Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

1. Manuscript Submission Overview

1.1 Types of Publications

Manuscripts submitted to Journal of East European Management Studies (JEEMS) should neither be under consideration for publication in another journal nor previously published in another journal. The main article types considered for publication are: Article, Editorial, Research Notes.

Article: The journal welcomes submissions of original Articles that present methodologically rigorous scientific investigations and offer significant novel findings contributing to the field. Empirical, conceptual or methodical papers as well as systematic literature reviews are welcome. A maximum of 10,000 words is recommended.

Editorial-by invitation only: Editorials are typically commissioned articles curated by the journal's editorial board. They may include opinion pieces (intended to refine or complement the conclusions of one or more scientific articles), reflective essays (sharing personal insights or expertise on a topic of interest), or informative/analytical reviews (providing an in-depth overview of a specific theme while offering original conclusions), among other formats. They should be brief and focused. Editorials may have a maximum of 3 authors. The body of the Editorial can be continuous text or divided into subsections. Editorials on topics of current interest are welcome. The total number of words should not exceed 1000 (excluding references).

Research Notes: Research Notes present a new empirical finding, or discuss current research questions. Research Notes may also respond to or replicate existing research. These may include reports on null-results for cases where previously statistical relationships were claimed. The total number of words should not exceed 5000 (excluding references).

For other article types (such as Guideline, News, Obituary, et al.), please contact the Editorial Office (JEEMS@imrpress.com).

1.2 Accepted File Formats

Authors may use the Microsoft Word template available on our website to prepare their manuscript. If this requirement presents a problem, please contact the Editorial Office (JEEMS@imrpress.com). Accepted file formats are:

Microsoft Word: Manuscripts must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in Microsoft Word, please ensure the use of the JEEMS Microsoft Word template in the following formats: Article Manuscript Template.
LaTeX: Manuscripts prepared in LaTeX must be collated into one ZIP folder (including all source files and images, so that the Editorial Office can recompile the submitted PDF).
Figures: Please save and submit figures as jpg. or tif. files (see below Link to 2.2.5 for further details).
Supplementary Materials: These materials may be in any format, but it is recommended that authors use common, non-proprietary formats where possible (see below Link to 3 for further details).

1.3 Submission Process

Manuscripts that are ready for submission should be scientifically sound and without significant errors in the formatting and language usage (including spelling, grammar, proper sentence flow, etc.).
Properly-formatted manuscripts should be submitted using the online submission & editorial system. Figures and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearance.
Manuscripts for JEEMS should be submitted online at online submission & editorial system. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website.
ORCID is an optional field which the submitting author can fill in. JEEMS uses ORCID to clearly link authors and reviewers—and all their name variants—with their research work, by embedding ORCID IDs into their publication metadata and displaying them on finished publications. Therefore, we recommend that the author complete this optional field.
When a manuscript is submitted, the corresponding author will receive a response within a few days regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in JEEMS. All manuscripts passed desk check will be sent to peer review, and the final acceptance/rejection depends on both reviewers and academic editor's decision.

2. Manuscript Preparation

2.1 General Guidelines

Read submission review Guidelines to Authors, view a properly formatted sample document ready for submission.

2.1.1 Title Page

General information about an article and its authors is presented on a manuscript title page and usually includes the article title, author information, sources of support, word count, and sometimes the number of tables and figures.

Title. The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant.

Author information. Authors’ full first and last names must be provided. The initials of any middle names can be added. The PubMed/MEDLINE standard format is used for affiliations: complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, and country. Affiliations of the authors indicated by numbers (not symbols); equal contribution indicated by †. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author, and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section. JEEMS encourages the listing of authors’ ORCID and keep their Contributor Identification information updated, ensuring that their identity is uniquely linked to their research work.

Please note that the corresponding author should respond promptly to the editor's inquiries and any feedback during the submission and peer review process. They must also cooperate with the journal's requirements to provide any necessary data or other relevant information to prevent issues after the paper is published.

Since February 2025, the journal has not encouraged the listing of more than two co-first authors or co-corresponding authors. If there is a special reason to list more than two corresponding authors, please submit a cover letter providing a reasonable justification.

Availability of data and materials. This section are strongly encouraged that all datasets on which the conclusions of a manuscript depend should be available to readers, unless they are already provided as part of the submitted article. Authors who do not wish to share their data must state this fact, and also provide an explanation as to why the data are unavailable. More information about Availability of Data and Materials Policy.

Author contributions. The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified, and initials should be used to refer to each author’s contribution, JEEMS encourages the use of the roles defined in the Contributor Roles Taxonomy from CRediT (CRediT in no way changes the journal’s criteria to qualify for authorship). Although these initial authorship criteria were developed for medical journals, they offer a useful decision-making framework that can be applied broadly.See more details about the criteria to qualify for criteria to qualify for authorship.

Ethics approval and consent to participate. In this section, please add the Institutional Review Board Statement and approval number for studies involving humans or animals. Please note that the Editorial Office might ask you for further information.

Acknowledgment. In this section you can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).

Funding. List funding sources. As this section contains important information and many funding bodies require inclusion of grant numbers here, please check carefully that manuscript details are accurate and use standard spelling of funding agency names at https://search.crossref.org/funding, as errors may affect your future funding.

Conflicts of interest. This section is required for all manuscripts. If there are no interests to declare, please use the following wording: “The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest” or “The author declares there are no conflicts of interest”. The text in this section should match the text provided in the Declaration of Interests form in the publishing agreement.

Declaration of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process. In accordance with COPE’s stated position on AI tools, artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT and similar AI tools based on large language models (LLMs), cannot be listed as an author of a paper. If the author(s) have used AI tools in drafting of the manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, the authors must be transparent concerning the use of AI tools. Furthermore, AI tool use must be disclosed in this section. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those portions produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics. Final decisions concerning whether the use of an AI tool is appropriate, or permissible, in a submitted manuscript lies with the journals’ editors. Specifically, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for decisions concerning regular journal submissions, or an Editorial Board member may be appointed by the Editor-in-Chief to make such judgements in the case of a conflict of interest or for other circumstances.

Word count. A word count for the paper’s text, excluding its abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references, allows editors and reviewers to assess whether the information contained in the paper warrants the paper’s length, and whether the submitted manuscript fits within the journal’s formats and word limits. A separate word count for the abstract is useful for the same reason.

Specification of number of figures and tables. These numbers allow editorial staff and reviewers to confirm that all figures and tables were actually included with the manuscript.

Abstract

The Abstract is about 100 words. Abbreviations that appear once only, should be defined in full. If abbreviations appear more than once, the definition should be provided once, and then subsequently used throughout the abstract. Please do not cite references, figures or tables, website, equations or other graphical elements included.

IMR Press encourages authors to provide a Graphical Abstract to visually present the core content and key findings of the manuscript. The Graphical Abstract should clearly convey the main message of the paper, attract readers' attention, and be suitable for display in the journal's table of contents. For detailed requirements, please refer to the “Preparing Graphical Abstracts”.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide 4–6 keywords, using avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of').

JEL Codes

The appropriate 3–5 JEL codes (American Economic Association: JEL Codes) should be listed immediately after the keywords.

2.1.2 Main Text

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background to clarify why the study was undertaken, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The information in this section should always be referenced and must discuss the literature.

Theoretical background and hypothesis development

Each hypothesis tested should be fully and separately stated and given a distinct number (e.g., Hypothesis 1) or number/letter (e.g., Hypothesis 1a) for easy identification.

Research design

The study design should include sample selection, variable definition, and model construction. Describe any statistical software used to perform the analysis.

Results

Include a concise summary of the data presented in all display items (figures and tables). Excessive elaboration of data shown in display items should be avoided. Numerical data should be analyzed using appropriate statistical tests described in the Research design section. Authors must provide detailed information for each statistical test applied. If some references are needed to support the results, they can be inserted in the Discussion section.

Reproducibility of Results and Statistical Analyses:

Submission of data for publication is an indication that the authors are confident of data reproducibility. Appropriate statistical analysis should be used to determine that the findings are significant. The term "significant" should be used only if such determination has been made. The probability of the significance should be stated. It is worth emphasizing that scatter plots can depict individual data points as well as measures of central tendency and variability. Therefore, when dealing with small sample sizes, JEEMSnow encourages authors to prioritize the use of visualizations that display the entire data distribution to describe continuous data.

Discussion and conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

2.1.3 Cover Letter

Summarize briefly the important points of the submitted work including a brief description of the study to be submitted, that it is an original study presenting novel work, that it has not been previously submitted to or accepted by any other journal, that is has been approved by all authors, that ethics approval and written informed consent have been obtained, and explain whether any author has a conflict of interest.

2.2 Format of Manuscript

2.2.1 General Formatting Guidelines

Format, revise, and correct the manuscript and save it as a MS Word document (not as a text or any other type of file). It is important that manuscripts should be written in clear, concise English and should be submitted free of grammar, spelling or scientific errors. Subsequent to submission of the manuscript, please do not send any other revised form of the same document. Such documents will not be used.
If you are including or referring to previously published text, tables, or figures, please obtain permission from the publisher by contacting them and add the comment "Reproduced with permission from, (ref #)" to the text, figure, or table legend.
Please do not use automatic numbering in sections, sub-sections, titles, subtitles or references. The numbering used by Word is proprietary and does not allow conversion to HTML documents. Please remove automatic numbering and manually number numbered items in text.
All supplementary materials (where applicable) should be submitted through online submission & editorial system as separated files. All supplementary figures and tables must be referred to by sequential numbers in text.
Do not include footnotes directly within the main text. If footnotes are present, handle them as follows: reference-related footnotes should be replaced with standard in-text citations consistent with the reference list. Explanatory footnotes should retain the superscript number, and the explanatory note should appear immediately after the superscript within the main text.
All files must be scanned for viruses prior to submission.
Page Layout: General.
Times New Roman. Font size 10.5. 1.2 line spacing. Alignment Justified.
The first line indents 2 characters of a new paragraph.
Sub-headings and general headings should be presented in upper case letters (capitalize the initials of all substantives).
Use either British English or American English spelling throughout your manuscript, but not both.
Do not use page breaks in your manuscript.
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading.
Figure Legends (do not place the reference to figure legends in sections and sub-sections).
Tables (do not place the references to tables in sections and sub-sections).

Note:

Place a hard return after each paragraph.

2.2.2 References

In-Text Citations should include the author's surname and year of publication, e.g., (Smith, 2020). If citing multiple sources, list them in alphabetical order by the author's surname and separate them with semicolons, e.g., (Smith, 2020; Johnson, 2019; Lee et al., 2018). For sources with more than three authors, list the first author and followed by "et al." in all citations, e.g., (Smith et al., 2020).

(1) Journal:

① Less than 6 authors

Pettit TJ, Fiksel J, Croxton KL. Ensuring supply chain resilience: development of a conceptual framework. Journal of business logistics. 2010; 31: 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2010.tb00125.x

② More than 6 authors

Martínez-Peláez R, Ochoa-Brust A, Rivera S, Félix VG, Ostos R, Brito H, et al. Role of Digital Transformation for Achieving Sustainability: Mediated Role of Stakeholders, Key Capabilities, and Technology. Sustainability. 2023; 15: 11221. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411221

(2) Book:

① Books:

Robbins SP, Coulter M. Management. 12th edn. Pearson: New York. 2014.

② Chapter in books

Eccles JS, Adler TF, Futterman R, Goff SB, Kaczala CM, Meece JL, et al. Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In Spence JT (ed.) Achievement and achievement motives (pp. 75–146). W.H. Freeman: San Francisco. 1983.

(3) Patent:

Harsell D, Armbrecht J, inventors; Intapp Inc., assignee. Enforcing security policies across heterogeneous systems. USA: United States patent US8490163B1. 16 July 2013.

(4) If there are non-English journals in the reference, please insert the journal language as the ending:

Zhao S. Differences in human resource management among Chinese, American and European enterprises and the application of human resource management in Chinese local enterprises. Journal of Management. 2012, 9: 380–387. (In Chinese)

(5) Websites:

Kehoe C, Pitkow J, Morton K. GVU's 8th WWW user survey. 1997. Available at: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10/ (Accessed: 8 August 2000).

Please use a new line for every reference.

2.2.3 Abbreviations

Use standard abbreviations where possible.
New abbreviations must be defined at first usage within the manuscript, and the abstract, text, and figures/tables should each spell them out fully the first time they appear.

2.2.4 Tables

All tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their order of appearance (Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
Do not submit tables in any other format such as an image, Excel file, PDF file, etc.
Each table must be a real table with columns, rows and cells.
Do not use tab to create tables.
Each piece of information should reside in its own cell.
Tables must be numbered sequentially in the text and in the table title.
Do not use any numbering style other than 1, 2, etc.
Each table should have a short title. Any other text should be included at the bottom of the table and not in the table title.
Please refer to any notation within the table with sequential superscripted numbers and not by any other attribute such as a, #, etc.
If possible, please do not use abbreviations in tables.
If abbreviations are used, please list them below the table.

2.2.5 Figures

Figure File Requirements

File type: .tif, .jpg.
Image resolution: Figures should be submitted at a high resolution ① Line Art 800 dpi, ② Combo (Line Art + Halftone) 600 dpi, ③ Halftone 300 dpi. We do not accept 72 dpi web-quality graphics (usually jpg or gif format) in which the colors are not realistic, the text is illegible, or where the images are pixelated. It is important to stress that the objective is to obtain the highest quality images available.
Color space: RGB (not CMYK).
Alpha channels: None.
Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough. Font used within the figure should be between 8 and 10 points for legibility. Label units of measure consistently with the text and legend, following AMA Style for unit abbreviations.
Solid lines should not be broken up. Any lines in the graphic should be no smaller than 2 points wide.
Do not include trial logos in figures.
Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).
All figures should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their order of appearance (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). In addition, file for figures can be provided during submission in a separate file.
Encourage to follow the guideline of WCAG: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#comparison-with-wcag-2-0

Figure Label & Panel Label

Use the figure label with the format: Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, etc.
Use the panel label with the format: (A), (B–D), (a), (a,b), etc.
Figure legends begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
Figure parts should be clearly labeled. Letters and labels must be uniform in size and style within each figure and, when possible, between figures.
Limit white space between figure panels and within each panel.
Authors are strongly encouraged to limit the number of panels per figure to 6.

Figure Legends

Provide a short title (in the legend, not on the figure itself) and an explanation in brief but sufficient detail to make the figure intelligible without reference to the text (unless a similar explanation has been given in another figure).
Statistical tests used should be described in each figure legend.
All symbols used (arrows, circles, etc.) must be explained.
All abbreviations used in the figure should be identified at the end of each legend.
If previously published figures are used, written permission from the original publisher (or copyright holder, if not the publisher) is required, and the figure source must be cited in the legend.
For multi-panel figures, each panel should be described in the legend individually.

In-text Citations

Cite figures with the format: Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, etc.
Cite figures in ascending numeric order upon first appearance in the manuscript file. In the published article, figures are inserted according to the placement of their first citation and caption in the article.
Lettered subparts of whole figures may be cited in any order in the text if the first mention of each whole figure is in numerical order. For example, you can cite any subpart of Fig. 3 in any order (e.g., Fig. 3C before Fig. 3A), as long as Figs. 1 and 2 have already been cited.
If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Appendix materials should be cited as “Appendix Fig. 1, Appendix Table 1, etc.” Do not number the appendix figures, “A1, A2, A3, etc.”
Supplementary materials should be cited as “Supplementary Fig. 1, Supplementary Table 1, etc.”

If you have any questions or are experiencing a problem with figures, please contact: JEEMS@imrpress.com

2.2.6 Label Styles, Units and Symbols

Labels must be prepared according to our in‐house style, be phrased in accordance with the manuscript, and be free of spelling and other language errors.

*: Correspondence.

†: These authors contributed equally.

§: The author's own special request.

The SI system of units is preferred. For detailed advice please refer to the guidelines in Baron DN, Clark HM. Units, Symbols, and Abbreviations: A Guide for Authors and Editors in Medicine and Related Sciences, 6th edn (2008). CRC Press, ISBN 9781853156243.

Notes:

Always use a leading zero (0) before decimal points: 0.5 NOT .5.
Decimal points must use a full stop/period (.) NOT a comma (,).
A space must be inserted before measurement units: 132 bp NOT 132bp, 5 mm NOT 5mm, 1 h NOT 1h.

3. Supplementary Materials

Additional data and files can be uploaded as "Supplementary Files" during the manuscript submission process. The supplementary files will also be available to the referees as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, however, we recommend that common, non-proprietary formats are used where possible.

4. Multimedia Materials

The author may submit all relevant multimedia materials with the initial submission to enhance the manuscript's dynamism and readability. For more details, please refer to "Preparing Multimedia Materials".

5. Publication Ethics

5.1 Publication Ethics Statement

JEEMS follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Management Journals.

Publication of a scientific article represents the means through which the contribution of the scientists is recognized. Along with this recognition, the authors of a scientific article bear the responsibility to make certain that their contribution is original, reproducible, and clearly and honestly represented. It is not always possible to detect erroneous nature of a set of data during the peer-review process. Therefore, it is vital that all authors carefully review the accuracy of the data that they present.

Authors of the manuscript are obligated to:

Refrain from plagiarism (total or partial submission of the work of others).
Refrain from fabricating (falsifying) data.
Refrain from dishonesty (altering or suppressing information).
Refrain from submitting information previously published or under consideration for publication in another journal.
Describe the work accurately.
Provide the details necessary for the duplication of the data by other investigators.
Include all the data even if they do not support a given hypothesis.
Cite all the relevant contributions of other investigators and references that allow interpretation of the results.
Include the source of all materials used.
If errors and inaccuracies are found by the authors after publication of their paper, these issues need to be promptly communicated to the editors of this journal so that appropriate actions can be taken. Please refer to our policy regarding publication of publishing addenda and corrections.

For more information, please see Publishing Ethics and Research Ethics and Informed Consent.

5.2 Neutrality

Potential disputes over borders and territories may have particular relevance for authors in describing their research or in an author or editor correspondence address, and such issues should be respected. Content decisions are an editorial matter and where there is a potential or perceived dispute or complaint, the editorial team will attempt to come to a resolution that satisfies all parties involved.

JEEMS stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

5.3 Citation

Research articles and non-research articles (e.g., Research Notes, Book Reviews, Conference Report) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made, see more guidelines about Citation.

6. Authorship

6.1 Author Contributions

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified, and initials should be used to refer to each author’s contribution. If any changes to the list of authors of a manuscript are necessary after the initial submission but before publication, the corresponding author must contact the journal staff and provide a clear reason for the change.

JEEMS will individually inform anyone who is added or removed from the author list.

See more details about authorship.

7. Copyright/Open Access

Starting from 2025, all JEEMS papers are published as Open Access articles under the unrestrictive CC-BY license. The copyright is retained by the author(s).

IMR Press will insert the following note in the footer of the first page of the published text:

8. Reviewer Recommendation

Authors can recommend two peers who could potentially be called upon to review the submitted manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to):

The reviewer has prior knowledge of your submission.
The reviewer has recently collaborated with any of the authors.
Nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted.
Please nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (i.e., opposed reviewers).

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

Journal editors will check to make sure there are no conflicts of interest before contacting reviewers, and will not consider those with competing interests. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest. The editorial team will respect opposed reviewer requests as long as this does not interfere with the objective and thorough assessment of the submission.

9. Conflict of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must declare whether there are any potential conflicts of interest (COIs) regarding the publication and handling of a study. Authors will declare their conflicts of interest in every published article and the name of Academic Editors who make the final decision will appear in published articles. The editors and peer reviewers should declare their COIs to the Editorial Office. See more Conflicts of Interest for further information.

10. Editorial Process and Peer-Review

IMR operates rigorous and transparent peer-review and editorial processes that aim to maximize quality. Peer review is handled by researchers and scholars. For more details, see our Editorial Process.

11. Editorial Independence

For more details, see our Editorial Policies.

12. Process for in-House Submissions

JEEMS requires that editorial staff or editors not be involved in processing their own academic work.

A conflict-of-interest section is required for all manuscripts. If there are no interests to declare for a Guest Editor’s manuscript, please use the following wording: “Given their role as [Guest] Editor [in Chief], <NAME of Editor> had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to <NAME of delegated editor>”. See more details about Process for in-House Submissions.

13. Promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness within JEEMS

Our Managing Editors encourage the Editors-in-Chief and Senior Editors to appoint diverse and expert Editorial Boards. We are proud to create equal opportunities without regard to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, or socio-economic status. There is no place for discrimination in our workplace, and editors of JEEMS are to uphold these principles in high regard.

14. Refund Policy

Article Processing Charges are required after a manuscript has been accepted for publication. The journal will not issue refunds of any kind after the acceptance of the manuscript.

15. Special Issues & Supplements Policy

Journal of East European Management Studies publishes Special Issues and Supplements to provide critical analyses and comprehensive overviews of significant contemporary topics within the journal's scope. For more details, see our Special Issues & Supplements Policy.

Updated on 4 November 2025