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Business Horizons

Guide for authors

Manuscripts submitted to Business Horizons should address topical and timely issues of relevance to business academicians and practitioners. Successful submissions will typically be structured around identifying and developing a problem or issue and providing relevant solutions. Importantly, manuscripts should go beyond description to offer sound prescriptive advice. Manuscripts should also be solidly grounded in a scholarly foundation with appropriate and judicious use of source citations. Manuscripts should be written in clear, non-technical language, with a broad business readership in mind. While the language should be engaging and informative, authors should avoid the unnecessary use of jargon and technical terminology.

Manuscripts should be prepared consistent with the following guidelines. Manuscripts which do not conform to these guidelines may be returned to the author(s) without review for reformatting.

1. Double-space, 12-point Times New Roman font, normal text spacing, with 1-inch margins throughout. Manuscripts should not exceed 25 pages, all-inclusive. All pages, save the title page, should include pagination, with the title page being page one. Pagination should continue sequentially thereafter. Page numbers should appear centered at the bottom of each page.

2. The first page of the manuscript should include the title of the manuscript and complete contact information for each author with author name, affiliation, full postal mail address, email address, telephone number, and fax number. The corresponding author should be clearly noted in the case of multiple authors.

3. The second page of the manuscript should include the title of the manuscript, an abstract of 150 to 200 words, and three to five key words or short phrases that accurately reflect the content of the manuscript. Abstracts should be designed to provide a comprehensive executive summary of the manuscript in a manner that draws the reader's attention.

4. The body of the text should begin on the third manuscript page. The manuscript text should begin with an introductory heading.Incorporate headings and sub-headings throughout the manuscript to aid readability. First order headings should be centered and all capital letters. Second order headings should be centered and use both upper and lower case letters. Headings should be descriptive and informative, yet not standard academic style. For example, rather than use "Introduction", you might elect to use "Corporate Women: Another Look". The aim is to guide the reader with innovative and lively language.

5. Business Horizons relies on the APA (American Psychological Association) style of referencing and citations. Authors should carefully document their work while at the same time judiciously select references. A complete list of references cited should appear at the end of the text, and preceding any tables, figures, or graphs. Only works cited in the manuscript should be included in the references section. The references should begin on a new manuscript page, with the heading REFERENCES appearing centered at the top of this page. No footnotes or endnotes. Any full or partial text-quoted material should include the relevant page number(s) with the source citation (e.g., Author & Author, 2008, p.1). Please also note the use of ampersand for within text citations contained in parentheses. Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-3215-4, copies of which may be ordered online.
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:
Stuart, F. I. (2006). Designing and executing memorable service experiences: Lights, camera, experiment, integrate, action! Business Horizons, 49(2), 149-159.

Ketchen, D., & Hult, G. T. (2007). Bridging organization theory and supply chain management: The case of best value supply chains. Journal of Operations Management, 25(2), 573-580.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton, R. A. (2018). The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon, 19, Article e00205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205.

Reference to a Book:
Miller, D., & Le Breton-Miller, I. (2005). Managing for the long run: Lessons in competitive advantage from great family businesses. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Edited collection:
Pfeffer, J. (1998). Understanding organizations: Concepts and controversies. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 733-777). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Geis, G. (1982). The heavy electrical equipment anti-trust cases of 1961. In M. D. Ermann & R. J. Lundman (Eds.), Corporate and governmental deviance (pp. 123-143). New York: Oxford University Press.

Web source:
Berry, L. L., & Seltman, K. D. (2007). Building a strong services brand: Lessons from Mayo Clinic. Business Horizons, 50(3), 199-209. Retrieved May 10, 2007, Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com.

Lewis, P. H. (2007). How Apple kept its iPhone secrets. Retrieved January 31, 2008, Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/10/commentary/lewis_fortune_iphone.fortune/index.htm

Dataset:
This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. This identifier will not appear in your published article.
[Dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T. (2015). Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

6. All tables, figures, graphs, and appendices should appear individually on a separate manuscript page. These should clarify or supplement the manuscript text, not duplicate the text. Please indicate the appropriate placement of tables, figures, and graphs within the text by using [Insert Table 1 about here] place on a separate text line. These should appear following the References in the following order: tables, figures, graphs, appendices.

7. Authors should carefully proofread their manuscripts prior to submission. Please pay careful attention to spelling and grammar, in particular. Manuscripts with extensive errors may be returned without review. Submission of a manuscript to Business Horizons implies a commitment by the author(s) to engage in the review process and to have the article published should it be accepted. Articles previously published, those under consideration by another journal, and those with a pre-existing copyright may not be submitted for review and consideration. Upon submission, authors also agree not to submit the manuscript for consideration elsewhere during the review period. Finally, submitting authors acknowledge that plagiarism software may be used to scan their work for ethical purposes. This journal operates under a peer review model. All editorial decisions are final.

This journal operates a double blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then sent to independent expert reviewer(s) to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. More information on types of peer review.

8. Submit all manuscripts electronically in MS Word-compatible file format to [email protected]. Submissions will be acknowledged acknowledged within 72 hours of receipt. Editorial decisions may take up to 3 months. Articles typically appear in print 8 to 12 months after final acceptance.

9. Materials published in Business Horizons are available for viewing and download via ScienceDirect.

10. In order to afford all authors an opportunity of publication, authors are limited to a maximum of three submissions per calendar year.

11. This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research: Open Access and Subscription.

For Subscription articles
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright, see https://www.elsevier.com/copyright). 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 https://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 https://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

For Open Access articles
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete an 'Exclusive License Agreement' (for more information see https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright). Permitted reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license (see https://www.elsevier.com/openaccesslicenses).

Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights.

For more information on author rights see https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright.

This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research:

Open Access
• Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse
• An Open Access publication fee is payable by authors or their research funder
Subscription
• Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our universal access programs
• No Open Access publication fee

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of the following Creative Commons user license:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

Elsevier has established agreements with funding bodies, https://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. This ensures authors can comply with funding body Open Access requirements, including specific user licenses, such as CC BY. Some authors may also be reimbursed for associated publication fees. If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.

To provide Open Access, this journal has a publication fee which needs to be met by the authors or their research funders for each article published Open Access. The open access publication fee for this journal is $1800, excluding taxes. Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy: https://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing.
Your publication choice will have no effect on the peer review process or acceptance of submitted articles.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.