Submitting to
Academy of Management Collections

The mission of Academy of Management Collections is to publish carefully organized collections of articles from the AOM’s archive of previously published journal articles, tied together by an original essay. AOM journals include Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Academy of Management Annals.

A "collection" essay will include about 5, and usually no more than 10 articles selected from the AOM archive. The articles form a coherent thematic whole, as elucidated in the narrative contained in the essay.

Generally, essays take a stand. They may be normative in that they go beyond “what is known” and suggest what should be. In Collections, essayists build upon their selection of articles on a specific theme from pieces published in the journals of the Academy of Management. The “collection” is then used as a starting point for the author’s arguments.

Essays go beyond simply synthesizing articles; they use the work as a stimulus for exploring new ideas. In this case, an essay oscillates between critiques and observations of the past and speculations and possibilities about the future. They are both critical and creative.

Essays are your opportunity to provoke, to challenge the waters, to try and send up a trial balloon looking for something new but true. If the “collection” is the past and the status quo, your essay is a chance to continue the conversation—to talk back.

Submissions

AMC publishes three types of essays under the categories: Essays, Multivocal Essays, and Conversations.

• Essays – Authors identify a collection of articles published in AOM journals, chosen around a theme. The collection and its theme are then used as the inspiration or stimulus for the essay, engaging the author’s voice and point of view.
• Multivocal Essays – Two or more authors would engage a topic and a collection or collections, but from different viewpoints.
• Conversations – Proposals will be invited to represent different voices in response to the authored essays and multivocal essays.

Potential contributors should submit a 300-400-word proposal outlining the position(s) to be taken in the essay. The proposals will be reviewed by the editors and evaluated based on the essay’s potential for broad interest and its potential to generate conversations and ideas. If accepted, the author will be invited to submit a full essay that will then go out for review by members of the editorial board.

Proposals should include:

• The articles to be the focus of the collection, taking care to sample across all AOM journals, and over time.  Having a clear theme in mind, as well as a set of decision rules will aid in your search. (The list of articles is not included in the 300–400-word count.)
• A brief description of the following elements of your proposed essay:
  • The theme or themes at the heart of the collection with a brief explanation of your inspiration for choosing it.
  • Your point of view. With the essay, you have leeway to go beyond the scope of the empirical and conceptual content of the papers to tackle ethical and political issues, side effects, missed opportunities, and unintended consequences. The essay lets you take a stand, a normative position. How do the papers in the collection give rise to your point of view?  How do you want to “trouble the waters?”
  • Ways you want to invite others to the conversation. With a normative position, we need to invite others into conversation. What is intriguing about your arguments? Think of a generalist audience that might include policymakers, managers, workers, or the public. You’ve said something non-conventional about this research, perhaps; now, who do you think joins you in conversation? Where do you see this going next?  What are your hopes?
• Proposals are reviewed by the Associate Editors. If a proposal is approved, the author will be invited to submit a full article. An invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee acceptance. All full essays will be double-blind peer reviewed. A decision will be rendered by the Action Editor.

Characteristics of your proposal (and essay)

• Proposals and essays should use your own voice and clearly reflect your position in the social context.  It would not undermine the quality of the essay and may enhance it if your reflections and experiences were part of the narrative of the essay. 
• The essay should be readable to a broad, but well-educated audience.  You should not assume that the audience is other academics. Think about ways that your essay will be interesting to a well-informed non-academic audience (but that academics would delight in reading).
• Connect the topic to something that matters to them.  (Why, for example, does it matter to you?  What happened that made you want to say something?  What experiences? What drew you to this problem or critique?)
• Try to avoid jargon that we might use in academic writing, but if you must use it to make a point, explain it as if to a lay person (with a vivid example).
• The tone is not academic, but simpler and more literate.

Submission Requirements

Submitting to Collections is a two-stage process. 

Authors interested in submitting to Academy of Management Collections must first submit a brief proposal; see above for a detailed description of what the proposal should include. If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be invited to submit the collection – including the essay and the AOM-published articles – which will then be subject to double-blind review process. 

When authors submit their proposal to Collections, they agree to abide by the journal’s publication requirements. Specifically, an author must:

• Agree that the proposal or essay is not under review for publication elsewhere, and will not be submitted to another publication outlet during the Collections review process.
  
• Confirm that the proposal, essay, or collection has not previously been submitted to Collections for review. This includes prior submission of a proposal that covers the same broad topic area or focuses on a similar set of curated articles. If submitters are unsure about the distinctiveness of a new proposal, they should contact the editors for clarification.

Proposals should be submitted directly via the ScholarOne Manuscripts website. Proposals are peer-reviewed, with the process managed by the Editors and Associate Editors. If a proposal is approved, the author will be invited to submit a full article. Please note that an invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee acceptance.

Be sure to review our Style Guide for manuscript requirements, prior to submitting.

AI Policy

All work submitted to AOM must be created by the authors and not the product of artificial intelligence tools unless appropriate to the research question and is properly cited. Authors must be transparent in disclosing any AI use in the manuscript cover letter and in the article acknowledgements. Authors must also confirm that they read and understand AOM’s AI policy.

Ethics

View AOM’s Ethics policy page, which includes our Code of Ethics and detailed procedures and inquiry requests.

For more information, contact collections@aom.org.

Submit your Collections proposal