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Editorial Policies

The Journal of Business Chemistry is jointly published by Prof. Dr. Jens Leker (affiliated with the Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Münster) and Prof. Dr. Hannes Utikal (affiliated with the Center for Industry and Sustainability, Provadis School of International Management and Technology, Frankfurt/Main). It is published every four months as an open access journal.

Editorial policies are the responsibility of the Editors-in-Chief and the Executive Editors under the general authority of the Institute of Business Administration and the Center for Industry and Sustainability. The Journal of Business Chemistry publishes original, refereed material concerned with all aspects of business chemistry. It is devoted to developing theories and practices of management and leadership in the chemical industry. The journal is designed to appeal to both practicing managers and academics.

Manuscripts may be submitted for consideration as:

Commentaries

Commentaries are short statements regarding current research/business problems or previous articles of the Journal of Business Chemistry. They mainly reflect the author’s personal opinion and should encourage the scientific discussion.

Articles have a length between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

Practitioner’s Section

Articles in the Practioner‘s section describe current developments in the chemical industry and share the lessons learned from practice. They should highlight specifics of the industry and may also challenge conventional wisdoms concerning good management practices.

Articles have a length between 4,000 and 6,000 words including an abstract of max. 100 words.

Research Papers

Research papers are based on empirical or conceptual research and advance the understanding of an important issue in the chemical (or a related) industry. Research papers test and extend theory using a variety of empirical methods (e.g. quantitative, qualitative or field study, laboratory testing) or analyze and discuss general theoretical and empirical research results with regard to the chemical industry‘s specifics and provide implications for management practice. Articles thus relate findings from natural sciences to management topics or vice versa.

Manuscripts have a maximum length of 10,000 words including an abstract of max. 150 words.

Introduction to Innovation Management

In this section, literature concepts from the field of innovation management are discussed. The reading should be of particular interest to natural scientists in industry in the process of transitioning to a business or management role.

Manuscripts have a maximum length of 5,000 words including an abstract of max. 150 words.

General conditions

As a condition of publication, all authors must transfer copyright to Prof. Dr. Jens Leker (affiliated with the Institute of Business Administration, University of Münster) and Prof. Dr. Hannes Utikal (affiliated with Center for Industry and Sustainability, Provadis School of International Management and Technology, Frankfurt/Main). Manuscripts submitted under multiple authorship are reviewed on the assumption that all listed authors concur in the submission and that the final version of the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors.

Authors of papers published in the Journal of Business Chemistry are obligated to honor any reasonable request by qualified investigators for materials or theories used to obtain the published results (e.g. calculation models).

Reviewing process

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Business Chemistry are reviewed critically. It is the responsibility of the Editors-in-Chief, the Executive Editors and the Advisory Board to determine their suitability for publication. After receipt of a manuscript of a regular paper by the Editorial Office, it is sent to an Executive Editor who usually assigns it to two anonymous reviewers. The Board members then make a definitive recommendation for acceptance, revision, or declination based on the scientific/academic merit and quality of the studies reported. Referees may be consulted when additional expertise is required; decisions on manuscripts are made on the basis of a peer-review.

All Board members and referees who review a manuscript remain unknown to the authors. Every manuscript is treated by the Editors and referees as privileged information, and they are instructed to exclude themselves from review of any manuscript that might involve a conflict of interest or the appearance thereof.

The primary criteria for judging the acceptability of a manuscript are its originality and academic or practical importance. Manuscripts judged lacking in these respects will be declined. If a manuscript is not recommended for publication by one of the reviewers, the Executive Editor can decline it without further review. In some instances, the Executive Editor may also seek a second/third opinion from another reviewer but is not obligated to do so.

Criteria for acceptance and passing on the articles for the review process:

1. Topic fit.

2. Relevance for academia/practitioners.

3. Originality.

4. Length.

5. Linguistic quality.

Guidelines for editorial decisions

The members of the Editorial Board use flexible guidelines to assist reviewers in making editorial decisions.

The primary criteria for judging the acceptability of a manuscript are originality and (scientific or practical) importance.

Manuscripts failing to deal with management issues in a chemical context in the widest range (including biotechnology or similar industries) are usually inappropriate for the Journal of Business Chemistry.

The same criteria are used for the assessment of the research papers as well as the practitioner’s section.

Criteria for review:

1. Abstract:

a) Summary of the article

b) Coherence with the whole article

2. Introduction:

a) Introduction of the research topic

b) Relevance of the topic (argumentation)

c) Connection with the rest of the article/further structure

3. Main part:

a) Description of the current state of research

b) Identification of research gaps/argumentation of the thematic focus

c) Critical analysis of the literature

d) Definition of relevant terms (common baseline)

e) Quality and comprehensibility of examples

f) Comprehensibility of aims and developed hypotheses/models

g) Methodology/data presented transparently

h) Understandable and clear presentation of results

i) Discussion (logical connection of content)

4. Final part:

a) Summary presentation of results

b) Coherence with regard to the whole article

c) Outlook and implications

5. General criteria:

a) Common theme

b) Structure of each section

c) Adequate length of each section

d) Figures (important complementation of the text, comprehensibility)

e) Use of literature (relevance, topicality, quality, quantity)

f) Readability (transitions, sound argumentation, acceptable justifications)

g) Linguistic quality

Issues

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