RTM Article Submission Guidelines

Research-Technology Management welcomes manuscripts that offer insights into technological innovation, illustrate how management tools and models can be applied to the fostering and management of innovation, and give R&D managers the tools to support and promote innovation across their organizations.

See our latest:

• Call for Submissions (general)
•  Call for Contributors
• Special Issue:  User Innovation Call for Papers

RTM articles are concise and practice centered. Our focus is on ideas and information that will help senior industrial R&D and technology leaders run their operations more effectively. This means an emphasis on real-world experience that can be applied by practitioners across a broad spectrum of industries. Articles based primarily on research studies should, therefore, de-emphasize methodological and theoretical discussions in favor of explaining:

1. What the investigators learned
2. Why (and how) those findings can be useful to industry managers

Please offer enough description of methodology to support the validity of your findings and make clear the source of any findings offered, but do not engage in lengthy descriptions of methodology or study design.

We accept unsolicited submissions in three categories:

Feature articles are original, full-length, research-based articles that offer new insights into major issues in innovation and R&D management. Candidates for feature articles generally run around 3,500–4,000 words (not counting references or other ancillary material), although we will occasionally publish truly groundbreaking pieces as long as 5,000 words. Feature article submissions undergo a rigorous peer-review and editing process. Very few papers over 4,500 words are sent for review, and we will not send for review a paper longer than 5,000 words at initial submission.

Managers@Work entries are practice-based articles offering models or methodologies around a timely issue in innovation and R&D management; these pieces frequently rely on single case studies or “how we did it” narratives. They tend to be shorter than feature articles, generally coming in at 2,000–3,000 words (not counting references or other ancillary material). Managers@Work candidates undergo the same peer-review process as feature articles; indeed, pieces for this department are frequently identified in the peer review and guidance process.

Point of View articles offer fully supported and convincingly argued opinions about key issues in R&D and innovation. Point of View entries are typically invited, but we do welcome unsolicited submissions that meet our needs. Most Point of View articles are quite short, generally running about 1,500–2,000 words. We will occasionally publish longer entries by recognized thought leaders making complex or critical arguments. Point of View pieces do not go through peer review; rather, they are assessed by the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor, who decide whether to proceed to publication and offer advice on revision.

We do not accept unsolicited submissions for columns (i.e., The Human Side, Innovation for Innovators) or for Perspectives. If you are a freelance business journalist interested in writing for Perspectives, please contact the Managing Editor at gobble@iriweb.org.

We also do not accept unsolicited book reviews; if you are interested in serving as a book reviewer, please contact the Managing Editor at gobble@iriweb.org.

Before submitting, please review the brief guidelines provided below. Articles that do not conform to our requirements may be returned unread.

After an initial evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief, feature articles and Managers@Work articles will be sent for review by our Board of Editors. Point of View articles will receive a rigorous evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief. The evaluation process can take from 8 to 10 weeks; we are working to reduce this time. Please contact us if you do not receive an acknowledgment of receipt within 2 business days of submitting or if you have no further feedback 12 weeks after submitting.

Thank you for your interest in publishing in Research-Technology Management.

James Euchner, Editor-in-Chief
euchner@iriweb.org

MaryAnne Gobble, Managing Editor
gobble@iriweb.org

How to Submit

Research-Technology Management accepts only electronic manuscripts, submitted via our Editorial Manager submission management system at www.editorialmanager.com/rtm.

If the manuscript has been published elsewhere, or is currently under consideration by another publication, this should be made clear in the cover material. Please note that as a rule we do not reprint previously published materials.

RTM articles include several components:

1. Authors’ names and short bios (50–100 words)
2. Overview or synopsis (100–150 words) designed to help busy readers quickly grasp the main points of the article
3. Keywords describing the content of your article
4. Body of article (5,000 words max)
5. References

Your main manuscript file should include only the last two items in the list. The first three will be collected by the Editorial Manager system elsewhere in the submission process, and we will request bios for accepted manuscripts later in the editing process. Submissions that include author-identifying information—including names, bios, and contact information—in the main manuscript file or in the file name will be returned for anonymization.

All submissions must conform to the following technical requirements:

• Manuscript should be submitted in .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF format.
• Manuscript should be formatted for US letter-size paper (8.5x11 inches)
• Manuscripts should use a standard 12-point font; we recommend Times New Roman or similar for readability.
• At initial submission, tables and figures should be embedded in the manuscript file near where they are referenced and should be appropriately captioned. We will request separate illustration files for accepted manuscripts later in the editing process.
• The main manuscript file should not include any author identifying information, including authors’ names, bios, or contact information. This extends to the file name; please name your manuscript file in a way that does not compromise anonymity.
• You will be asked to provide a word count for your manuscript as part of the submission process; this count should include only body text, excluding references, text in figures and tables, abstract, or other ancillary material. We will not send for review papers exceeding 5,000 words in body text.

Manuscripts that do not conform to these initial technical requirements will be returned unread.
 

A Brief Style Guide

RTM’s house style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (CMS). If you are in doubt about a question of style, please refer to CMS.

Headings
Please use headings to provide readers with guideposts through your paper. However, please avoid excessive use of headings; a heading should precede a section of at least two paragraphs.

The first section of your article, which should pique reader interest, establish the context and significance of the argument to come, and provide some preview of the discussion, should not have a heading.

Figures and Tables
We ask that figures and tables be embedded in the initial manuscript, placed in the text near where they are referenced and captioned, to simplify the review process. If your manuscript is accepted, we will later ask for figures and captions to be separated out.

Please note that RTM is published in black and white; design figures accordingly. Color, light lines, and shading will not reproduce well and should not be used. Please use Helvetica for all text within figures. Text should be large enough to be readable after reduction to one-column (3.25 in.) or two-column (6.5 in.) size.

Tables should be set in the same font and type size as the text of the article. Labels should be set in bold face.

Text in figures should be set in Helvetica or Ariel. Please ensure that all text in figures is of a sufficient size to be legible at publication size; avoid bold face on very small type.

Captions should be provided for both tables and figures. Please write captions as phrases that capture the key features of the figure and clarify their relationship to the text. Instead of “R&D Organization Chart,” use “XYZ Company R&D organization chart, illustrating modified matrix structure”.

Notes
Although we no longer use the numbered reference system for citations, RTM still allows substantive footnotes. Notes should be referenced using a superscripted number; the notes themselves should be listed at the end of the text, after References, under the heading Notes. Please format as a simple list; do not use your word processor’s “Insert Note” tool.

References
RTM uses a modified version of the author-date system described in CMS. References in the text should appear enclosed in parentheses and should include authors’ last names and year of publication. For multiple authors, please use “and” rather than “&” to separate names; for more than 3 authors, use the first author’s name plus “et al.” Do not put a comma between authors’ names and the year; multiple references in a series should be separated by a semicolon. Examples:

(Smith 1997)
(Smith and Jones 2001)
(Smith, Jones, and Doe 2004)
(Smith 1997; Smith, Jones, and Doe 2004; Smith et al. 2009)

Please format the references list as regular text at the end of the article, under the heading References. Your reference list should conform to the sample references below. Please consult CMS for detailed information.

Books
Christensen, C. M. 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma. New York: Perseus.

Christensen, C. M., Roth, E. A., and Anthony, S. D. 2004. Seeing What’s Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Articles and book chapters
Keinonen, T. 2008. Design in business: Views from nucleus and the periphery. Design Management Review 13(3): 30–36.

Beaman, K. 2008. Think local, act global: Building an effective global organization. In 21 Tomorrows New Formula: Concept-Driven Innovation Through Strategic HR, ed. Lynne E. Mealy, 1–12. Austin, TX: Futura.

Conference presentations
Presentations included in published volumes of conference proceedings should be treated as chapters in a multiauthor book; see above.

Kirk, B. 2009. Creating an environment for effective innovation. Presentation given at the Stage-Gate Innovation Summit 2009, Clearwater Beach, FL, February.

Online resources
For resources available both in print and online, please include complete information for the print version, followed by the URL:

Beaman, K. 2008. Think local, act global: Building an effective global organization. In 21 Tomorrows New Formula: Concept-Driven Innovation through Strategic HR, ed. Lynne E. Mealy, 1–12. Austin, TX: Futura. http://www.jeitosa.com/resources/ karen_beaman/BeamanGlobalization.pdf

For resources available only online, include as much information as possible. The idea is that the reader will be able to locate the reference easily and with certainty using the information provided.

It is sometimes difficult to ascertain publication date for online resources. If a publication date is not specified, use the most recent date of editing or copyright indicated on the site.