The JMP is an electronic journal developed by the Department of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations for readers at the University of Southern Queensland. It is the intention of the editors that readership of the JMP will primarily be Faculty of Business and USQ staff and students. However, works are available to all users of the web.

A key role of the JMP is to provide a forum for students, lecturers, and practicing professionals, to share their ideas and opinions. Where collateral issues of mutual interest and benefit exist, the lecturers and students of other departments in the university are invited to submit articles. In this way, the JMP is a mechanism for releasing ideas to a university readership, with the aim of receiving feedback on the submission. These submissions which contain observations on the practice of management, provide valuable contributions to a university-based corpus of knowledge. In essence then, the JMP provides an opportunity for exploration and publication across the full range of HRM areas. In addition, submissions from other fields of management will be considered. Papers that feature case study materials based on the author’s original work are especially applicable to this journal.

Students who are submitting authors may be linked with the department at either undergraduate or postgraduate levels. The JMP editors invite works from both levels and from other management orientations.

For an article to be considered suitable for inclusion in the Journal of Management Practice, it must conform to the following:

• the work must be of a suitable standard
• the work must be topical and relevant to HRM
• the work must contribute in a new and unique way to the existing body of knowledge
• the work must be of suitable length (2000 - 4000 words approx.)

The JMP editors welcome submissions for the purpose of providing constructive feedback on the author's work. It is understood and accepted that contributing authors may later wish to resubmit their work to other refereed journals, having already presented the work earlier in the JMP. Given the special conditions under which copyright is described below, authors are encouraged to investigate this option.

The blind review process requires that reviewers complete a report. The report includes an evaluation of worthiness of the submission. The reviewers are given certain options in this assessment, viz:

• the submission may be accepted
• the submission may be accepted with minor modification
• the submission may be accepted with major changes
• the submission may be rejected

The editors may use their discretion to notify contributors of required changes. Final acceptance of the article is conditional on these changes having been made.

The following guidelines are designed to help you prepare articles for submission.

Formats
The Journal of Management Practice is designed for staff and students to report back on empirical or qualitative projects, where information has been gathered from the field. This may be presented as individual case studies in the student situation, or it may be aggregated analysis in the situation of staff. The form that the article takes is dependent on the types of information that is gathered. Articles which do not subscribe to research or case study situations are to be presented in essay format.  Case studies can be presented in either report or essay formats. Empirical and business based research articles are to be presented in the typical research based formats. 

Document File

Submit the document in three (3) original copies and on disc. The document must be convertible to either  HTML or Adobe Acrobat formats. Documents which cannot be opened will be returned to the contributor for resubmission. The preferred word processing format is Microsoft Word 6 or 97 (for Macintosh, Windows or Win95/98).

The manuscript should be formatted on A4 (8.27" x 11.69") size page setup using "Times New Roman" with a 12-point font.  Justify and Double-space all material, including footnotes, references, appendices, tables, and figures. Use wide margins—2.5cm or more—at the top and bottom and on the left and right of all pages.

Title Page and Page Numbering

The first page of the document is the title page and should be numbered "1". It should include the title of the article (formatted in all capital letters), the authors’ names (all capitals).

For example;

The Impact of Human Resource Strategies on Employee Motivation

Peter Sheen
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba 4350
Australia
Email: Sheen@usq.edu.au

The inclusion of the author's contact details is necessary and important. While the readership of the JMP is intended to be limited to the USQ, the abstract which accompanies the article for publication will be accessible to a wider readership. From time to time, authors who submit articles for publication in the JMP may receive requests for copies from others who have access to the abstract but not the full article. The editors and the USQ are not agents of the author. That is, there is no obligation on the editors or the USQ to attend to such requests. Whether or not the author wishes to make copies of the complete article available beyond the USQ readership of the JMP, is at the discretion of the author. If the author requests assistance from the USQ, it will be expected the USQ may provide the assistance on a cost-recovery basis only.

Contributing authors should give some consideration to how the contact details might be communicated to readers. It is recommended that either e-mail or telephone number would be most effective in expediting contact between author and reader.

Length

Articles up to approximately 17 pages (2,000-4,000 words) including references, appendices, tables, and figures are considered an appropriate length. Articles that are shorter than 2,000 words or longer than 4,000 may be considered at the discretion of the editors.

Title

To assist the journal’s audience, a title of not more than eight words in length should be provided which clearly reflects the article’s content.

Keywords

Each article must contain up to a maximum of five (5) keywords which clearly encapsulate the content of the article, and are to be placed directly after the abstract. Minor aspects of an article should not be keyworded.

Headings and Sub-headings

The use of main headings and first and second sub-headings is encouraged. The headings should be concise and should indicate the content of the paragraphs that follow. The main headings must be centered and in capitals. Minor headings are to be placed on the left of the page.

Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar

Authors are responsible for submitting articles that are complete and clearly written and which contain no errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar.Where there is an anomaly between US and UK spelling, please ensure that the UK version is used; for example -ise, rather than –ize, as in Nationalise.

Numbers one to twelve and per cent to be spelt out; for example: ten per cent. Figures having a decimal point need not be written; for example: 10.5 per cent. Sentences having two or more percentage figures can be presented in numerical form with the percentage sign included; for example: 10.5%.

Referencing

All articles for submission must conform to the Harvard system of referencing. Contributing authors should check for consistency before submission.

Figures, Charts, Diagrams

Figures, charts and diagrams can be included in articles. Authors need to be aware that complex figures, charts and diagrams at times are difficult to convert. Where possible, every effort will be made to maintain the integrity of complex figures, charts and diagrams when placed in HTML or Acrobat  format.

Autobiographical Notes

Authors need to supply details such as their qualifications, current position, name of the organisation for which they currently work and scholarly interests. These details will be published at the conclusion of their article.

Abstracts and articles may be submitted electronically to HRM@usq.edu.au or presented on floppy disk inclusive of a hard copy and posted to:

The Editor,
The Journal of Management Practice
Department of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations
University of Southern Queensland,
Toowoomba,
Queensland, 4350, Australia.

Conclusion

Please pay careful attention to the details of the journal’s style set forth in these guidelines when making your submissions. Your adherence to these guidelines will expedite the review, editing, and publication processes.

[Up]

The editors of the Journal of Management Practice assert that;

• Intending contributing authors must not submit abstracts or articles which either they, or others acting on their behalf, have successfully submitted to gain acceptance for publication in other print or electronic media based journals;

• Intending contributing authors must not concurrently submit abstracts to the Journal of Management Practice and any other print or media based journal either pending or post-acceptance directly related to these submissions;

• Contributing authors may wish to follow due process to protect their own work by copyright at their own initiative and cost;

• Authors after having gained acceptance to have a paper published, will consent in writing for the journal to publish the article, and in so doing, accept that the editors, while having exercised due process to inform its readership of legal and ethical responsibilities not to plagiarise, or reproduce without the consent of the author(s) any article or part of the articles, cannot be held accountable for the misuse of private intellectual property on the part of the Journal of Management Practice readers;

• Where grievances arise as a result of the misuse of intellectual property, responsibilities, proceedings and cost in matters of disputes rest solely with the author(s) to action against the offending party. The Editors, Faculty in the Department of Human Resources Management and Employee Relations of the University of Southern Queensland and other members of the departments and faculties of the University of Southern Queensland and the University of Southern Queensland will not be answerable in any such disputes.

All authors of the accepted papers will be asked to sign an appropriate declaration to the above.

Each article presented for publication should be accompanied by an abstract. This item should be no more than 100 words. Up to five keywords should be included at the foot of the abstract. Below the key words, it is requested that you show your full name, address, telephone/fax numbers and/or email address, if applicable. Please ensure that your contact details are current.

The author/s will be notified if their article has been accepted. Upon acceptance the author/s will be requested to submit their article for blind reviewing.

Bruce Millett
Don Smith
Senior Editors