Submission

Manuscript Types

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For all submissions, we strongly encourage that prospective authors send a proposal (max. 1,000 words) to the EIC. For book reviews, a short proposal is mandatory.

We invite submission of

Full papers (circa 6000 words) that describe and analyse one or more research projects, with a practical problem as the motivation and actionable guidelines for practitioners as the contribution. If the full paper is a single case lead by a company (case-based narrative of a successful or failing situation involving the application of IS to a specific problem situation), please note that we do not consider technology-promoting cases.
Interviews (circa 4000 words) with prominent industry practitioners, designed to offer novel insights into contemporary problem situations or opportunities. Proposals for interviews should be confirmed with the EIC in advance.
Tutorials (circa 6000 words) that provide authoritative, sufficiently comprehensive and accessible syntheses in relation to a clearly-defined, practice-relevant topic.
Short papers (circa 3000 words) that offer a professional viewpoint or opinion on a particular phenomenon situated in practice.
Problem statements or proposals (circa 1000 words) that provide authoritative, sufficiently comprehensive syntheses of problems or challenges that practitioners face, that would benefit from a research-based investigation.
Book reviews (circa 1000 words) Proposals for submissions in this category must be sent to the EIC in advance.
Reports of specific practitioner-oriented events, panels, etc. (circa 2000 words), where a relevant IS issue is discussed by key practitioner stakeholders.

Formatting

Authors should use numbered headings and sub-headings judiciously to organise their manuscript. In principle, authors can choose their own paper structure, but please format the paper in a single column. References should be in APA7 format, not [22]-style numbers in brackets. Authors should include a Title Page that includes the title and details of all authors. A typical format of a research paper might see the following arrangement, but this is no more than indicative:

Title,

Abstract,

Problem statement ,

Summary of past related work (using references that are prevalently related to practitioner outlets),

Methods, including data collection and how data were analysed,

Case presentation or description of findings,

Discussion of case/findings,

Contributions to practice,

References, formatted in APA7 style,

Appendices.

Footnotes should be used sparingly, and endnotes should not be used. A table of contents is not needed. Acknowledgements should be placed in the end of the manuscript only after it is accepted, to avoid compromising the double-blind review process.

Cover Letter

Authors should include a cover letter that includes a transparency statement in which the use of AI tools (if any) (including GAI, AGI and future variants) is explicitly described. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. While the use of AI tools for mundane research-related tasks for improving language and presentation may be accepted, AI tools must not be used for any intellectual task, such as problem formulation, synthesis and analysis of literature, data analysis, development of theoretical arguments, and discussion of findings. For these activities, we insist that the human agency is not replaceable or substitutable. Any use of any data that is processed by generative AI must be approved by the people who generated the data. This means that, for example, if researchers are collecting interview data that they later ask a generative AI programme to transcribe, translate or otherwise analyse, they must first secure the explicit consent of the interviewees since they are the people who generated the data.

If you have further questions on the extent to which AI tools can (or cannot) be used, please contact the EIC before submitting your manuscript. Please note that all submissions will be screened for plagiarism and for AI-generated content.

Authors may request as part of their submission that a specific Senior Editor be assigned to handle the paper, and may also nominate potential reviewers familiar with the topic area or expertise. Such nominations should be carefully justified and conflicts of interest noted. Authors may also request that specific individuals not be invited to be a Senior Editor or reviewer, however, reasoned justifications must be provided.

Copyright

The ISPJ is published by the City University of Hong Kong Press and copyright transfer to the publisher will be arranged after acceptance of an article.

Ethics

Authors should be careful to abide by local, national, and field (IS) ethical standards. In particular, we draw attention to the need to protect the privacy of the personal data that you collect from your research subjects. Unless you have explicit (written) permission, you should not make it possible for a reader to identify study participants or organisations from which primary or secondary data were collected. More generally, we expect that authors adhere to commonly accepted academic ethical standards, for instance by following the standards indicated by the Association for Information Systems (AIS), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) or other international associations. In addition to these standards, we recommend that authors make sure to adhere to local (your university/organisation) as well as national rules, laws and regulations concerning the conduct of research and the publishing and distribution of research materials.

When submitting a paper to the ISPJ, authors will have to confirm that their manuscript adheres to the ethical prescriptions outlined above.

Reviewing Processes

All submitted manuscripts will be screened initially by the EIC. Suitable manuscripts will be passed to a Senior Editor. The Senior Editor may then engage reviewers (normally two) who will not know the identity of the authors. Reviewers would normally include: a practice-sensitive academic, and an active practitioner. Both reviewers should be familiar with the topic area. The review process will be double-blind, i.e. reviewers will not know the identity of the authors and the authors will not know the identity of the reviewers.

Full papers, case studies, tutorials and short papers will go through a peer review process; submissions in the other genres will undergo only editorial review by the EIC and a senior editor.

The journal aims to process all submissions (immediate revision, immediate reject, or assign to a Senior Editor) within 5 working days. The initial review process and a decision on the submission can be expected within six weeks of initial submission. It is the journal’s objective that the entire review/revision process does not exceed three review-revise rounds and that after a maximum of two rounds of review, the manuscript will be either conditionally accepted or rejected.

Once a paper is accepted, the authors will be informed, and it will be transferred to the publisher. The journal will only be published online. Each newly accepted paper will be added online to the current issue of the journal as soon as copyediting and formatting is complete.

Publisher

Cover Letter

Copyright

Ethics

Publisher

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