Volume 12 of Management and Organization Review coincides with the new Chinese Year of the Monkey. May the Year of the Monkey bring all IACMR authors, readers, and friends much joy, peace, success, happiness, and good luck!
With the start of a new year, I wish to share and highlight a few indicators of the progress that MOR is making. Looking back on 2014 and 2015 I am pleased to note that, in spite of not announcing a single open call for special issues, submissions to MOR have increased 67% – from an average of 99 submissions (adjusted for open calls in 2012 and 2013) to an average of 166 submissions in 2014 and 2015. Perhaps more important are the following highlights: Downloads of abstracts increased from to 5899 (2014) to 14,100 (2015). Downloads of entire papers increased from 577 (2014) to 3273 (2015). Almost all of the papers published in 2014 and 2015 were still accepted by the editorial team of Anne Tsui, which reflects on the originality, quality, and academic relevance of research published in MOR. The differences in downloads can best be explained by the efforts and quality of Cambridge University Press’ website compared to Wiley (MOR publisher during first 10 years). Downloads are an important indicator of interest in articles published in MOR, and Cambridge University Press’ online marketing strategies are increasing awareness of MOR to a wider audience of social science scholars around the world, concerned with indigenous management, international business, and cross cultural scholarship. An analysis of submissions to MOR in 2014 and 2015, and of conditionally accepted papers, indicates a marked increase in submissions involving macro organization, strategy, and international business subjects. This reflects the wider range of scholarship of interest to MOR as well as the expansion of context to all transforming economies. Lastly, I am pleased to share that the time for making first editorial determinations continues to improve. On average desk rejects are made in less than 28 days and first editorial decisions are communicated within 59 days. A comprehensive MOR status report will be presented at the 2016 IACMR Conference in Hangzhou.
As noted above, MOR did not have any open calls for papers in the past two years. Going forward MOR has the capacity to publish one or two special issues as it continues to grow towards becoming a bi-monthly publication. Special issues are intended to direct attention and open up new focused research agendas. Special issues can also serve to consolidate an area of research while opening up new directions and perhaps also shutting down mature lines of research where incremental progress is widely acknowledged.
At present MOR has one open call for a special issue ‘Celebrating and Advancing the Scholarship of Kwok Leung (1958–2015)’. The guest editors are Michael Morris, Columbia University (George) Zhen Xiong Chen, Australian National University, Lorna Doucet, Fudan University, and Yaping Gong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. This is a wide ranging call for papers addressing and extending Professor Kwok Leung's scholarship in cross-cultural research, psychology, and management (see below). Interested authors are invited to submit manuscripts. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is May 15, 2016: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displaySpecialPage?pageId=7552
Another special issue in the planning stage addresses Knowledge Creation, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth in the context of the SME ecology in transforming economies. It is expected that the focus of this special issue will emerge from the Second MOR Research Frontiers Conferences to be held at Guaghua School of Management, Peking University (October 5–7, 2016) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (October 13–15): http://journals.cambridge.org/MORFrontiers
In my previous Letter from the Editor (MOR 11.4) I introduced the challenge that MOR and all other peer-reviewed, empirical, social science journals face regarding data transparency, relevance of empirical findings, and replication. I am most appreciative to MOR readers and Senior Editors who were simultaneously strongly supportive but also cautioned to move forward with deliberate care. All top peer-reviewed management journals share MOR's aspiration for publishing empirical management research, broadly defined, that is original, advances theory, and reports important meaningful and actionable findings. However, the ongoing discourse about implementing new reviewing standards has also highlighted the imperative of evolving guidelines that specifically match requirements for empirical statistical studies, qualitative research, surveys, and behavioral experiments. It is also altogether clear that editors, reviewers, and authors will need to learn and buy into a new underlying ethic of empirical social science research. The basics are not difficult to agree on. Transparency requires making data sets accessible to reviewers and to scholars following publication of a paper (e.g., AER: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data.php). It requires disclosure of data manipulations, transformations, and treatment of outliers. The discussion of findings is expected to highlight effect size and confidence intervals as well reporting null findings. Behavioral experiments and qualitative research reveal further complications relating, for example, to providing complete and replicable details about instructions to experimental subjects and the logics (process) of drawing causal inferences from interviews. Qualitative studies also frequently involve the constraints of confidentiality, non-disclosure of identities or of documents, which will have direct implications for replications or for validating the findings during the review process.
To begin addressing these issues MOR is organizing a symposium on ‘Emerging Publishing Requirements in Social Science – New Policies You Need to Understand’ at the 2016 IACMR Conference.
The objective of this symposium is to discuss the implications of the underlying issues driving data transparency and replications as well as offer an opportunity to discuss specific implications for MOR authors and reviewers. The program will reprise the revised submission policies of several journals and new guidelines for authors relating to the entire range of empirical management research including statistical studies, behavioral experiments, surveys, and qualitative studies. The panel will include Anne Tsui, Xiao-Ping Chen (editor in chief of OBHDP), and several Senior Editors of MOR.
A second initiative will address the same topics at the Shanghai Jiao Tong Antai College PhD Summer Camp, July 1–3, 2016, at Antai College. Based on the experience with the symposium and the Antai PhD summer camp, MOR and the IACMR will develop a Data Transparency and Replication program that could be offered at different venues in China and other transforming economies.
And finally, I am very pleased to share that abstracts of newly published papers in MOR will begin to appear in five languages – Chinese, Hindu, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish. In addition, MOR is expanding its creative initiative of publishing Chinese art to include all transforming economies. Both initiatives are led by Tony Fang, the Deputy Editor for Artwork and Abstract Translation, and the Artwork Advisory Committee of Nancy J. Adler, Michael Bond, Xiao-Ping Chen, Christopher K. Hsee, and Eric W. K. Tsang.
