ISBM Working Paper Principles and Guidelines

The ISBM working paper series is one of several ways that the results of ISBM supported or related research is communicated to both the academic and business communities. The working paper will provide access to these results in advance of any possible journal publication and will be made available in electronic format on the ISBM Web site. In addition, the ISBM may summarize the findings for other publications that reach both communities.

By submitting a working paper, you understand:

• The ISBM will either accept or reject the paper at its complete discretion. Working papers should be of a quality high enough for publication in a referred journal. For funded research, the researchers agree to modify the paper, if necessary, for acceptance. The ISBM research director will provide feedback if a revision is necessary.
• If accepted, the ISBM has the non-exclusive right to issue the paper in its working series both in print and electronic form, and may, at its discretion, produce a summary of this work for publication. You will not be restricted in any way from issuing this work in other working paper series or to have the paper published in an academic journal.
• The ISBM should be cited as a sponsor of this work in any other publication of the results.
• For funded research, any additional papers beyond the requirement should be submitted to the ISBM for addition to the working paper series.

Working Paper Format

Your delivery of an ISBM working paper should have two components: A Managerial Summary (separate document) and the Working Paper itself.

Managerial Summary

The managerial summary should be addressed to the non-academic or business reader of your work. In one to two pages, it should frame the managerial issue or business question that is addressed in your study, briefly describe the study approach and methodology, and highlight key findings and insights. The concluding paragraph(s) of the summary should discuss the implications of your findings for managers: what action might your readers take.

Manuscript Preparation

Your paper should have the following structure:

• Title page. Include title, authors, contact information and acknowledgment. Those acknowledgments should include the phrase: "The author(s) wish to thank Penn State's Institute for the Study of Business Markets for their support of this research."
• Abstract. On a separate page that repeats the title, include an abstract of up to 300 words that describes the problem, the approach and your key findings.
• The paper. The usual guidelines for academic papers in leading journals apply here. Place tables, figures and exhibits at the end of the paper. Try to minimize the number of different levels of heading. Check all references carefully. All text citations must be fully listed as references at the end of the paper, and all references listed must be cited in the text. Follow the author-date reference style used by the academic journals in the field. Here are some examples:
  
  Book:
  Berry, Leonard L., and A. Parasuraman (1991), Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality. New York: The Free Press.
  
  Journal article:
  Deshpandé, Rohit (1982), "The Organizational Context of Market Research Use." Journal of Marketing 46 (Fall), 91-101.
  
  Book chapter:
  Thaler, Richard (1987), "The Psychology of Choice and the Assumptions of Economics." In Laboratory Experimentation in Economics: Six Points of View, ed. Alvin E. Roth, 50-60. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Submission:

Please submit to the ISBM as a Word file as an e-mail attachment or on a CD. Keep the formatting as simple as possible for ease of duplication and reformatting.