Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Please read the guidelines below before submission.

The JELB accepts two types of manuscripts for publication:

1.    Basic Research and Discovery articles: These articles report research findings, present systematic literature reviews, investigate relevant concepts or theories, and/or discuss topics of historical interest in experiential learning in the context of business or business education. Papers could address new theoretical and empirical frameworks related to experiential learning. Manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including the abstract, references, tables and figures. These articles should follow the general format of a research article (introduction, review of literature, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, references, appendices).

2.    Application and Practice articles: These articles report on effective experiential instruction/delivery, new insights into experiential pedagogy and assessment, or descriptions/evaluation of newly developed experiential activities used in business education. Manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including the abstract, references, and teaching guides or other appendices. All application and practice articles should include a theory/literature review section to position the article in our current understanding of experiential learning.

Targeted Readership

JELB is intended for academics from around the globe engaged in a range of scholarly pursuits and practitioners who depend on scholarship to inform their pedagogy. Therefore, it is critical that authors recognize and address the interests of these diverse audiences when describing the contribution of their work.

Authors should take care to explain how the topics they discuss address issues related to experiential education in business, many of which have been explored previously in Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning: Proceedings of the Annual ABSEL Conference. Articles that seek to expand conceptions of experiential education in business are welcome, but should clearly demonstrate how they advance existing ideas and practices.

The Journal is not seeking to publish manuscripts describing single programs, curricular units, or outcome evaluations unless they demonstrate clear relevance to wider issues in business experiential education. Authors interested in publishing single case studies must:

·         state clear research purposes and questions;

·         indicate why the focal case is important to study;

·         articulate a guiding theoretical framework;

·         substantiate claims with evidence or compelling examples; and

·         address the broader implications of their conclusions, especially how their discussion breaks new ground or recontextualizes existing ideas or practices in an innovative way.

Authors of theoretical or empirical articles should communicate the practical implications of their findings or conclusions in as much detail as possible in a discussion section or in a separate implications section. Communicating research implications is an expectation for publishing in the Journal.

Manuscript Submission Guidelines

JELB uses an electronic submission and review process. Manuscripts should be submitted at https://JELB.org, where authors will be required to set up an online account. Manuscript submissions will be accepted with the understanding that their content is unpublished and not being submitted for publication elsewhere. Authors must prepare manuscripts according to the most current edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Style Manual). Instructions on tables, figures, references, statistics, and typing appear in the manual.

Basic formatting guidelines for publication. Less is more in this case. Please do not add specialized formatting, as our goal is a consistent, standardized publication that looks professional and allows easy readability. A template can be downloaded at https://JELB.org/format-template.

1.    Manuscript format: All parts of the manuscript, including the title page, abstract, references, and tables and figures, should be provided in MS Word format, in English. Keeping things simple, body formatting is Times New Roman, size 10 font, left alignment (should be standard settings). Size 12 is acceptable (but not necessary) for titles and headings. We are looking for minimal formatting at this point: single-space typed, one blank line between paragraphs (2 returns).

Margins are best at the standard word processing settings (i.e., 1 inch). Indented paragraphs are ok if they occur automatically when you press return, but DON’T create them pressing the tab button. If you add them in by using the tab key, the editor will have to manually go in and take them all out again! If you press return at the end of a sentence and it starts another line without indentation, that is also acceptable. They will be changed by the format print editor to the standardized publication format.

 

Upload the title page as a separate document during the submission process. The first page of text should begin with the full title of the paper, but NOT the name(s) of the author(s). In preparation for anonymized peer review, all author identifiers within the text, citations, and properties should be removed.

 

2.    Abstract: The JELB requires abstracts to conform to a structured format with the following headings exactly as they appear here: Background, Purpose, Approach/methodology, Findings/conclusions, Implications. Abstracts must be 250 words or fewer. The initial submitted manuscript should begin with a page including the title of the manuscript and the abstract, but NOT the name(s) of the author(s).

 

3.    Keywords: The JELB appeals to a broad and diverse readership. Three to five keywords should appear three lines after the end of the abstract. Select keywords that are likely to help attain maximum visibility with all audiences who might find interest in your paper, either within or outside traditional experiential education for business audiences.

4.    Titles and Headings: Titles, author info, and main headings should be centered and bold. Subheadings should be left align, italic, bold, and paragraphs should be left align.

5.    Tables and Figures: Tables should be titled and numbered at the top of the table. They should be numbered consecutively as they appear in the text. Tables should be clear, concise, and able to stand alone. Complete headings and footnotes should be included to clarify entries. Figures should be numbered consecutively, at the bottom of the figure, with a short and concise description. Fonts used in any table or figure should be compatible with that used in the text. All tables and figures should be included at the end of the manuscript and referred to in the text with a notation made in the manuscript indicating approximately where each should be located (e.g., [insert table 1 here]). Illustrations should be of professional quality and supplied in EPS, tiff, or PDF formats.

6.    Headers, Footers and Page Numbers: Do NOT include headers, footers, or page numbers. The Editor will apply correct publication specific information. It is simpler if you do not add any information as the editor will then need to strip this formatting from your document before applying the Publication Headers and Footers.

7.    Formulas and Equations: Please treat these as you would an image/table, listing at the end of document with a placeholder line within the main document.

8.    Bullets, Outlines and Lists: Use bullets and lists as typical, please use standard (automatic) formatting. We will maintain numbering, symbols, and/or lettering to the best of our ability

9.    References and Citations: All citations and references must be complete and accurate on submission and should follow the APA Style Manual. Manuscripts cannot be reviewed if they have references that are found to be incomplete or inaccurate. All applicable references should include doi numbers with https prefixes and hyperlinks (e.g., https://doi.org/10.1177/1053825917740155). References should use standard body paragraph formatting. Hanging indent is acceptable, but not necessary. Only one return (no blank lines) between references

Examples:

American Psychological Association.  (2020).  The publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Gentry, J. W., Burns, A. C., Dickinson, J. R., Putrevu, S.,Chun, S., Hongyan, Y., Williams, L., Bare, T., Gentry, R. A.  (2002).  Managing the curiosity gap does matter: What do we need to do about it?  In J.A. Smith (Ed.), Developments in business simulation and experiential learning, 29 (Vol. 29, pp. 68-73). Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning.

Seas, K., & Brizee, A. (n.d.).  APA style introduction. Purdue Online Writing Lab.  Retrieved July 23, 2020 from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html

10. Permissions: The author(s) is responsible for providing copies of written permission for lengthy quotations or reprinted or adapted tables or figures. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to check with the publisher or copyright owner regarding specific requirements for permission to adapt or quote from copyrighted material. See the APA Style Manual for guidelines.

11. Length: Articles Should be no more than 10,000 words, including the abstract and references. Longer manuscripts will be unsubmitted by the Editor and returned to the author for revision before being considered for review.

12. Human Subjects: Submitted manuscripts reporting research on human subjects must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the institution of the review committee in your text. For empirical research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal, and whether informed consent provided by the participant or a legally authorized representative.

13. Authorship: All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship and authorship order should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their rank or status. Individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed as contributors.

14. Funding: JELB requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. In the event no funding is noted, state that: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

Conflict of Interest

The JELB encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests.

Review Process

Double-anonymized review: The JELB adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

When a manuscript is sent out for anonymized review, the evaluation of the reviewers, along with the Editor(s), will determine if the final recommendation to the author(s) is (a) accept as is; (b) accept with minor revisions; (c) Minor revise and resubmit; (d) Major revise and resubmit; (e) reject; or (f) not appropriate for the JELB. If accepted, the author(s) will be requested to resubmit a revised copyedited paper through the website (in Word format). Prospective authors should anticipate this process to take between six and twelve months.

Please note: There is no cost for submission or publishing in the JELB. However, all published authors will need to be members in the Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning ABSEL. Details of how to become of ABSEL can be found on https://absel.org

 

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