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How to Publish in SSCI Journals:First Ten Steps for Research and Writing for Scholarly Journals

Arch G. Woodside, Professor of Marketing, Boston College Editor in Chief, Journal of Business Research

3 June2011

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For the opportunity to meet with you today and to work with Yonsei University colleagues, my thanks to:

Dr. Eunju Ko, President of KAMSProfessor, Dept. of Clothing and Textiles, College of Human

Ecology, Yonsei University

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Focus on Steps to Gain Acceptance of Submissions in SSCI Journals

• Early career scholars often receive rejections of their paper submissions to scholarly journals. 

• What steps can these scholars take to achieve acceptances of their papers in scholarly journals? 

• This presentation offers ten steps to achieve success in writing scholarly papers that reviewers and editors will accept for publication in SSCI journals. 

• The presentation includes details of how to implement each step.

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First Ten Steps for Research and Writing for Scholarly Journals

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Quality of Your Writing

(1) Continuously strive to improve the quality of your writing (details for implementing this step include reading Anne S. Huff’s books Writing for Scholarly Publication, 1999 and Designing Research for Publication (2008), Sage Publishing;

(2) View her slides which I can provide to you during our meeting on May 28, 2011).

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Available at amazon.comUSD $25.00 used copy $47.00 used copy

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To help improve the quality of your writing, read Aleksandra Misak, Matko Marusic´, Ana Marusic (2005), “Manuscript editing as a way of teaching academic writing: Experience from a small scientific journal,” Journal of Second Language Writing 14 (2005) 122–131.

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Example of Writing: Before

Sequential Internationalization, Heterogeneous Process and Subsidiary Roles: The Case of Hyundai Motor Company

1. IntroductionThe field of firm internationalization has recently shifted its attention to investigating the phenomenon of accelerated internationalization by East Asian dragon multinationals (Mathews, 2002, 2006). A basic conclusion is that firms from East Asian emerging economies are jumping the stages to rapidly engage foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to learn and acquire knowledge-based assets dispersed around the globe (Yiu, Lau, and Bruton, 2007). While advancing our understanding of some unconventional internationalization processes, this new stream of research is not without problems.

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Example of Writing: After

Sequential Firm Internationalization

1. Introduction

Firm internationalization includes investigating accelerations in

internationalization by East Asian dragon multinationals (Mathews, 2002, 2006). East

Asian high-tech firms are jumping development stages by engaging in foreign direct

investment (FDI) rapidly including acquiring knowledge-based assets around the globe

(Yiu, Lau, and Bruton, 2007).

While advancing understanding of unconventional internationalization processes, this new

stream of research has problems.

• Focus title on main theme; center title.

• Sharpen, focus, sentences. • Delete trash such as, “…a basic conclusion is that firms from…”

• Avoid using double negatives such as, “… not without problems.”

• Use double-spacing only.

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Consider hiring services of a professional American-English writing professional

• Ask for expense grant from Yonsei University to pay for such editing services.

• Finland universities provide such grants to all professors• Especially useful for early career scholars writing in a second

language.• Use publishers’ services:• http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/languageed

iting/• Or a private firm: Moore Services; Megehee Services

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Elsevier Services• Language Editing Services • Elsevier offers an English editing service that will have your manuscript reviewed in as little as four

working days. Learn more about   how it works • Our editorial expertise and long history of publishing quality peer-reviewed journals will ensure that

the English language in your manuscript is clear and free of errors before you submit. Give your article the chance to stand out -   upload here

• Your manuscript will benefit from:• Native English speakers from the top universities• Expert input from Ph.D.s or Ph.D. candidates matched to your field of study

• Your manuscript edited to correct scientific English (US or UK)

• Self-service website with easy article upload and retrieval

• Clear pricing starting from $210 / €150 / ¥ 21920

• Secure payment• After your paper is accepted, copy editors will prepare a proof of the paper. Final edits and changes

may be made during this phase, according to a   set group of standards. Upon receipt of the proof, authors can review the content to ensure that the meaning and intention of their text has not changed during these editing phases.

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Dear Prof. Woodside,

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Moore Writing Services

• Jonathan Moore, P.O. Box 903, Kent, Ct. 06757; 203-885-5775; jonathanmoore16@gmail.com

• Cost: I charge $40 per 1,000 words that includes all the text, reference section, and the table/figure legends. Ordinarily, the turnaround time is 7 business days from the time I begin work on the paper. In the edit, I note any formatting problems and correct them as per your journal's style guidelines. I also cross reference text citations with the reference section.

• So, I need to know the journal you are submitting to and whether it is a first time submission or "accepted." I also address style issues like the length of an abstract or repetitiveness but I do not rewrite.

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Megehee Writing Services• My fee is $60 CPM (cost per thousand words; includes all text,

references, figures, tables, and appendices) (30% discount applies for 10,000+ words with one-month window to complete work). I require payment by way of personal check or wire transfer before I return the edited manuscript and notes. Another option is to be paid directly by your university. (Check to see if you are required to do this in order to be reimbursed.) If you are eligible for this option, you will need to send me all of the necessary paperwork before I begin the editing process. Direct payment from your university is the only payment method where I may return the edited manuscript and notes before receiving payment.

• Please let me know if you decide to go ahead and when I might expect your manuscript. You can reach me at the following address: Carol Megehee, 127 Furman Circle, Conway, SC 29526, 843-333-3844, (c_megehee@yahoo.com). Please send your manuscript in MS-WORD using double-spacing as an attachment with an email note.

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(2) Study/master the Essential Knowledge in Research in Management/Marketing—you need to invest the time in reading the masterworks in research in your discipline

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Examples of Essential Knowledge

• Jack M. Feldman and John G. Lynch, Jr. (1988), Self-Generated Validity and Other Effects of Measurement on Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 3, 421-435.

• GERALD J. ESKIN and PENNY H. BARON, Effects of Price and Advertising in Test-Market Experiments, Journal of Marketing Research, 14 (November 1977), 499-508.

• JOHN A. HOWARD AND WILLIAM M. MORGENROTH (1968), INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL OF EXECUTIVE DECISION, Management Science, 14, 7.

• Arch G. Woodside (2010), “Bridging the chasm between survey and case study research: Research methods for achieving generalization, accuracy, and complexity,” Industrial Marketing Management, 39 64–75.

• John List and Sally Sadoff (2010), “So you want to run an experiment, now what?” http://www.fieldexperiments.com/uploads/132.pdf

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(3) Work with a master-coach on a research project (e.g., Professor Simone Guercini, Professor of Marketing, University of Florence, asked to come to visit and work with me on a research project; he came and stayed in my house for ten days in 2009.

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Letter June 1, 2011 from Simone Guercini to Arch Woodside

•  From: Simone Guercini [simone.guercini@unifi.it]• Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 9:23 AM• To: Arch Woodside• Subject: I: European Journal of Marketing - Decision on Manuscript ID• EJM-02-2011-0086•  • Dear Arch,• bad news from European Journal of Marketing Associate Editor. Reading the three

reviewer the third one doesn't suggest "rejection" as the Associated Editor wrote in the letter.

• Do you think can be a good idea to indicate this point to the AE himself?• I hope this message find you well.• Please, advise.•  • Simone

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• Simon, • Thank you for this update. The three reviews are helpful. • No, best not to send a comment to the AE in my opinion. • Three steps to take now. (1) Best to add a bit of theory upfront;

(2) describe the method in more detail; (3) bring in five additonal references in the discussion as the third reviewer recommends.

• Then, submit to Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. Very high likelihood of acceptance in the JB&IM after revising.

• Can you take the time to do the three steps? I am in Seoul until July 7 and then go home for one week and then to Auckland. I am really tied up until October.

• I hope that you are well. I hope that you will attend the IMP conference in late August this year as well.

• Best wishes,• Arch

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• Arch,• thank you for suggestions. Yes, I'll work on the

three point and I'll send you the paper before to submit to Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. I need maybe three weeks before to act this update.

• Congratulations for the Prize you obtained recently from the Korean Academy of Marketing.

• Best wishes,• Simone

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(4) Avoid using fixed-point surveys with low response rates (low = < 40% responses).

• Such studies assume that • (1) respondents know their unconscious thinking

(most thinking occurs unconsciously),• respondents cannot access their unconscious thinking

sufficiently on their own• (2) are willing to share this information with the

interviewer;• Respondents edit their thoughts before answering; • (3) and translate their own knowledge usefully into

responses on 7-point scales.• 7-point scales miss much contextual information

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(5) Examine context influences in your research—get into the field where the action is happening—read Henry Mintzberg’s “Direct Research” article

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2392364.pdf?acceptTC=true

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Opening sentence of An Emerging Strategy of "Direct" ResearchAuthor(s): Henry MintzbergSource: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 4, Qualitative Methodology (Dec., 1979),pp. 582-589.

For about eight years now, a group of us at McGill Univer-sity's Faculty of Management has been researching the pro-cess of strategy formation. Defining a strategy as a pattern in a stream of decisions, our central theme has been the contrast between "deliberate" strategies, that is, patterns intended before being realized, and "emergent" strategies, patterns realized despite or in the absence of intentions.

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Accuracy is paramount!

• Achieving accuracy is paramount. • Generality and complexity are add-on objectives.• To some meaningful extent, process researchers

can plan their research designs to accomplish all three objectives to a meaningful degree.

• However, attempting to insure generality at the cost of accuracy and complexity will only insure the continuation of research reports of little importance and even less impact.

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(6) Build in replications into your research design; do not label yourself as a qualitative or quantitative researcher—go beyond a one method stance.

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(7) Learn to do fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis; read Charles Ragin’s (2008) recent book.

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(8) Learn how to do field experiments—read the outstandnig articles by John List and the bad study on improving teaching in India (to avoid making the same mistakes) by Esther Dufloe

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(9) Learn how to do management and/or anthropological research—read van Maanen’s  1978 classic, “The Asshole”

and Woodside’s (2010) Case Study Research: Theory, Methods and Practice.

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“The Asshole” is available for free at:

http://petermoskos.com/readings/Van_Maanen_1978.pdf

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http://books.emeraldinsight.com/display.asp?isb=9781849509220&CUR=GBP

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(10) Ask two experts to read your (a) research design before collecting data and(b) your paper and to provide comments before submitting to a journal editor. 

The most valuable double-step to take and the step most early career scholars never take.

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Questions?

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Thank you!