the field. The final decision of the peer-review process can be of three kinds:

• Rejected – This decision signals that there are major concerns over the quality of the scientific materials presented in the paper and that the reviewers consider there is no chance in improving the article in such a way as to become a suitable candidate for publication in the journal Management & Marketing. Examples of problems that can lead to this type of decision: serious methodological issues, lack of clear contributions to the advancement of the field, lack of ability to interpret the research results in a scientifically fruitful way etc. This decision is accompanied by a list of reasons which have led to the rejection of the article submitted by each reviewer.
• Rewrite and resubmit – Most of the articles submitted to Management & Marketing fall in this category. These are articles which show promise, but they need further work. Thus, each reviewer sends his or her recommendations and the authors are encouraged to rewrite their articles and start the process of submission once again. The articles that are resubmitted will undergo the editorial process from beginning and they will be subjected to peer-review by the same reviewers (if they express their wish to do so) or by different reviewers. An article can be rewritten and resubmitted three times. If by the end of the third try the article is still not considered suitable for publication, the authors will be prohibited from resubmitting their work again.
• Accepted (with no or minor changes) – This decision signals that the article in its present form, with minor modifications is suitable for publication. The authors received the decision followed by the suggestions of the peer reviewers and their submission, after alterations, will step on to the next stage.

Formatting – Before publication, all articles undergo a formatting stage in which their format is made compatible to the requirements of the journal Management & Marketing. All authors are asked to comply with the requirements before submitting their articles, but all accepted articles still require minor alterations in format and style. Once the editorial team agrees on the final version, a final copy of the article will be sent to the authors for approval and then will be sent to print.

Publication – After formatting, all articles set to be included in the following issue will be sent to print and will also appear online. Management & Marketing is published four times a year in the following months: March, June, September and December. The articles should be sent at least one month before the date of publication of the issue.

5. Indexing and abstracting

The journal is listed in the following databases:

• Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Management and Marketing
• Central and Eastern European Online Library
• Index Copernicus
• EBSCO
• RePEc (IDEAS and EconPapers)
• DOAJ

According to the Romanian National Council of Scientific Research, the journal is ranked as B+.

6. Formatting your manuscript

Book reviews must contain the following information:

• the title of the book
• the authors of the book in "Firstname Lastname" format with an indication at the end if the book is edited -- (eds.)
• the publishing house
• the year of publication
• the ISBN number
• reviewer name and affiliation.

If the reviewers find it suitable to use references, these must be provided using the Harvard referencing style. We do not accept the use of endnotes and footnotes.

Viewpoints have no particular structure, they are considered essays, and the author(s) must furnish information related to their institutional affiliation (name, city, country, and email address of the corresponding author), the paper has to have a title, no abstract, and 10-20 references. It may be structured on chapters or not and it can be written in a language more accessible to a wider readership.

Conceptual papers should have the following structure: abstract, introductory chapter, previous research, proposed hypotheses/model, theoretical implications, practical implications, further research, arguments against or limitations, conclusions, references.

Literature reviews and research articles should contain the following: abstract, introductory chapter, previous research, research methodology, results and discussion and conclusions. 

Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Column headings have to be clear and brief and present the units of measurement in parentheses. If the table contains data that has not been generated by the author’s own research, then the source must be cited as in text below the table and also in the reference section. Any abbreviations used in the column heads or rows must be explained as a note below the table.

Figures represent both drawings and pictures. Their titles have to be self-explanatory and should contain the definitions of any symbols used and all abbreviations and units of measurement should be explained so that the figure and its legend are understandable without reference to the text.

Attention! Authors’ summary

All authors submitting their manuscripts to Management & Marketing have to accompany their work with an Authors’ summary which is a text of 150-200 words written in the first-person voice that stands as a non-technical summary of the work presented by the author. The point of the summary is to appeal to a wider audience including practitioners, students and people interested in particular scientific developments and thus it has to place the results of the manuscript in a broader context by presenting the significance or possible implications of the work in a simple and objective manner. Authors should refrain from using complex terminology or acronyms whenever possible. The summaries will be used to increase the visibility of the articles published in Management & Marketing and they will appear on the social media page of the journal.

Referencing
Management & Marketing uses the Harvard Referencing System.

Conference paper:
Author, Initials., Year. Full title of conference paper. In: followed by editor or name of organisation, Full title of conference. Location, Date. Place of publication: Publisher.

https://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

7. Submitting your manuscript

Articles submitted to Management & Marketing journal should be original and unpublished, and not under evaluation for publication in another journal/book. We do not accept extended and revised versions of conference papers or papers previously published in other languages. The submitted manuscripts must be fully integrated within the focus of the Management & Marketing journal.

If authors require any kind of guidance in establishing whether their work falls within the interests of the journal, they are most kindly invited to contact the editorial team at the following address: office@managementmarketing.ro by sending an outline of their article or the abstract, before sending the entire manuscript.

8. Authors’ resources

Guidelines for choosing the title and the keywords:
The title needs to be short (8-10 words) and contain the most important keywords of the article and illustrate the research questions rather than the research methodology. Authors should avoid superfluous words such as “A study of…”, “An analysis of…”.

Guidelines for writing the abstract:

Make use of all the 250 words allocated for the abstract section and present as many details as possible to convince scholars to read the article. The abstract should be structured as follows: a) a brief introduction into the topic of the paper; b) an overview of the current state of the scientific literature on the topic; c) a presentation of research methodology and research questions; c) presentation of main results and the implications for the field; d) highlights of the contribution brought by the paper to the field of studies.