Publication Guidelines for Scholarly Impact

Introduction

International College of Management Sydney (ICMS) is committed to ensuring their academic staff are equipped for their role by continuing scholarship that informs their teaching, learning and professional practice and, contributes to the advancement and dissemination of disciplinary knowledge, and creates a positive impact on industry, stakeholders and communities.

ICMS` commitment to scholarship is informed by the Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework (‘Framework’) designed to support the Institution`s vision to become ‘Australia`s leading industry-focused University College’. The framework has three interdependent pillars to promote and grow scholarship at the Institution including: (1) Infrastructure, (2) Culture and Capability Building, and (3) Dissemination and Impact. The ‘Scholarly Impact’ section of the ICMS website has been developed to support pillar three goals for ‘Dissemination and Impact’ through facilitation of the practical understanding and dissemination of knowledge by faculty members that benefits stakeholders, industry and communities.

Objectives of Scholarly Impact

The objectives of Scholarly Impact are to:

  1. Disseminate ICMS faculty scholarly and research outputs and outcomes to stakeholders and the broader community, nationally and internationally,
  2. Communicate scholarly research findings to participants, government agencies and decision makers for evidence informed strategies and policy development, and
  3. Promote engagement and the impact of scholarly work with end-users beyond academia for translation of scholarship into benefits for stakeholders, industry and community.

This guideline provides information for authors on the requirements for publishing in the Scholarly Impact section of the ICMS website.

Instructions for Authors

All ICMS staff are invited to write for Scholarly Impact.

There are three types of articles that can be published on Scholarly Impact. These are:

  1. Feature article
  2. Opinion article
  3. Research note

Scholarly Impact does not publish literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis or original research articles, as these types of articles are not compatible with the objectives of Scholarly Impact and the needs of its target readers.

  1. Feature Article

A feature article discusses a certain topic or subject supported with quotes, facts, and statistics from reputable sources. It sets a context and adds the author`s flavour through their writing style. Unlike opinion pieces, the article should be objectively written and not voice a personal viewpoint or feelings on a topic.

Feature articles can take current news items or topical stories and examine them in more depth, by bringing in original quotes from experts and researched facts with an angle to provoke interest from readers.

Successful features will usually have ‘a hook’ on which the rest of the article hangs and draws in the reader. This helps to shape the piece and give it a focus. The hook could be something controversial, unexpected, a new angle on an old subject, or a debatable topic with conflicting viewpoints in society. The word limit is 1,250 words.

Sections of a Feature Article

Title page:

  1. Title of the manuscript (up to 10 – 15 words)
  2. List the names, positions, professional degrees and affiliation of all authors
  3. List the contact email (ICMS email address) of the corresponding or lead author
  4. Add five keywords or phrases for indexing
  5. Word count (word count should not exceed 1,250 words excluding references or tables)
  6. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest or funding sources. If there are no conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included:

“The author/s declare no conflict of interest and do not have any financial disclosures.”

  1. A short one or two sentence summary of the article to promote on various social media platforms.

Manuscript body:

Organise feature articles in sections for readability. Typically, a feature article would start with an Introduction followed by two – three topic headings with paragraphs, Recommendations and Conclusions. Figures or tables should not be included.

References:

All feature articles should include references according to APA 7th edition style (APA style) from primary sources to support quotations, facts, figures and claims. The use of references should be selective and limited to 10 references.

All in-text citations should be added according to APA style using the author – date format. When accepted for publication by the Editor, the in-text citations and references in the article will be converted into Footnotes, listed in the order of appearance and hyperlinked for typesetting.

  1. Opinion Article

An opinion article presents a perspective and builds an argument for an actionable outcome. It is not a mini review of literature or report about research, but an ‘informed’ expert opinion about the implications of a certain topic for action.

Successful opinion articles are clear, compelling and make a single topical point that encourages readers to inquire more. They are well argued with new insights. The word limit is 800 words.

Sections of an Opinion Article

Title page:

  1. Title of the manuscript (up to 10 words)
  2. List the names, position, professional degrees and affiliation of all authors
  3. List the contact email of the corresponding or lead author
  4. Add five keywords or phrases for indexing
  5. Word count (Word count should not exceed 800 words.)
  6. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest or funding sources. If there are no conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included:

“The author/s declare no conflict of interest and do not have any financial disclosures.”

  1. A short one or two sentence summary of the article to promote on various social media platforms.

Manuscript body:

Organise an opinion article in sections for readability. Typically, an opinion article would start with an introduction paragraph followed by three – five body paragraphs and conclusion. Figures or tables should not be included.

References:

Opinion articles should include references according to APA style from primary sources to support quotations, facts, figures and claims. The use of references should be selective and limited to five references.

All in-text citations should be added according to APA style using the author – date format. When accepted for publication by the Editor, the in-text citations and references in the article will be converted into Footnotes, listed in the order of appearance and hyperlinked while typesetting.

  1. Research Note

A research note is a short report that describes a scholarly work or research with a clear methodology that can be repeated. Its purpose is to communicate preliminary findings, observations or research methods undertaken to answer a problem. It is not a literature review, systematic review or meta-analyses. The word limit is 1,000 words.

Sections of a Research Note

Title page:

  1. Title of the manuscript (up to 10 words)
  2. List the names, position, professional degrees and affiliation of all authors
  3. List the contact email of the corresponding or lead author
  4. Add five keywords or phrases for indexing
  5. Word count (Word count should not exceed 1,000 words.)
  6. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest or funding sources. If there are no conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included:

“The author/s declare no conflict of interest and do not have any financial disclosures.”

  1. A short one or two sentence summary of the article to promote on various social media platforms.

Manuscript body:

Organise research notes in sections for readability. Typically, a research note should start with an Introduction (background and objectives) followed by Methods, Results, Discussion, and Limitations (including recommendations for improvement). There can be up to two tables and figures.

Tables:

Create each table using APA style and submit as separate word documents. Indicate preferred position in manuscript in square brackets [e.g., place Table 1 here.]. Each table should be captioned with a title that briefly describes the contents and data presented. Table captions should be listed at the end of the manuscript.

Figures:

A figure can include an image of a graph, chart, photograph or a drawing. When creating an image follow APA style guidelines and ensure it is clear, fonts are legible and all elements are labelled and explained.

Save images as JPG and submit as separate documents. The resolution of an image should be no less than 600 pixels. Indicate preferred position in manuscript in square brackets [e.g., place Figure 1 here.]. Each figure should be captioned with a title that briefly describes the contents and data presented. Figure captions should be listed at the end of the manuscript.

References:

A research note should include references according to APA style from primary sources to support quotations, facts, figures and claims. The use of references should be selective and limited to 10 references.

All in-text citations should be added according to APA style using the author – date format. Tables and figures should be captioned and referenced according to APA style. Images created using artificial intelligence technologies must be appropriately cited and referenced.

When accepted for publication by the Editor, in-text citations and references in the article will be converted into Footnotes, listed in the order of appearance and hyperlinked while typesetting.

Copyrights

All written work and other materials used in articles such as tables, figures and photos must be original and/or adhere to copyright requirements. A material is original if it originated with the author and was not merely reproduced or copied from another existing work. If an original material was already published, it is important that the author retained the copyright ownership of the material.

Authors are responsible to obtain the necessary permissions to use a copyrighted material already published elsewhere including social media, websites, books, e-books or journals. Permission must be obtained even if the material is author`s own work.

Scholarly Impact allows authors to retain copyright ownership of their work one month after publication on the ICMS website. This policy enables authors to freely distribute, reuse and share their work without any copyright restrictions from ICMS.

Submission Instructions

All manuscripts should be prepared according to the writing guidelines in this document and submitted as a word document by the corresponding author to Associate Dean (Scholarship) by email for editorial review.

The outcome of a submission is sent to the corresponding author by email within 14 days following the receipt of their submission.

An outcome can include ‘accepted with no revisions’, ‘accepted with minor revisions’ or ‘revise and resubmit’.

Staff are encouraged to discuss their article ideas for publication on Scholarly Impact with the Associate Dean (Scholarship) prior to committing time to writing and submission.

Authors are responsible to review the final edited version of their accepted manuscript ready for publication on Scholarly Impact.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies to write sections in part or in full or adding artificial intelligence (AI) tools as authors is not allowed in articles published on Scholarly Impact.

This guideline pertains to the writing process, and not to the use of GenAI technologies as part of the study design or to analyse data as part of a research process, where relevant.

This guideline is based on the premise that scholarship requires academic rigour and intellectual inquiry. Yet, AI tools cannot be trusted to reliably distinguish between biased or unbiased materials when constructing their responses and/or cannot be held accountable for the accuracy or ethical use of information.

To ensure rigour, staff should apply six standards to assess their work (Glassick, 2000, p. 879):

  1. Clear goals – The scholar addresses clear and important questions in the field.
  2. Adequate preparation – The scholar shows an understanding of existing scholarship in the field and brings together the necessary skills and resources to move the project forward.
  3. Appropriate methods – A fit-for-purpose and ethical method is applied effectively.
  4. Significant results – The work adds consequentially to the field and opens additional areas for further exploration.
  5. Effective presentation – Appropriate forums are used to communicate to the intended audiences; the work is accessible by other scholars for future studies and/or critique.
  6. Reflective critique – The scholar critically evaluates their own work and brings an appropriate breadth of evidence to the critique.

Readability and Language

It is acceptable for authors to use GenAI tools approved by the Institution to improve readability and language of their own work. This excludes paraphrasing tools. However, authors are responsible to carefully review and edit the output, as GenAI can generate content that is incorrect, incomplete or biased. The authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Declaration

Use of GenAI technologies must be declared by the authors in their manuscript. This statement will appear under the published work online. Declaring the use of these technologies aims compliance with terms of use, and supports transparency and trust between authors, readers, stakeholders, and editors.

Exemptions

Authors do not need to declare AI assisted spelling or grammar checkers or referencing tools such as EndNote, RefWorks and others.

This guideline refers to use of GenAI technologies such as large language models that can be used to create a scholarly article.

Relevant Documents

ICMS Academic Style Guide

Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Framework 

Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Policy

Scholarship and Scholarly Practice Procedures

Human Research Ethics Policy

Academic Integrity Policy

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) Framework

Publication of Information Policy

 

Approved by the Scholarly Practice Committee on 25 September 2024