Successful Publishing in Academic and Scientific Journals: Framing and Organizing the Scholarly Paper

Publishing in quality academic journals is challenging. Authors who want to improve their chances of publishing in management and allied business and social science journals can save themselves time by ensuring that manuscripts are consistent with the journal’s aims and scope and what the field requires in terms of addressing unanswered research questions or improvements to current theory and evidence. It is well-understood if a manuscript lacks theoretical grounding or makes significant methodological or research design mistakes, it will probably be rejected. Researchers in the social sciences are typically well-trained in methods, statistical analysis, and research design. But doctoral programs and other masters-level research programs spend much less time on the situating, organizing, and writing of manuscripts and how they should be framed for publication. Oftentimes, an author may face rejection of his or her submitted manuscript not because of bad data or methods, but because of major framing and organizing issues. These problems are addressed within the context of writing clear introductions which form the basis for a complete and well-organized manuscript that will likely have an improved chance of publication.