Organization Studies

Aims and Scope

Organization Studies (OS) is a highly ranked and globally respected, multidisciplinary journal with over 40 years history of publishing excellent organization research. OS aims at advancing our knowledge of organizations, organizing, the organized, the disorganized and the unsettled. It is broadly rooted in the social sciences and the humanities and promotes an understanding of these phenomena as shaping, and shaped by, the cultures, economies, and societies of which they are part.

OS invites innovative high-quality research from a wide range of philosophical traditions, disciplines, and methodological approaches. It encourages the interplay between theorizing and empirical research, in the belief that they are mutually informative.

OS welcomes articles that push organization theory forward through research that fully or partly draws on empirical data to research studies based on qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. Further, we accept conceptual articles that develop theory without reliance on empirical data. In the medium term, OS will focus on empirical manuscripts and will advise authors of manuscripts that do not draw on empirical data in any form to submit to Organization Theory (OT) instead.

If you would like to know more about the Aims & Scope, please read the most recent editorial here.
If you would like to learn more about the historical intellectual signature of OS, please click here.

Our commitment

We are committed to OS being the leading hub of a community of scholars – authors, reviewers, editors and readers –, whose defining characteristics are a passion for ideas, open-minded intellectual curiosity, collegiate critique, and uncompromising adherence to the highest scholarly standards.

We expect every article published in OS to provide meaningful insights that challenge and exceed existing knowledge in the area of organization studies. We encourage bold research, driven by academic curiosity that crosses existing boundaries and dares to explore novel ground. We are looking for original research, but do not seek novelty as an end in itself, but rather as the result of the passion to advance our scholarly community and move our journal entrepreneurially ahead.

We are open to paradigmatic plurality and multidisciplinary research, but each article must have a solid theoretical grounding and must strive to develop further the tradition to which it adheres. We are committed to the accumulation of knowledge and demand that all articles engage seriously with existing literature. Submissions need to clearly communicate which conversations they wish to be part of or challenge, and what the novel theoretical insights are that their research contributes in relation to existing organizational literatures.

We are open to a wide range of epistemologies, methodologies and methods and expect empirical submissions to account for and motivate the approach chosen. Empirical studies must display professional rigour in data collection and analysis appropriate for the specific approach.

Types of Submissions

OS welcomes the following types of submissions:
(a) empirical or conceptual ‘Research articles’;
(b) shorter, essay-style ‘X and Organization Studies’;
(c) ‘Perspectives articles’ that serve as introductions to Virtual Special Issues;
(d) ‘Method/ology articles;
(e) ‘Agora’ opinion pieces, and
(f) ‘Media reviews’.

Empirical or conceptual papers, 'X and Organization Studies,' "Perspective articles' and Method/ology article are all peer-reviewed and benefit from our rigorous and developmental review process

Empirical or conceptual research articles

We welcome empirical and conceptual research articles. Manuscripts must be original in style and content (not under review, accepted and/or published elsewhere). The maximum length of submitted manuscripts is 13,000 words (including references and appendices).

‘X and Organization Studies’ essays

‘X and OS’ are essay-style articles that draw attention to unexplored, unthought, or marginalized topics in order to revitalize research and inspire the field of organization studies more broadly. Articles in this section will have to contribute to both the ‘X’ and the ‘OS’. ‘X and OS’ are written prior to when a full empirical or conceptual research article can address a topic, but also, importantly, they accomplish their objective in the style of an essay (please see here for our expectations concerning this article type; recent examples can be found here). The maximum length of X and OS essays is 7.500 words (including references). Authors are asked to discuss preliminary ideas with the Editors-in-Chief. After initial green light from the EiC, developed manuscripts will go through a regular peer review process."

Perspectives articles

Perspectives articles are introductions to Virtual Special Issues, which cover a set of articles (five to six) previously published in Organization Studies. Perspectives pieces provide a focused overview of the evolution of a topic over time, the contribution of selected prior articles to the development and ongoing debate, and, most importantly, raise concerns about missing insights and knowledge, in order to outline fruitful avenues for future research. The Perspectives article is published in a regular OS issue, and also published online together with the previously published OS articles as part of a Virtual Special Issue. Interested authors should discuss their ideas with the Editors-in-Chief. The maximum length of a Perspectives article is 13,000 words (including references). Previous Virtual Special Issues can be found here. After initial green light from the EiC, developed manuscripts will go through a regular peer review process.

Method/ology articles

Method/ology articles address questions of methodology and method broadly (including philosophy of science, ontology, epistemology, study design, novel analytical methods, and writing). Method/ology articles should situate themselves firmly within organization studies and tackle issues or problems directly related to the “doing” of organization studies research. They must address topics of interest to readers of OS and make clear the connection to research conducted in OS. The maximum length for Method/ology articles is 13.000 words (including references).

Agora

In line with the idea of knowledge emerging from gathering together in spaces like assemblies and squares, OS publishes short opinion pieces in the form of single contributions or as dialogues in essay style (all in all no longer than 2,000 words including references). In the Agora, we deal with the big issues of our times and their organizational dimensions. With this format, we wish to offer a forum for debating contemporary matters of academic interest to the readers of Organization Studies, in the hope that this triggers discussion or sets off reflections that lead to empirical studies and theorizing. Agora pieces are single-authored: (please see here for our expectations concerning this article type; recent examples can be found here). Those interested in contributing to the Agora section should contact the Editors-in-Chief in advance, briefly sketching the issue and their personal views, the organizational relevance, why the issue deserves sparking an urgent debate, and the kind of research required.

Authors who have published an Agora piece, cannot resubmit for the three years following the date of acceptance of their published Agora. This is to guarantee variety and fairness in access to this section of the Journal.

Media Reviews

Books are and remain at the heart and centre of scholarly formats. However, in order to account for the relevance of and inspiration from other forms of media in the process of defining, producing, and diffusing knowledge, we have broadened the scope of reviews and OS now offers a Media Reviews section. Proposals should be directed towards our Media Review Editors (email: orgstudiesmre@gmail.com).

If you are interested in proposing a Special Issue, please click here.