Guide for Authors
The
International Journal of Project Management is devoted to the publication of papers which advance knowledge on practical and theoretical
aspects of project management. The list of classifications at the end of this guide indicates the scope of the journal. Papers are selected
for publication based on their relevance, clarity, topicality, the extent to which they advance knowledge, and their contribution to
inspiring further development and research. The journal strives to maintain a balance between papers derived from research and from practical
experience. Authors are encouraged to submit case studies describing the project environment; criteria and factors for success; responsibilities
of participants; managerial arrangements; human factors; contract forms; planning and control systems; problem areas encountered and
lessons learned.
Introduction
Contact Details
Authors should submit articles to the journal
online by following instructions on the home page of the website at
http://ees.elsevier.com/jpma
Submission of a paper
implies that it has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that if accepted
it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
Ethics in publishing
For information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication
see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including
any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work
that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously
(except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was
carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any
other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Changes to authorship
This
policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the
accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must
be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should
be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree
with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author
being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding
author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such
requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After
the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published
in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Copyright
Upon
acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright
see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'
form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles
including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution
outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit
the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the funding source
You
are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly
describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing
of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this
should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and
policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals
published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Language and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted,
but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices
or our customer support site at
http://support.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single
PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted
to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence,
including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
Submission address
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/jpma/
Additional Information
All papers submitted for publication will be refereed on the 'double-blind' system
by two or more specialists selected from a panel of referees. This means the author and referees do not know each other, nor do the referees
know other referees. Thus it is important that authors' names should
appear nowhere in the manuscript except on the cover page
(which will be separated from the manuscript) and in references. When referring to their own work, authors should refer to themselves
in the third person. Any papers not adhering to this will be returned.
Manuscripts should be 10,000
words long maximum, inclusive of figures and tables. Count each figure and table as 300 words. As a guide that is 33 pages of manuscript
double spaced, counting each figure or table as one page. Papers must be typewritten in a font size of 12 or 11 pt, double spaced with
wide margins. Write in clear and concise English, using active rather than passive voice. Authors may refer to themselves in the first
person, except when citing their own work. Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary. Authors should consult a recent issue
of the journal for style if possible. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.
Use of wordprocessing software
It is important that the file be
saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple
as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's
options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables,
if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs,
not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also
the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Note that source files of figures, tables
and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork.
To
avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your wordprocessor.
Article structure
Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into
clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included
in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be
given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Introduction
State
the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion
This
should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate.
Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions
of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and
Discussion section.
Essential title page information
•
Title.
Concise
and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
•
Author
names and affiliations.
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present
the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript
letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation,
including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
•
Corresponding author.
Clearly
indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication.
Ensure that telephone
and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact
details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
•
Present/permanent address.
If an author has
moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may
be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main,
affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract
Please
supply an abstract of UP TO 150 words outlining the purpose, scope and conclusions of the paper, and at least two selected keywords.
It is important that the abstract should be very clear and understandable to those whom English is not their native language. The abstract
should explain why the paper is important to those who may not necessarily be in that particular field. A list of keywords to choose
from appears at the end of this guide.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is optional
and should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership
online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted
as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96
dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. See
http://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts for examples.
Authors can make use of Elsevier's Illustration and Enhancement service to ensure the best presentation of their images also in accordance
with all technical requirements:
Illustration
Service.
Highlights
Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist
of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the
online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including
spaces, per bullet point). See
http://www.elsevier.com/highlights for examples.
Units
You
should use SI units, as defined by the ISO standard or your national authorized SI standard. Where SI units do not exist, use an internationally
accepted unit. If you use any symbol or unit that may not be generally recognized, please put an explanatory note in the margin the first
time it is used, to help the referees and editors.
Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as 'graphics'
or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number
the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
•
Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit
each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats
(note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.
TIFF: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
then please supply 'as is'.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT,
WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately
large for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable
format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color
figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and
other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction
in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate
your preference for color: in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting
color figures to 'gray scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black
and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration
has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure
itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations
used.
Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text.
Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing
in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
References
Reference management software
This journal has standard templates
available in key reference management packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp) and Reference Manager
(
http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate
journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal
style which is described below.
Reference Style
Text: All citations in the text
should refer to:
1.
Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2.
Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3.
Three or more authors: first author's name
followed by "et al." and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should
be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995).
Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."
List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further
sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters
"a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der
Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communication, 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.
Reference to
a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S.,
Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.
Please
ensure that references are complete, i.e. that they include, where relevant, author's name, article or book title, volume and issue number,
publisher and location, date and page reference.
It is important that your paper is set in the context of current research, and you
should show that the work is original. Therefore a significant proportion of the citations (typically at least a third) should be refereed
papers published in the last five years. But please do include citations of seminal papers from the past, which form the foundations
of the subject. Web pages are not refereed publications and so citations of them should be used sparingly.
Video
data
Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who
have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of
the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body
text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content.
In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file
formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version
of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills'
with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard
icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and
the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
Supplementary data
Elsevier
accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional
possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files
supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data
in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply
a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Submission checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending
it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following
items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
•
Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
•
Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
•
All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use
of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color
reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white
in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site at
http://support.elsevier.com.
Finally, you should be able to answer yes to the following questions:
Have you told readers, at the outset, what they might gain by reading your paper?
Have you made the aim of your work clear?
Have you explained the significance of your contribution?
Have you set your work in the appropriate context with sufficient background,
and all relevant references?
Have you addressed the question of practicality and usefulness?
Have you identified future developments
that may result from your work?
Have you structured your paper in a clear and logical fashion?
Additional
Information
Please choose at least two classifications from the following lists, as appropriate. This will assist the editor
in choosing referees, as well as helping with cataloguing.
General
Implementing Strategy through
Programmes of Projects; Managing Programmes; Project Portfolio Management; The Project Office; Managing Projects; Project Success and
Strategy; Managing Integration; Project Management Procedures Project Management Information Systems; e-PM; Audits and Health Checks.
External
Managing Context - Political, Economic, Social and Technical; Managing Context - Legal; Managing Context - Environmental.
Implementation
Benefits Management; Requirements Management; Managing Scope - Functionality and Value; Value Management; Managing
Scope - Configuration; Managing Scope - Work; Managing Organisation - Structure and Responsibilities; Managing Quality; Managing Cost;
Earned Value; Managing Time; Network Analysis and PERT; Theory of Constraints/Critical Chain; Neural Networks; Managing Resources; Managing
Risk; Fuzzy sets; Managing Health and Safety.
Life-cycle
Managing the Process - Life-cycle; Managing Project Start-up; Managing
Proposal, Definition and Feasibility; Managing Design, Planning and Appraisal; Managing Implementation; Managing Commissioning, Testing
and Close-out.
Commercial
Investment Appraisal; Managing Finance.
Contractual
Contract Organization/Forms of Contract;
Managing Partnerships and Alliances; PPP/PFI; BOOT/BOT/DBMF etc; Contract Procurement and Tendering (Clients); Bidding (Contractors);
Contract Administration; Managing Materials, Purchasing and Supply; Managing Claims; Managing International Projects.
People
Developing Individual Competence; Developing Organizational Maturity and/or Capability; Knowledge Management; Managing Teams; Managing
Individuals - Development, Motivation and Reward; Leadership; Managing Stakeholders; Managing Conflict and Negotiation; Managing Culture;
Gender; Managing Ethics; Decision Making; AHP.
General Management
Managing Human Resources; Managing Operations; Managing Financial
Resources; Managing Markets; Managing Information Systems; Managing Strategy; Managing Innovation; Managing Change.
Industry and
Sector Specific
Engineering and Construction; Manufacturing and Process Industries; Information Technology, Computers and Electronics;
Communications; Infrastructure: Energy, Transport, Utilities and Health; Defences; Services, Financial and Leisure; Government; Voluntary
Sector.
Geography
Europe; CIS; Middle East; Africa, sub-Sahara; Indian subcontinent; Far East; Australasia and Pacific; North
America; Latin America.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character
string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore,
it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic
information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters
B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are
guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by
e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided
in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated;
for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from
http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions
on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may
list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting
line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query
Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking
the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted
for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article
published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all
corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections
cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article
if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided
with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent
once the article is accepted for publication. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet
with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.
For
inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details
for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can
track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ)
and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
