Do you want to get published? Editors from a range of prestigious publications gave their advice at the R&D Management Conference 2022 and a number of common themes emerged.
Review the publication before making an approach – each publication has a different focus and readership and the editors want to receive papers that will fit within the scope of their publication.
Novel approach and innovative research – check the subjects that the publication has featured in the past and ensure that your paper adds something new to the discussion.
Look for special issues – the publications often do a call for papers on a particular subject, so showing how your paper offers a perspective on this subject is a good way to get accepted. A number of the editors mentioned forthcoming special issues.
Read author guidelines – the guidelines will provide useful information about the style, length, format of graphics and tables. Some publications accept content of different types – news stories, reviews, case-studies, opinion pieces in addition to papers – so see if your work might fit better into one these sections. (The guidelines for R&D Today are here)
Avoid trending subjects – topics often go in waves and the editor will have seen many papers on a similar subject.
Demonstrate respect – you only need to thank the reviewer once, but take the comments seriously and show that you have addressed them.
W. Vanhaverbeke of Technovation gave these specific recommendations to PhD students:
- Work on a timely topic that you are really interested in
- Choose your supervisor wisely!
- Create a portfolio of 4-7 papers, using the same data
- Work with others outside your own organisation
- Talk to R&D managers as reality is different to academia
- Ask advice from friendly reviewers
- Submit papers early in your PhD
- Combine fields eg innovation management and psychology
Special issues announced at the conference
Journal of Industrial and Business Economics
Presenters in the conference track ‘The challenges and opportunities of high-skilled migration’ are warmly invited to submit their papers to a Special Issue on this topic to be published in the Journal of Industrial and Business Economics. Guest editors: Vincenzo Butticè, Politecnico di Milano, and Diego Useche, Bordeaux University.
Call for papers: ‘R&D Management under disruption and uncertainty’. Guest editors include: Xiaolan Fu, University of Oxford and Beverly Wagner, University of Strathclyde. More information can be found on this page.
Journal of Management & Organization
Presenters in the conference track ‘Sustainability and SMEs: opening the black box’ are invited to submit their papers. Guest editors include Andrea Caputo, University of Trento & University of Lincoln.
Presenters in the conference track on “Strategic Leadership and New Pathways for Radical Innovations” are warmly invited to submit their papers to a Special Issue on this topic to be published in Research Policy, guest edited by the track chairs including Prof Dr Mariano (Pitosh) Heyden of Monash University, Australia. More information can be found on this dedicated page.
A forthcoming special issue surrounding ‘The dead end of classical innovation management and unsustainable innovation’ is being promoted through the conference track of the same name. Guest editors include Dirk Meissner, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination
Presenters in the track “Complexity theories in R&D and innovation management” are warmly invited to submit their papers to a Special Issue on this topic to be published in Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination. Guest editors include Silvano Cincotti, Università degli Studi di Genova.
