Cover of Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Business and Professional Ethics Journal

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The BPEJ strives to broaden the scope of philosophical analysis within business and professional ethics scholarship. The editors welcome submissions from many disciplines - including management and organization studies, philosophy, political economics, social psychology, sociology, religious studies, history, and anthropology - to encourage research into the interaction between individuals, organizations and the socio-political and economic realities of which they are a part.

Accordingly, the journal is open to a range of methodological approaches. All submissions that explore the many practical implications of the interface(s) between business ethics and professional ethics are welcomed.

Submission Procedure

Authors should submit manuscripts online through the journal's ScholarOne manuscript submission site:

A complete submission includes a cover letter and appropriately formatted original manuscript (see format information below). Manuscript files should be in Word format. The cover letter should include:

  • Author(s) names and institutional affiliations
  • Contact information for one author, including at least email address and telephone number
  • Confirmation that the manuscript is not currently under consideration by any other publication

Questions about submission procedure should be addressed to the editorial office at [email protected].

Manuscripts

General Requirements

  • Manuscripts shall be original, unpublished works and may not be under consideration at another publication.
  • Since a double blind review process is used, no authors’ name should appear anywhere on the manuscript. In addition, because we share files electronically, it is the authors’ responsibility to strip the file of any other identifying notations, including references in the document’s properties, title, or first-person language in text of references.
  • Though the BPEJ enthusiastically encourages submissions across disciplines, submitted manuscripts must be in a condition ready for publication according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Given the variety of disciplines from which our submissions may originate, the BPEJ accepts contributions using either the Chicago Manual “author-date” or “notes-bibliography” formats. A helpful resource on The Chicago Manual of Style is available online here.
  • If using the author-date system of citation for references in the text, footnotes also may be used for substantive information inappropriate for inclusion in the body of an article. However, authors are encouraged to incorporate information in the text where possible.
  • Please do not submit manuscripts with coding from bibliographic software like EndNote and Reference Manager.
  • Because BPEJ is a cross-disciplinary journal, articles that adopt a style that is accessible to colleagues from other disciplines, while retaining their academic sophistication, are particularly appreciated. With this in mind, authors should provide: (a) indicative titling/subtitling; (b) descriptive abstracts, (c) exceptional clarity through structure, format, and the use of subheads.

Format

  • Each submitted manuscript should include a brief abstract (150 words or less).
  • Manuscripts should be double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides using 12 pt. Times New Roman or similar font.
  • All pages should be numbered.
  • Authors should indent new paragraphs rather than include an extra line between them, and should differentiate major and minor headings.
  • Authors should avoid the use of first person where possible, though some use (such as “we contend”) is understandable
  • Please use italics or quotes for emphasis very sparingly.
  • Numbers less than 100 should be spelled out, unless they are a percentage (e.g. 5 percent)
  • All tables, figures or other graphics should appear at the end of the article and be included in the same file. If this is not possible then we need the original file used to produce the figure or graph.
  • It is the authors’ responsibility to obtain any necessary permission for use of copyrighted material contained within the article.

Publication Agreement

As a condition of publication in the BPEJ, authors must complete a publication agreement that gives the journal permission to publish and preserve the author's work. There are two options:

  • The standard publication agreement ensures publication in the journal in all formats, and confirms the author's right to reuse the manuscript in any other publication the author may write or edit. The journal's Open Access Archiving Policy applies to articles published with this agreement. No payment is required for submission or publication.

  • An open access publication agreement may be offered in special cases with editorial approval. It ensures publication with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC) that gives everyone the unlimited right to copy, download or use the published version of the text for non-commercial purposes. This option is sustained by an open access publishing fee.

The BPEJ is published on a non-profit basis by the Philosophy Documentation Center.


Publications Ethics Statement

The editorial team of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal is committed to ensuring the integrity of the publication process. Conformance to standards of ethical behavior is therefore expected of all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.

Authors should present an objective discussion of the significance of research work as well as sufficient detail and references to permit others to confirm a chain of reasoning or experimental result. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Review articles should also be objective, comprehensive, and accurate accounts of the state of the art. The authors should ensure that their work is entirely original works, and if the work and/or words of others have been used, this has been appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Authors should not submit articles describing essentially the same research to more than one journal. The corresponding author should ensure that there is a full consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication.

Editors should evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit. An editor must not use unpublished information in the editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Editors should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Reviewers must treat received manuscripts as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments, so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the paper.

The Publisher will respond to alleged or proven cases of research misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism in close collaboration with the editors. The publisher will ensure that appropriate measures are taken to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question if necessary. This may include the publication of an erratum, clarification or, in the most severe case, the retraction of the affected work. The publisher, together with the editors, shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, and under no circumstances encourage such misconduct or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.