Academy of Management

STYLE GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

For information about desired content,

length of submissions, and how to submit Acknowledgment. If you wish to
manuscripts, please see the journal submis- acknowledge financial support or other assis-
sion pages. tance, add a note at the bottom of your title
page. This applies ONLY to Accepted papers. A
Manuscript Submission and Format title page with author-identifying information
should NOT be included with a paper submitted
Submit manuscripts to each journal’s online for review.
submission and review website.
Please use Times New Roman 12-point type Abstract. An abstract of no more than 200 words
(not “Times” or other font choice) and the 8 1⁄2 × and the title of the work go on page 2.
11 page (Letter) setting. Files should be Word
Back Pages
documents, with body text double-spaced. Sec-
tion headings and subheadings should be set to Group references and any appendixes, tables,
1.5 spacing. Top and side margins should be set and figures at the end of your manuscript. Tables
at 1 inch (using Word’s Normal margin setting). should be grouped together, followed by figures—
Neither page numbers nor running heads are regardless of the order in which they are men-
necessary and should not be included in your tioned in the body of your paper. They should fol-
document. low the References section. Appendices/supple-
mentary material would come last.
Publication of Accepted Articles
Headings and Sections
Accepted papers are copyedited. Authors
review edits in page proofs. Each journal’s AOM’s journals use only three levels of headings.
production team will contact you immediately Use bold- face for all three. Main headings (all capital
after the Editor assigns your work to an issue. letters; centered) are first. Second-level headings (ti-
If your work is Accepted, please keep the respec- tle-style letters; flush left) are next. Third-level head-
tive Managing Editor informed of changes of ad- ings (first letter of first word capitalized; indented;
dress and long absences: italicized; and run into paragraph) are next. Do not
AMJ [email protected] number section headings.
AMR [email protected] Don’t skip steps: no second-level headings before
AMP [email protected] you use a first-level heading, for instance. Use sec-
AMLE [email protected] ond- and third-level headings in sets of two or more.
ANNALS [email protected] Examples:
AMD [email protected]
METHODS [1st level]

Front Pages Data and Sample [2nd level]

Address. For final versions of Accepted man- Measures [2nd level]

uscripts only, a title page should be added (this Independent variable. [3rd level]
is not included with submissions under review). Dependent variables. [3rd level]
Under the title of your work, list authors’ names,
university affiliations (university names only,
NOT departments), and complete addresses. Footnotes
Example: Use footnotes placed on their respective pages (not
endnotes).
AN EXCELLENT STUDY
A. A. MANAGEMENT SCHOLAR Hypotheses (when applicable)
Current University
Building and/or Street Fully and separately state each hypothesis you
City, State, Zip Code tested separately. Phrase it in the present tense. Give
Tel: (000) 000-0000Fax: (000) 000-0000 it a distinct number (Hypothesis 1) or number- letter
email: [email protected]
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out the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download or email articles for individual use only.
AOM Style Guide

(Hypothesis 1a) label. Set hypotheses off in indented might be interpreted as denigrating. Do not use
blocks, in italic type, and single-spaced. Examples: “he” or “she” exclusively. Using the plural— chang-
Hypothesis 1a. Concise writing has a positive relation-
ing “the manager . . . he” to “managers . . .
ship to publication. they”—is one solution; using “he or she” (“him or
Hypothesis 1b. Following AMJ’s “Style Guide for Au- her”) is another.
thors” has a positive relationship to publication.
Active voice and first person. Write in the active
Language voice (“They did it”) instead of the passive voice (“It
Technical terms. Help your work to be accessible to was done”) to make it easy for readers to see who did
a wide-ranging readership. Define key technical terms. what. Use the first person (“I” or “we”) to describe
A technical term is a word or phrase that is not in a what you, or you and your coauthors, did. Examples:
general-use dictionary with the meaning you (or even
Passive (less desirable)—Two items were found to lack fac-
you and other published scholars) ascribe to it. Put tor validity by Earley (1989).
quotation marks around the first appearance in your
paper of each technical term, or define it. Active (more desirable)—Earley (1989) found that two
items lacked factor validity.
Abbreviations. Avoid using abbreviations for the Third person (less desirable)—The author developed three
names of concepts. Use ordinary words for variable new items.
names—not code names or other abbreviations. Use First person (more desirable)—I developed three new
the same name for a variable throughout your text, items.
tables, figures, and appendixes.
Names of organizations and research instruments Anthropomorphism. Do not describe inanimate
may be abbreviated, but give the full name the first entities (models, theories, firms, and so forth) as act-
time you mention one of these. Names of software ing in ways only humans can act.
and some databases may be abbreviated.
Appendixes
Reporting math. All equations need to be cre-
ated in Word, or converted to Word if you’ve created Present long but essential methodological details,
them using another program. Do not “talk in math” such as the calculation of measures, in an appendix
in regular text. Use words. For instance, “We sur- or appendixes. Be concise.
veyed 100 employees,” not “We surveyed n = 100 Avoid exact reproductions of surveys.
employees.” Label appendixes “APPENDIX A,” “APPENDIX
Do use symbols and numbers to report results B,” and so forth. A substantive title, such as “Items
and give formulas. Italicize letters that are custom- in Scales,” should follow. Label tables within ap-
arily italicized (e.g., p, r, b, F, Z). Use boldface italic pendixes “Table A1,” “B1,” and so forth.
for vectors. Put spaces on either side of equals
signs, minus signs, etc. Tables and Figures
Illustrative results within text go in parentheses.
Look at tables and figures in published issues of other
Introduce them with complete sentences. Example:
journals to see preferred formats. Write to the copy edi-
One coefficient for the interaction was significant tor if you have questions. Use as many pages as you need
(model 3: β = 0.06, p < .05; model 5: β = 1.06).
to create tables and figures that match our formats.
Present equations either in your running text or Tables must be created using Microsoft Word, or
displayed. Examples: converted to Word tables if generated using a differ-
ent program, such as Excel. They should not be
Run-in equation—We used Craig’s (1992: 20) distance for-
mula (d = xyz). placed into your document as images. Note that a
straight Excel file is not currently an acceptable for-
Displayed equation—
mat. Excel files should be converted to Word for plac-
[e -A( xt) A(X t ) yt ] ing into your Word document. Tables that contain
Pr(Yt = yt xt) = , (1) artwork or graphics must be submitted as illustra-
Yt!
where Yt is. . . .
tions in an acceptable format.
Tables should be formatted as follows. Arrange the
Define each new term in all equations. data so that columns of like material read down,
not across. The headings should be sufficiently clear
Sexist or biased language. Avoid language that so that the meaning of the data is understandable
2
Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted with-
out the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download or email articles for individual use only.
AOM Style Guide

without reference to the text. Tables should have ti- Name and year—Several studies (Adams, 1994; Bern-
stein, 1988, 1992; Celias, 2000a, 2000b) support this
tles and sufficient experimental detail in a legend conclusion.
immediately following the title to be understanda-
Year only—But Van Dorn and Xavier (2001) presented
ble without reference to the text. Each column in a
conflicting evidence.
table must have a heading, and abbreviations, when
necessary, should be defined in the legend or foot- Order. Order citations alphabetically. Designate two
note. or more works by one author (or by an identical group
Number tables and figures consecutively (one se- of authors) published in the same year by adding “a,”
ries for tables, one for figures) using Arabic num- “b,” and so forth, after the year. See the previous exam-
bers (not letters or Roman numerals). Place them at ple for “name and year” example.
the end of your manuscript, but indicate the position
Multiple authors. If a work has two authors, give
of each in the text as follows:
both names every time you cite it. For three through
------------------------------------ six authors, give all names the first time, then use
Insert Table 2 about here “et al.” in citations. Examples:
------------------------------------
First citation—(Foster, Whittington, Tucker, Horner, Hub-
bard, & Grimm, 2000).
Each table or figure needs an introductory sen-
tence in your text. Subsequent citation—(Foster et al., 2000).

For seven or more authors, use “et al.” even for the first
More on tables. Use the same name for each variable citation. (But the corresponding reference should
that you use in your text. Don’t use code names and give all the names.)
abbreviations. Example:
Desirable variable name—Profitability
Undesirable variable name—PRFT
Page numbers in citations. Use this format:
Writing a book is “a long and arduous task” (Lee, 1998: 3).
Each table should report one type of analysis
(which is identified in the title), and each vertical col- Citation with no author. For an article with no
umn and horizontal row should contain only one author, cite the periodical as author. Example:
type of data.
Report only two decimal places for all statistics. Periodical as author—Analysts predicted an increase in
service jobs (Wall Street Journal, 1999).
Place correlation coefficients in the lower-left cor-
ners of their tables. For reports, handbooks, and the like, cite the “corpo-
Use superscript small letters for table footnotes. rate author” that produced them. Example:
Significance levels go in a stack under your regu-
Organization as author—Analysts predict an increase in
lar table footnotes. Example: service jobs in the U.S. Industrial Outlook (U.S. Depart-
†
p < .10 ment of Commerce, 1992).
* p < .05
** p < .01 Such sources can also be identified informally. No
corresponding reference will then be needed. Exam-
Or you may use a single lettered footnote: ple:
a
All values greater than . . . are significant at. . . .
Informal citation—According to the 1999 U.S. Industrial
More on figures. Figures, unlike tables, contain Outlook, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce,
service jobs will increase.
drawings (e.g., an arrow, boxes). Make sure your fig-
ures print out clearly so that they can be scanned. Electronic sources. Use a regular citation (author,
Figures should be in TIF or JPEG formats, placed im- year) if you can identify an author of one of the types
mediately following your tables at the end of the discussed above (human, periodical, or corporate). If
manuscript Word document. not, give the web address that was your source in pa-
rentheses. No corresponding reference need be used
Citations in the latter case.
These are your in-text, in parentheses, identifica-
tions of other research. Every work that has a cita- References
tion needs to have a corresponding reference (see References are your entries in the alphabetical list
“References”). Examples: at the end of your article. Do not number your
3
Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted with-
out the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download or email articles for individual use only.
AOM Style Guide

Reference entries. This list should include only chapter (regular type, single-capital rule. In Editors’
work you have cited. initials and last names (Eds.), Title of book: Page
Order. Alphabetize references by the last name of numbers. City (same rules as above): Publisher. Ex-
a sole author, a first author, or an editor, or by the amples:
name of a corporate author (for instance, U.S. Cen- Levitt, B., & March, J. G. 1988. Organizational learning. In
sus Bureau) or periodical (such as the Wall Street W. R. Scott & J. F. Short (Eds.), Annual review of soci-
ology, vol. 14: 319 –340. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
Journal) if there is no human author or editor. Order
works by an identical author by year of publication, Dutton, J., Bartunek, J., & Gersick, C. 1996. Growing a personal, pro-
fessional collaboration. In P. Frost & S. Taylor (Eds.),
listing the earliest first. If the years of publication are Rhythms of academic life: 239–248. London: Sage.
also the same, differentiate entries by adding small
letters (“a,” “b,” etc.) after the years. Repeat the au- Unpublished works. These include working papers,
thor’s name for each entry. dissertations, and papers presented at meetings.
Examples:
Books. Follow this form: Last names, initials
Duncan, R. G. 1971. Multiple decision-making structures in
(separated by a space). Year. Title (Boldface italic, adapting to environmental uncertainty. Working paper
capitalize only the first letter of the first word and no. 54 –71, Northwestern University Graduate School of
of the first word after a long dash or colon.) City Management, Evanston, IL.
where published: Name of publisher. (For small Smith, M. H. 1980. A multidimensional approach to individ-
U.S. and Canadian cities, follow the name of the city ual differences in empathy. Unpublished doctoral disser-
tation, University of Texas, Austin.
with the postal abbreviation for the state or prov-
ince; for small cities in other countries, give the full Wall, J. P. 1983. Work and nonwork correlates of the career
plateau. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
name of the country.) Examples: Academy of Management, Dallas.
Granovetter, M. S. 1965. Getting a job: A study of contracts
and careers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Electronic documents. Include the author’s name, if
Kahn, R. L., & Boulding, E. (Eds.). 1964. Power and conflict in
known; the full title of the document; the full title of the
organizations. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. work it is part of; the URL, http, or other address; and
Katz, D., & Kahn, R. L. 1978. The social psychology of orga-
the date the document was posted or accessed.
nizations (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
National Center for Education Statistics. 1992. Digest of ed-
Biographical Sketches
ucation statistics. Washington, DC: National Center for Each author of an Accepted article is asked to sub-
Education Statistics.
mit a biographical sketch of about 50 words. Your
Periodicals. Follow this form: Authors’ last sketch should identify where you earned your high-
names, initials. Year. Title (regular type; same sin- est degree, your present affiliation and position, and
gle-capital rule as for books). Name of Periodical your current research interests. The first author
(boldface italic, title-style capitalization), volume should include an email address, which is optional
number (issue number, if needed—see below): page for the other authors.
numbers. Examples:
Thank You
Shrivastava, P. 1995. The role of corporations in achieving eco-
logical sustainability. Academy of Management Re-view, Your attention to the conventions described in this
20: 936 –960. guide will be much appreciated, will increase the
Nonaka, I. 1991. The knowledge-creating company. Harvard likelihood your submission will be favorably re-
Business Review, 69(6): 96 –104. viewed, and will make the work of everyone in-
Include an issue number only if every issue of the volved—you, the reviewers, the editors, and the
referenced periodical begins with a page numbered readers—easier.
1. (Look at more than one issue to check.) Please contact AMJ and AMD Senior Managing Ed-
If an article has no author, the periodical is refer- itor Michael Malgrande at [email protected];
enced. Examples: AMP and AMR Managing Editor Irina Burns at
BusinessWeek. 1998. The best B-schools. October 19: 86–94. [email protected]; AMLE and ANNALS Managing Ed-
Harvard Business Review. 2003. How are we doing? 81(4): 3. itor Stacey Victor at [email protected]; and Edito-
rial Services Director Susan Zaid at [email protected]
Chapters in books, including annuals. Follow this with your queries on style or submissions.
form: Authors’ last names, initials. Year. Title of
Document last updated: March 17, 2021
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Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted with-
out the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download or email articles for individual use only.