Manuscript Submission

Given the pluralistic ethos of the journal, papers that are written on a subject can take a variety of forms and lengths. Whatever the format and style in which papers are written, the general hallmark of papers published in OT is that (a) a theoretical argument is coherently developed and laid out; and in a way that (b) significantly contributes to our understanding of organizations and management. Meaningful new implications or insights for theory must be present in all articles published in the journal, regardless of whether such implications or insights are derived from the development of novel ideas into new theory, from a critique of received theory, or from a conceptual synthesis of recent advances. Submissions should therefore also clearly signal and communicate the nature of their theoretical contribution in relation to the existing literature.
 

Article Types

Submissions to OT fall in three categories:

• regular full-length submissions (‘theory article’),

• review papers (‘review article’), and

• shorter, essay-style contributions to a debate or conversation regarding a theoretical problem or issue (‘controversies and conversations’).

 

Theory article

OT publishes theory articles on different subjects within the broad domains of organizations (in their environment), organizing, and the organized, including work within subject areas such as strategy, organizational behavior, work and employment relations, human resource management, international business, general management, public administration, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, ethics, and gender and diversity.
Submissions to OT may feature different approaches to theory development, including approaches centered on proposition development, process theorizing, or on a theoretical critique and synthesis of the existing literature.
Each submission should therefore explicitly signal its theoretical aims and position and maintain congruity with this approach throughout the paper. This openness of OT to different styles and approaches at the same time encourages authors to make their articles accessible to the journal’s wide-ranging readership. Whilst submissions may be focused on a particular specialized area or set of ideas, they should be written in such a way that our general readers are able to understand the ideas and arguments presented.
 

Review article

OT routinely publishes papers that provide a comprehensive and theory-driven review of a particular research field. These review articles provide a theoretically-informed review and integration of an important area of research, and offer significant implications for subsequent theory development and research.
 In other words, reviews published in OT have to be strongly theory-led, either in the design of the review (e.g., comparing and synthesizing different streams of theorizing and research on a topic), or in the implications for theory derived from the study. Because of this specific expectation, authors are asked to clearly elaborate the theoretical contributions of their review and the strong implications they see for further research in an area.
The submission and review processes for these reviews are identical to those for regular submissions.
 

Controversies and conversations

Essays in this section of OT feature commentary and debate on important theoretical topics in the field. Sets of authors may engage in a conversation about topic in a complementary manner, for example by highlighting alternative but compatible viewpoints or ways of researching a subject. In other instances, the communication between the two sides may take the form of a debate around competing viewpoints (controversies), but similarly with the constructive aim of fostering new ways of thinking about and researching organizations.
The initiative for the development of a controversies and conversations contribution may come from the editors, the journal’s editorial board, or through an informal proposal from authors to a member of the editorial team. On receiving such a proposal, the editorial team will evaluate the proposal and, if it is approved, will ask for a more formal proposal which describes the relevance, scope and contribution of the essays, including the different positions of the respective authors on the issue or topic and the proposed outcome of the conversation or debate.
Proposals for this section are received on a rolling basis, and can be formally submitted via the manuscript central system. When preparing a proposal, we advise authors to read previous examples of debates featured in the journal to get an understanding of what is required.
 

Submitting a Manuscript

For detailed submission guidelines, please see https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/OTT.