Cover of Business Ethics Journal Review

Business Ethics Journal Review

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

What does BEJR Publish?

The Business Ethics Journal Review only publishes commentaries — short, 1000- to 2000-word essays addressing some aspect of a recently-published scholarly article or book in business ethics. Works commented upon should have been published within the last 3 years. Appropriate articles for commentary may be theoretical, conceptual, or empirical in nature: there are no restrictions in that regard. Please feel free to contact the editors by email to discuss the suitability of your proposed commentary prior to writing it: [email protected].

To promote diversity of view, BEJR will not publish 2 items by a single author consecutively, and will not publish more than 2 items by a single author within a given Volume (year).

File Format

Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx or .doc) format.

Language and Style

BEJR is an English language publication. Authors may employ American, Canadian, or British English as they prefer, but should be consistent in spelling and grammar.

Articles must conform to BEJR style (see reference examples, below). Articles do not have to be in that style when submitted, but after an article is accepted, the author is expected to make the appropriate changes.

Authors are encouraged to write in a down-to-earth style, emphasizing saying something rather than citing something.

General Organization

A submitted commentary should be no more than 2000 words (less is preferred), inclusive of title, citation, abstract, main text, references, and footnotes. The submission should include:

  • Title (shorter is better)
  • Citation to the article commented upon
  • Abstract (no more than 100 words)
  • Main Text divided into paragraphs with no more than one heading level
  • Reference List no more than ten items long. Gratuitous citations must be avoided. The editors will police submissions vigorously—especially for gratuitous self-citations.

Examples of Reference Style

1. BOOKS

Wood, A. 1999. Kant’s Ethical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Book titles should be bolded and italicized. Publication date should appear, without parentheses, following the author.

2. JOURNAL ARTICLES

Klosko, G. 1994. “Political Obligation and the Natural Duties of Justice.” Phil & Pub Aff 23(3): 251–270.

In this example, 23 is the volume and (3) is the Number. Complete page numbers for the article should follow the colon without “pp”. Journal names should be bolded, italicized, and abbreviated in the manner employed in the Blue Book, but without periods after the abbreviations (see, e.g., http://lib.law.washington.edu/cilp/abbrev.html). Abbreviations for commonly cited business ethics journals:

Academy of Management Review: Acad Mgmt Rev
Business and Professional Ethics Journal: Bus & Prof Ethics J
Business and Society: Bus & Soc
Business and Society Review: Bus & Soc Rev
Business Ethics: A European Review: Bus Ethics: Eur Rev
Business Ethics Journal Review: Bus Ethics J Rev
Business Ethics Quarterly: Bus Ethics Q
Journal of Business Ethics: J Bus Ethics
Journal of Markets and Morality: J Mkts & Morality
Journal of Private Enterprise: J Priv Ent
3. BOOK CHAPTERS Buchanan, James M. 1980. “Rent Seeking and Profit Seeking.” In Toward a Theory of the Rent-Seeking Society, eds. J. M. Buchanan, R. D. Tollison, and G. Tullock. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. 3–15.

If you are citing something not in one of the forms referenced here, ask the editors how to cite it.

Citations and Quotes

A commentary submitted to BEJR should employ inline citations, footnotes, and indented text blocks.

INLINE CITATIONS - Parenthetical documentation should be used for citations. Citations should be (author year) when referring to a complete work, e.g. (Freeman 1984), (Child and Marcoux 1999), or (author year: page number) when referring to a specific point, e.g. (Hayek 1945: 521), (Norman and MacDonald 2004: 245-246). Complete page numbers for book chapters and academic articles should be included in the reference list. Works with three or more authors should be cited as (first author, et al year) or (first author, et al year: page number(s)), as appropriate.

FOOTNOTES - These should be substantive, not used for citations, kept to a bare minimum, and included at the bottom of the page denoted by Arabic numbers.

INDENTED TEXT BLOCKS - For quotations of more than three lines of text, indented text blocks should be used. Shorter quotations may be used in main text, surrounded by double quotation marks.