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Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation

Published in Association with World Commerce & Contracting

eISSN: 20555644 | ISSN: 20555636 | Current volume: 7 | Current issue: 1-2 Frequency: Quarterly
Best Paper Award
Publish in JSCAN to qualify for the £2,000 award! The JSCAN Best Paper Award is awarded to the author of an outstanding paper published in the journal each year, and is judged by the Editors and an Editorial Board Panel. See more details here
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The official journal of World Commerce & Contracting, JSCAN is an international peer-reviewed journal for research and theory about practices that challenge the status quo in strategic contracting and negotiations, and the commercial implementation of business strategy or policy. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). JSCAN also addresses the impact of contracting and negotiation on trust and ethics in business. Contracting and negotiation have become core to organizational and inter-organizational relationships, irrespective of sector or industry, and of national or international boundaries.

Mainstream research and theory in contracting (which draws primarily on concepts developed in law and economics) and negotiations (again drawing primarily on law and economics, along with psychology), has advanced our understanding of both areas; but modern complex global operations require more holistic understandings. The social sciences offer significant theoretical and empirical insights to supplement legal and economic insights for complex, multidimensional views of current practice in this vibrant organizational area. Effective management of projects, organizations and human relations at both local and global levels requires stepping beyond simple disciplinary models and approaches. As a cross-disciplinary endeavour drawing on the social sciences, JSCAN aims to lead the wave of change concerning theory, research and the practice of strategic contracting and negotiation.

The focus of the journal will primarily be in the following areas:

  • Works that advance our understanding of contracting and negotiation as relational process, including but not limited to work that considers power and politics, trust, human relations, rules, and ethics in contracting and/or negotiation.
  • Works that advance the strategic role of contracting and negotiation in terms of commercial outcomes, and performance.
  • Works that especially engage social theory to explain the role of negotiations and contracting in and on society, ecology and economies.
  • Works that are empirically and theoretically sound, exciting and diverse and advance our understanding of the strategic importance and impact of contracting and negotiation on interpersonal, national and international society, ecology and economy.

The journal does not have a preferred ontological or epistemological grounding, and welcomes papers with diverse perspectives, methodologies, and theoretical underpinnings.

JSCAN is now open for submissions. Please see the general call for papers here.

We are also seeking research on the role of of lawyers in organisations and the impact of lawyers on contracting. Please see the call for papers here.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Executive Summaries
All research articles in JSCAN are published with an accompanying one page Executive Summary created by experts within WCC, which means your research is easily digestible and accessible to a wider audience.

For any queries please contact the JSCAN’s editorial office: JSCANcontact@gmail.com

Please note: Following JSCAN’s multidisciplinary perspective of the field of contracting and negotiation, we will be including Teaching Case Studies as a new manuscript type considered for publication beginning January 2019. The purpose of teaching case studies is to provide evidence-based resources for curricular and professional development, dialogue, and interactive learning in the field and study of contracting and negotiation by linking existing issues with theoretical, conceptual, and practical knowledge. For Teaching Case Study guidelines, please visit our Submission Guidelines page.

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation is an international peer reviewed journal publishing research and theory about practices that challenge the status quo in strategic contracting and negotiations.

Multidisciplinary in nature, JSCAN welcomes submissions in the fields of anthropology, economics, finance, international business, law, marketing, operations, organizational behavior, organization studies, political science, project management, psychology, strategic management and sociology. The journal has been launched to reflect the ongoing transformations in this rapidly changing field and to act as a forum where academic excellence and commercial acumen meet.

Editors
Rossana Ducato University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Boris Prastalo Brunel University London, UK
Patricia Zivkovic University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Managing Editor
Mariela Campuzano The Development Collective LLC, USA
Editorial Board
Velimir Živkovic University of Warwick, UK
Abdul-Rashid Abdul-Aziz University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Francis Anderson Adzei University of Ghana, Ghana
Vesa Annola University of Helsinki, Finland
Thomas D. Barton California Western School of Law, USA
Walter Bataglia Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Brazil
Germà Bel University of Barcelona, Spain
Gerlinde Berger-Walliser University of Connecticut, USA
Lisa Bernstein The University of Chicago, USA
Eric Boyer The University of Texas at El Paso, USA
Trevor Brown Ohio State University, USA
Ben Brunjes University of Washington, USA
Stewart R. Clegg The University of Sydney
Valentina Cuocci University of Foggia, Italy
Wasiq Abass Dar Jindal Global Law School, India
Deyan Draguiev Colibra Insurance, USA
Horacio Falcao INSEAD, Singapore
Marcelo Fantinato University of Sao Paolo, Brazil
Claudia Gabbioneta University of York Management School, UK
Helena Haapio University of Vaasa School of Accounting and Finance, Finland
Usha Haley Wichita State University, USA
Roger Halson University of Leeds, UK
Robert Handfield North Carolina State University, USA
William E. Hefley University of Texas at Dallas, USA
Nevena Jevremovic Prince Sultan University
Kenneth Molbjerg Jorgensen Malmö University, Sweden
Nancy S. Kim California Western School of Law, USA
Pin Lean Lau Brunel University London, UK
Alexander Livshin Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
David Lowe University of Manchester, UK
Fabrice Lumineau University of Hong Kong, China
Silvia Martinelli University of Turin, Italy
Riccardo Marzano Sapienza University of Roma, Italy
Sanford Mba Corporate and Commercial Practice Group, Dentons ACAS-Law, Nigeria
Steven McCann Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia
Ole Petersen Roskilde University, Denmark
Jaclyn Piatack University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
Matthew Potoski University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Luca Sabini University of Leeds, UK
Tristano Sainati BI Norwegian Business School, Norway and Politecnico di Milano, School of Management, Italy
Anupama Saxena Guru Ghasidas Central University, India
George Triantis Stanford University, USA
David Van Slyke Syracuse University, USA
Ralf Wilden Macquarie University, Australia
  • Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS)
  • Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jscan to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Strategic Contract and Negotiation does not accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers.

If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

  1. What do we publish?
    1.1 Aims & Scope
    1.2 Article types
    1.3 Writing your paper
  2. Editorial policies
    2.1 Peer review policy
    2.2 Authorship
    2.3 Acknowledgements
    2.4 Funding
    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
    2.6 Research Data
  3. Publishing policies
    3.1 Publication ethics
    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
    3.3 Open access and author archiving
  4. Preparing your manuscript
    4.1 Formatting
    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
    4.3 Supplemental material
    4.4 Reference style
    4.5 English language editing services
  5. Submitting your manuscript
    5.1 ORCID
    5.2 Information required for completing your submission
    5.3 Permissions
  6. On acceptance and publication
    6.1 Sage Production
    6.2 Online First publication
    6.3 Access to your published article
    6.4 Promoting your article
  7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation publishes original research that contributes to the understanding of strategic contracting and negotiations. The Journal considers the following kinds of article for publication:

Articles 
The journal publishes empirical papers of high scholarly quality. Articles should be between 6000 – 8,000 words (including all footnotes and bibliography). Articles submitted which are substantially over the limit will be returned to the author for resubmission.

Book Reviews

The journal published book reviews of publications by Sage and other publishers. Book Review should be between 500 - 1,000 words. Book Reviews should be discussed with the Book Review Editor before submission. Please read the Author Guidelines for Book Reviews here to find all information on the procedure and formatting.

Essays
The journal also publishes single-anonymize reviewed essays, which are shorter commentary pieces that aim to contribute insights, debates and critical discussion in the fields of contracting and negotiation. Ideally essays should be around 3,000 words in length. Please see the essay guidelines here.

Research Notes
The Research Note section publishes shorter articles between 3,500 - 5,000 words with data, and/or methodologies that identify theoretical questions needing further exploration as well as collaboration opportunities between practitioners and academics. Submissions should include detailed methods sections, and sections identifying areas for future research. Submissions should also follow academic format including reference sections.

Teaching Case Studies
The journal publishes teaching case studies to provide evidence-based resources for curricular and professional development, dialogue, and interactive learning in the field and study of contracting and negotiation by linking critical thinking of existing issues with theoretical, conceptual, and practical knowledge. 

Main text and word count suggested target is 4000-8000 words. Manuscripts should include: 
i.    A clearly identified purpose (issue in the field of contracting and negotiation)
ii.    Method(s) intended for the teaching case study (e.g. discussion, evaluation, debate, etc.)
iii.    Theoretical/conceptual framework(s) guiding the presentation of the case/issue/decision being examined
iv.    Detailed contextualization of the teaching case study. Context is central to teaching cases; it helps academics and practitioners to more fully understand the nuances of a specific teaching case as a platform for discussion and critical thinking. Farhoomand (2004) recommends three parts to presenting successful teaching case studies:

Part 1: Introduce the case (who, what, where, when, why) & the main question(s) that guide the examination of the case/issue/decision presented.

Part 2: Detailed contextualization of the case which may include, chronological presentation of the case, sector(s) of contracting and negotiation (or related field(s)), company, geographic location and/or culture, presenting both/multiple sides to the case/issue/decision, and some evidence collected/considered.

Part 3: Synopsis of the case, questions to consider (same as those in the introduction, or additional based on Parts 1 & 2). NOTE: A teaching note may accompany the teaching case, in which case, author(s) may include a “lessons learned” section and/or additional resources (e.g. charts, figures, literature) to guide other scholars and/or practitioners in their execution of the case. If using charts or figures, please adhere to the guidelines in Section 4, Preparing your manuscript.

Important considerations
i.    There are several types of teaching case studies authors may consider including, field cases (those based on real organizations/companies), library cases (based on published research), or armchair cases (based on the experience of a professor or practitioner) (Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, n.d.).
ii.    Teaching case studies differ from traditional research manuscripts. 
a.    They do not take a particular position on a case/issue/decision; instead they seek to use an existing case to invite critical discussion and evaluation among students, academics, and practitioners. 
b.    Teaching case studies carry a different manuscript structure (see Parts 1 - 3 outlined above). While flexible, the structure generally reflects a case presentation, target audience, learning objective(s), structure for use in academic or critical thinking practice, guiding questions as opposed to implications for future research, and other components if a teaching note is included. 
iii.    Teaching case studies are not limited to having one, specific answer. Rather, cases should examine and evaluate the possible outcome presented and entice further examination of other competing possibilities (by using the guiding questions provided in the manuscript).
iv.    Successful teaching cases will help students to create an argument for or against an existing issue or decision presented or to identify and substantiate other decision(s)/ possible solutions to the issue. Teaching cases should create debate, deep examination, entice critical thinking, and provide learners the opportunity to identify and integrate interrelated issues of contracting and negotiation.
v.    Teaching cases are editor-reviewed, please include the full name of each author with current affiliation and full address/phone/fax/email details plus short biographical note. All other submission guidelines are noted below in Section 5, Submitting your Manuscript.
 

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors

•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper

•  The author has recommended the reviewer

•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

  • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
  • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
  • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.4 Funding

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

2.6 Research Data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

  • share your research data in a relevant public data repository
  • include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
  • cite this data in your research

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

4.4 Reference style

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation adheres to the Referencing with footnotes in Chicago style citation. View the Chicago Style Manual of Style to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. 

It is highly recommended to use one of the automated referencing tools (e.g., Zotero) to ensure compliance with the Chicago style. Please note that non-compliance with the set standard of referencing can result in the Major Revision of your submission. 

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jscan to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Each manuscript should contain:

(i) title page with full title and subtitle (if any). For the purposes of anonymize refereeing (submissions will be refereed anonymously by at least three referees), full name of each author with current affiliation and full address/phone/fax/email details plus short biographical note should be supplied on a separate sheet.

(ii) abstract of 100-150 words.

(iii) at least 5 key words.

(iv) list of two disciplinary areas the submission fits into.

(v) main text and word count suggested target is about 8000 words. Text to be clearly organized, with a clear hierarchy of headings and subheadings and quotations exceeding 40 words displayed, indented, in the text. Texts of a length greatly exceeding this will be considered as interest warrants and space permits.

(vi) end notes, if necessary, should be signalled by superscript numbers in the main text and listed at the end of the text before the references.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding authorvia our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation editorial office as follows:

Mariela Campuzano (JSCANcontact@gmail.com

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