Submission Categories
The International Leadership Journal invites submissions in the following categories:
- Research (2,500 - 5,000 words)
- Practice (2,000-3,000 words)
- Education/Development (2,000-3,000 words)
- Reviews (1,000-2,000 words)
- Notes (500-1,000 words)
- Dialogue (500 words maximum)
Note: Submissions in Research, Practice, Education/Development, and Reviews are peer-reviewed with a 25 percent acceptance rate.
Research (2,500-5,000 words)
Submissions should be theoretically-based articles that are readable by, and accessible to, a broad audience; that demonstrate rigorous research methods (quantitative or qualitative) while remaining open to readers from both academic and non-academic settings; and that offer original contributions to the development of knowledge in the areas of leadership and organizations. Submissions that include different national, cultural, or international perspectives, that introduce bold new ways of understanding leadership or organizations, and that have implications for leadership practice are especially appreciated. Articles that use interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, though articles within any of the following disciplines will be considered:
- Leadership theory/research
- Organization theory/research/development
- Business/management
- Psychology
- Social psychology
- Sociology
- Political science
In addition, the journal remains open to bold, innovative research that draws from the humanities (e.g., literature, philosophy, history), the arts (e.g., art, art history), and the natural sciences (e.g., biology, physics). Though such knowledge domains may seem remote from traditional ways of conceiving and studying leadership and organizations, they can potentially promote new ways of understanding phenomena often associated with leadership and organizations – vision, imagination, symbolic thinking, ambiguity, ethics, creativity, values, culture, social interaction.
Finally too, the journal encourages research articles that focus on formal organizations in a variety of sectors as the context, but it will also consider articles that focus on informal social networks, social movements, social activism, and other contexts wherein leadership may be demonstrated. Consideration of international contexts and situations is encouraged.
Note: While the International Leadership Journal seeks high quality articles in this category, it does not intend to compete with the exacting standards for research published in journals like Leadership Quarterly or Leadership. It seeks to complement such journals by offering a wide spectrum of authors and readers around the globe access to readable, useful, bold research with which they can interact and dialogue (see "Dialogue" below).
Practice (2,000-3,000 words)
Submissions that focus on innovative leadership practices at any level and in any sector or context are welcomed. Articles that discuss effective practices, new approaches to practice, or practices that may present challenges to accepted theories or suggest means of expanding or re-conceptualizing accepted theories are encouraged. Also, articles that address exciting, innovative practices in other nations or cultures or across other nations and cultures are especially appreciated.
Education/Development (2,000-3,000 words)
Submissions can include discussion of effective leadership education/development program or course designs and practices, teaching/training strategies or materials (e.g., problem-based learning, cases, simulations), the relationship between education/development and practice, or leadership education/development in the broad sense. Submissions that treat leadership education/development within organizational or other contexts in different national or cultural contexts or across such contexts are especially appreciated.
Reviews (1,000-2,000 words)
The journal will consider reviews that discuss at least two books, both of which should be relevant to leadership theory/research, education/development, or practice. Reviews that place the books in the broad context of leadership studies, that challenge the assumptions in books, or that discuss books with different national, cultural, or international perspectives are encouraged. Also, the journal will consider reviews of two or more leadership education/development programs, especially if those programs exist within (or include a strong focus on) different national, cultural, or international contexts. Bibliographic information for reviews should include the author(s), title of the book, publisher, place of publication, cost of the book, and number of pages.
Notes (500-1,000 words)
Notes should offer substantive thoughts about leadership theory/research, teaching/development, or practice, or about organizational phenomena pertinent to leadership. This category is intended to spur fertile debate and to encourage radical, divergent, contrarian thinking. We encourage provocative, passion-felt, stimulating thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. Submissions could address the following, for example, though by no means should these be considered exhaustive of possibilities:
- Bold suggestions about ways to broaden, focus, amend, combine, or apply leadership theories, or about completely new theoretical perspectives
- Thoughts about the state of leadership research, its evolution, or where it could go in the near future
- Thoughts about the field of leadership studies – its scope, its growth over time, its directions, its gaps, its knowledge base, its taken-for-granted assumptions, whether it is a "field" or a "discipline" or something else altogether, and whether it should include concerns like substitutes for leadership, absent leadership, leadership as exercised by other species, leadership by macro-level units of analysis (e.g., nation-states), and perspectives from the humanities, arts, and natural sciences
- Thoughts about leader-less or leader-full groups, teams, or organizations
- Unexplored contexts/situations for consideration by leadership scholars
- Leadership: Is it becoming collaborative (shared responsibility) or is it based on mutual purposes?
- The words we use: "Leadership" language in other countries/cultures
- Unexplored methodological tools/approaches for studying leadership
- Can we ever develop a grand universal theory of leadership?
- Unusual leadership practices/behaviors in other countries/cultures
- To what extent does leadership research, education, and practice address deep social needs or the needs of underrepresented populations?
- "Bad" leadership: How to deal with it and what can we learn from it?
- Leadership and followership: How are they related? How are they conceived in different countries/cultures?
- Leadership education: What is it missing at this point?
- Leadership research: Does it translate to or affect leadership practice? Is it accessible to practicing leaders?
- The West and the East: What can they teach each other about leadership?
Dialogue (500 words maximum)
The journal encourages short responses to articles published under categories 1-3 above, and it will encourage authors to respond in turn to responses, such that dialogues can develop between readers and authors. The intent is to move away from the notion of published articles as static texts to an evolving, interactive "journal" (meaning, etymologically, a daily record, and thus a continually evolving medium – a kind of "journey" through a textual exchange in which the reader, as well as the original author, creates an open, fluid text that evolves through interpretation). The online nature of the journal is especially conducive to such a dialogical journey. Responses in this category should be thoughtful, critical, provocative, and challenging to an author and to other readers.
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