SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

BEQ publishes original research on topics relevant to the ethics of business. You may find it helpful to review the tables of contents from recent years to get a sense of BEQ’s breadth of coverage; do not assume, however, that past practice defines the limits of the journal’s topical coverage. The journal is open to new ideas, new issues, and new approaches to questions of ethics in business.

For an in-depth look at the scope of BEQ, visit this page.

TYPE OF CONTRIBUTIONS

Research Articles

BEQ publishes a variety of types of original research articles, including:

• Theoretical work including analytical, conceptual, and normative articles;
• Qualitative (e.g., interview, participant-observer, ethnographic, case-based) work that makes an original theoretical contribution;
• Quantitative (e.g., experimental, field, measure development) work that makes an original theoretical contribution; or
• Historical work that makes an original theoretical contribution.

An original theoretical contribution is present when the article offers a significant conceptual advance that moves scholarly conversations on the topic or question forward in a meaningful way. Contributions also must be original and novel in relation to the author’s prior published work.

Commentaries

These are shorter, analytic articles that directly engage, at a theoretical level, recent work published in BEQ. Commentaries are not responses or rebuttals to some narrow aspect of the original article; they are fully formed essays that engage and/or challenge the original article’s central arguments and contribution, and in doing so make a contribution of their own by moving conceptual thinking on the topic forward. Commentaries are normally limited to 6,000 words and receive expedited review. Timeliness is essential: submissions are expected within one year of the original article’s publication in a print issue.

Book Reviews

In each issue we publish three or four critical reviews of new scholarly books on the various topics within business ethics listed above. The appropriate length for book reviews is in the range of 1,500–1,800 words.

We welcome inquiries from prospective book review authors. To suggest a book for review, or to express interest in reviewing a book for BEQ, contact the book review editor Miguel Alzola at BookReviewEditor@beqjournal.org. Book reviews are not sent out for external review; decisions are usually made by the book review editor.

THINGS WE DON'T PUBLISH

Here are a few examples of particular kinds or elements of submissions that are unlikely to be successful in our review process:

1. Case studies that are largely descriptive.
2. Pedagogically-focused research (such as articles on teaching business ethics), unless the pedagogical issue is presented as an opportunity for examining and developing business ethics theory.
3. Empirical research relying exclusively on student populations without significant work experience as participants. Such a study could be part of a package of studies using different sampling strategies. Even then, submissions using samples of students or others with limited work experience or a constrained age distribution must include a clear and convincing argument that use of such a sample is appropriate to the study’s purpose. For example:
   
   • the study is about an aspect of student behavior relevant to business ethics; or
   • the study is about a basic cognitive, emotional, or behavioral process (e.g., moral imagination, moral identity, moral emotion) that is relevant to business ethics, even if not relevant exclusively to business ethics.

SPECIAL ISSUES AND SECTIONS

From time to time BEQ will issue a call for submissions for a special issue or section on a topical theme. For an active special-issue call, there will usually be a limited time window of a month or two during which submissions can be made. The call for submissions will always identify the guest editors of the special issue or section; authors who are wondering of a project fits a special-issue theme should contact the guest editors directly.

We welcome proposals for future special issues or sections from groups of 2–5 individuals who would compose a guest editor team. Proposals for a special issue are to be submitted, once a year, by November 30, to the journal’s managing editor (ManagingEditor@beqjournal.org). The editors select one of the submitted proposals. Their decision is communicated in January. The selected proposal may require further development; the final text is published on the journal’s website and in the July issue of BEQ. For further guidelines, please refer to the pdf.

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING

Submissions that do not meet formatting, style, and anonymity requirements will not be processed until brought into compliance. This may delay the review process. Papers egregiously out of compliance may be desk rejected.

Document Format

The manuscript you upload for consideration should have these basic formatting elements:

• A single document including abstract, text, footnotes, references, tables, and figures.
• Saved as a Word document or as a pdf file.
• The paper is cleansed of any lingering comments or tracked changes.
• Pages are double-spaced with one inch margins all around.
• Text is 12-point Times New Roman or similar serif typeface.
• Pages are numbered, and the first line of each paragraph is indented.
• Ragged right margins please (turn off right-margin- or full-justification).

Manuscript Length

The length of an initial submission may not exceed 12,000 words (including the body of the text and the footnotes, but not including the abstract, tables, figures, or references).

The complete manuscript should be not be more than 50 pages in total (including all figures, tables, references, and other materials).

First Page of the Manuscript

The first page of the uploaded manuscript should have these elements (and only these elements):

• An abstract of not more than 150 words.
• Up to six key words in the order in which they should appear. (Terms such as “corporate social responsibility” count as one key word.)
• Specify the citation/sourcing/referencing style used (see below for allowable styles).

Order of Document Elements

The order of things following the conclusion of article text is:

• acknowledgements
• references (if applicable)
• tables and figures (if not embedded in the text)
• appendix (if any)

Headings and Subheadings in the Paper

Format section headings and subheadings within the paper as follows (none are boldfaced):

FIRST-LEVEL HEADINGS: CENTERED, ALL CAPS.

Second-Level Headings: Left Margin, Italics, Headline Case

Third-Level Headings: Left Margin, Regular Type, Headline Case

Avoid using the first level heading INTRODUCTION to start the paper. All papers begin with an introduction. There is no need to tell the reader that the paper is starting with an introduction.

Numbering of sections and subsections is permitted in papers coming out of disciplines where this is common practice. Use Arabic not Roman numerals. Use the number 1 for the first major section after the introduction. Single-digit decimals can be used for second-level headings.

STYLE AND USAGE GUIDELINES

Citation and Referencing Style

BEQ is unusual among academic journals in that we make available to authors multiple options for acceptable sourcing styles. This permits authors to work with a system that is comfortable for them in relation to their discipline of origin, and also is in keeping with our multidisciplinary mission and outlook.

Four citation styles are available, and a submitted manuscript must conform to one (and only one) of these citation styles:

• The Academy of Management Journal style guide. (One variation: we do not boldface book and journal titles as Academy of Management style would; we use only italics for these.)
• The Chicago Manual of Style author-date system.
• The Chicago Manual of Stylenotes system for the humanities. (Papers using this style must give full source information in the footnotes; we do not publish a separate bibliography).
• The Bluebook system of citation for legal writing.

For book reviews that cite sources (which should be done very sparingly), the preferred style is the Chicago author-date system.

Regardless of which style is used, notes should be formatted as footnotes (not endnotes).
Use “References” (not “Bibliography” or “Works Cited”) to title these sections.

Citing Online Sources via DOI Numbers and URLs

Regardless of which of the four available source citation styles is used, we have these consistent principles regarding citation of online sources.

• In references to academic journal articles, include a DOI with a reference for a cited article that is published online but still forthcoming in print (lacks a specific volume/issue/page-number citation); otherwise omit the DOI. Provide the DOI if the article is in an online-only journals that doesn’t group articles into volumes or issues.
• Include a URL only if an online source has no DOI, as DOIs are always preferred.
• As a proper source citation a URL is not adequate by itself; it should follow the available full facts of publication (author, title, sponsor, date). Occasionally it may be appropriate to mention a URL (e.g., tied to an entity or organization mentioned in the paper); in those cases give the URL in a footnote, not as a reference.
• Access dates with URLs are generally unnecessary and should be omitted unless (a) no publication or revision date can be gleaned from the source, or (b) the source is likely to change without notice, or (c) the source is known to have been modified or deleted since it was consulted.

Spelling and Usage

• BEQ adheres to conventions of grammar, usage, and style given in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (unless otherwise specified in this document).
• The Merriam Webster online dictionary is BEQ’s dictionary of record.
• Either British or American spelling is acceptable as long as consistent throughout.
• Foreign words and phrases that are not in common use should be italicized.
• Avoid biased language.
• Papers that are poorly written or carelessly copyedited are likely to be desk rejected. Authors who need assistance with written English should consult a professional copyeditor before submission. BEQ’s publisher, Cambridge University Press, endorses one such service.

Punctuation

• At BEQ we insist upon (and are slavishly devoted to) the use of the Oxford (serial) comma.
• “Scare quotes” may use ‘single’ or “double” quotation marks but must be used consistently;
• Periods and commas go before (not after) close-quotation marks;
• Footnote numbers go after close-quotation marks;
• For country abbreviations use US or UK or EU (not U.S. or U.K. or E.U.);
• The standard style for bullets (which should be used sparingly) is a dot;

Anonymity

In order to preserve the integrity of anonymised review, the submitted paper must be prepared without authors’ names or identifying information, such as institution, acknowledgements, contact information, or extensive self-citation.

Prepare and upload a separate document: a title page listing full contact information for all authors. This is also the place to acknowledge identify funding sources and also individuals who have read and commented on the paper and accordingly would not be eligible to be anonymous reviewers.

Reference to your own work should be made in the third person to preserve anonymity.

In cases where self-references are too numerous or otherwise would tend to signal author identity, your names in citations may be replaced with placeholders (e.g., replace “Garcia 2003” with “Author”) and the sources for those citations withheld from the list of references. In such cases, provide the editor with an additional document listing these anonymized sources.

Also This

Authors are strongly urged to look at articles published in BEQ and make submitted papers look like those. A submission that was obviously prepared for another journal or that otherwise fails to conform to our submission requirements signals either disinterest in BEQ or lack of attention to detail – either of those being a signal it is not in an author’s interest to send.

8. FIGURES, TABLES, AND STATISTICS

The subsections below give specifics that authors should follow when creating figures and tables within a manuscript submitted to BEQ. As a general matter, we stress here that figures and tables in a submitted manuscript should resemble the kinds of figures that tables that one finds published in BEQ in recent volumes of the journal. A submitting author is seeking to persuade editors and reviewers that the paper is a good fit for the journal; the case for that paper is non-trivially aided to the extent that the paper in submission form looks like it belongs in the journal.

Figures

• Figures can be placed either in the text at the point where they are mentioned or at the end of the manuscript on separate pages. Very wide figures should go at the end on a page that has a landscape orientation.
• Use sans serif fonts such as Arial or Calibri within figures.
• Do not surround the figure with a border.
• Each figure should have its own explanatory title. Use a figure note at the bottom to explain any elements within the figure that need to be explained.
• BEQ does not print color figures. If there is color in a figure in a submitted manuscript it will have to be changed to black/white/grayscale if the paper is ultimately accepted.

Tables

• Tables can be placed either in the text at the point where they are mentioned or at the end of the manuscript on separate pages. Very wide tables should go at the end on a page that has a landscape orientation.
• Except for cases where a table is too long to fit on a single page, tables should always appear in full on a single page; do not let them span across a page break.
• Avoid use of cell borders within tables except where truly necessary, and do not surround the table with a border.
• Do not paste in tables from statistical software output. Instead, create and format tables that look like the kinds of tables published in BEQ, or in journals such as AMJ.
• In statistical tables, use full construct or variable names rather than abbreviations as much as possible. Avoid using cryptic variable names from statistical software.
• Each table should have its own explanatory title. Use a table note at the bottom to explain any elements that need to be explained, to translate any abbreviations, to provide p-value significance levels, etc.
• Look at tables that have recently been published in BEQ articles, and make your tables look like those tables.
• Tables should look polished and professional, with columns properly aligned and rows appropriately spaced, so that they are easy for editors and reviewers to read and digest.

Statistics/Equations

• Statistics within either text or tables should include no more than two decimal places (with rare exceptions).
• Use consistent labels for variables in text and tables.
• If the paper has equations with Greek letters or other special symbols, make sure they rendered in a are large enough typesize to be easily readable.

9. PUBLICATION ETHICS AND POLICIES

BEQ is a member journal of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adheres to COPE’s best practices and policies regarding ethics and the resolution of ethical concerns in academic journal publishing.

Authors are advised to consult the journal’s research transparency policy

addressing best practices in the use of data and the reporting of methods and findings.

Authors are required to identify funding sources for research submitted to the journal. At the time of submission these should be disclosed in the title page uploaded separately from the anonymized manuscript. If the paper is accepted funding sources are properly disclosed in the Acknowledgements.

Accepted papers undergo a plagiarism check using the screening service iThenticate to check the originality of content before publication. Authors can use iThenticate to screen work before submission. Although of course plagiarism is unacceptable, the iThenticate screening also identifies instances of recycled text – where text is identical or too similar to prior work published by the author. Although plagiarism can be grounds for summarily rescinding the paper’s acceptance, when the iThenticate screening identifies problematic content the editor will typically notify the authors and invite them to repair the problem.

BEQ articles can be published with ‘open access’ at the request of the author, upon paying an open-access fee established by Cambridge University Press, or the corresponding author's institution being a part of a Transformative Agreement. See the Open Access Options page for more information.

Last updated 21 June 2021