Manuscript Requirements
Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below.
You will also find some useful tips in our structure your journal submission how-to guide.
Format
- Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format
- While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below.
Article Length / Word Count
- Articles should be between 4500 and 8000 words in length. This includes all text, for example, the structured abstract, references, all text in tables, and figures and appendices.
- Manuscripts in excess of the maximum word count may be considered only if discussed and agreed in advance with the editor. Please allow 280 words for each figure or table.
Article Title
- A concisely worded title should be provided.
Author Details
The names of all contributing authors should be added to the ScholarOne submission; please list them in the order in which you’d like them to be published. Each contributing author will need their own ScholarOne author account, from which we will extract the following details:
- Author email address
- Author name
We will reproduce it exactly, so any middle names and/or initials they want featured must be included.
This should be where they were based when the research for the paper was conducted.
In multi-authored papers, it’s important that ALL authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper are listed. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. You should never include people who have not contributed to the paper or who don’t want to be associated with the research.
Read about our research ethics for authorship.
Structured Abstract
All submissions must include a structured abstract, following the format outlined below.
These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included:
- Purpose
- Design/methodology/approach
- Findings
- Originality
The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable:
- Research limitations/implications
- Practical implications
- Social implications
- You can find some useful tips in our write an article abstract how-to guide.
The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below).
Keywords
Your submission should include up to 12 appropriate and short keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our Creating an SEO-friendly manuscript how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords.
Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility.
Article Classification
During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
Research Paper
Reports on any type of research undertaken by the author(s), including:
- The construction or testing of a model or framework
- Action research
- Testing of data, market research or surveys
- Empirical, scientific or clinical research
- Papers with a practical focus
- Viewpoint
Covers any paper where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation.
This includes journalistic and magazine-style pieces.
Technical Paper
Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services.
Conceptual Paper
Focuses on developing hypotheses and is usually discursive.
Covers philosophical discussions and comparative studies of other authors’ work and thinking.
Case Study
Describes actual interventions or experiences within organizations.
It can be subjective and doesn’t generally report on research.
Also covers a description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise.
Literature Review
This category should only be used if the main purpose of the paper is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular field. It could be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources, or the paper may aim to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views.
General Review
Provides an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon.
Papers are likely to be more descriptive or instructional (‘how to’ papers) than discursive.
Headings
Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy.
The preferred format is for first level headings to be in bold, and subsequent sub-headings to be in medium italics.
Notes / End Notes
Notes or endnotes should only be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets. These numbers should then be listed, and explained, at the end of the article.
Figures
All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically.
Both colour and black and white files are accepted.
There are a few other important points to note:
- All figures should be supplied at the highest resolution/quality possible with numbers and text clearly legible.
- Acceptable formats are .ai, .eps, .jpeg, .bmp, and .tif.
- Electronic figures created in other applications should be supplied in their original formats and should also be
- either copied and pasted into a blank MS Word document, or submitted as a PDF file.
- All figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have clear captions.
- All photographs should be numbered as Plate 1, 2, 3, etc. and have clear captions.
Tables
Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.).
Give each table a brief title.
Ensure that any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items and have explanations displayed as footnotes to the table, figure or plate.
References
All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised Harvard styles.
You are welcome to use the Harvard style Emerald has adopted – we’ve provided a detailed guide below.
Want to use a different Harvard style? That’s fine, our typesetters will make any necessary changes to your manuscript if it is accepted.
Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency; this enables your readers to exploit the reference
linking facility on the database and link back to the works you have cited through CrossRef.
Emerald’s Harvard referencing style
References to other publications in your text should be written as follows:
- Single author: (Adams, 2006)
- Two authors: (Adams and Brown, 2006)
- Three or more authors: (Adams et al., 2006)
Please note, ‘et al' should always be written in italics.
A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references.
When referring to pages in a publication, use ‘p.(page number)’ for a single page or ‘pp.(page numbers)’ to indicate a page range.
Page numbers should always be written out in full, e.g. 175-179, not 175-9.
Where a colon or dash appears in the title of an article or book chapter, the letter that follows that colon or dash should always be lower case.
When citing a work with multiple editors, use the abbreviation ‘Ed.s’.
At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below.
Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.
For Books
Surname, initials (year), title of book, publisher, place of publication.
e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.
For Book Chapters
Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20.
For Journals
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", journal name, volume issue, page numbers.
e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80.
For Published Conference Proceedings
Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118.
For Unpublished Conference Proceedings
Surname, initials (year), "title of paper", paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date).
e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005), "Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki", paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007).
For Working Papers
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization, date.
e.g. Moizer, P. (2003), "How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments", working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, 28 March.
For Encyclopedia Entries
(with no author or editor)
Title of encyclopaedia (year), "title of entry", volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926), "Psychology of culture contact", Vol. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, pp.765-771.
(for authored entries, please refer to book chapter guidelines above)
For Newspaper
articles (authored)
Surname, initials (year), "article title", newspaper, date, page numbers.
e.g. Smith, A. (2008), "Money for old rope", Daily News, 21 January, pp.1, 3-4.
articles (non-authored)
Newspaper (year), "article title", date, page numbers.
e.g. Daily News (2008), "Small change", 2 February, p.7.
For Archival or Other Unpublished Sources
Surname, initials (year), "title of document", unpublished manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive.
e.g. Litman, S. (1902), "Mechanism & Technique of Commerce", unpublished manuscript, Simon Litman Papers, Record series 9/5/29 Box 3, University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
For Electronic Sources
If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed.
Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year).
e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018)
Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper).
For Data
Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year).
e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)
