Expanding the Conversation through ‘Debate Essays’ and ‘Review Methodology’ Papers

• Author: Dermot Breslin,Katie Bailey
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12234

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 22, 219–221 (2020)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12234

Expanding the Conversation through

‘Debate Essays’ and ‘Review Methodology’

Papers

Review articles published in International Journal of

Management Reviews (IJMR)havegainedaninter-

national reputation for the strength of their scholarly

contribution, as evidenced by the growth in the jour-

nal’s 2-year impact factor to 7.6 (Breslin et al. 2020).

We continue to receive an increasing number of sub-

missions to the journal, showing that ever more au-

thors recognize the importance of reviews, and are

engaged in writing review articles.

As Editors, a number of developments have

emerged that have prompted us to consider ways of

expanding the journal’s reach within the reviews field

even further and, to address these, weare introducing

two new rolling special sections to the journal; we

warmly invite scholars to contribute to these.

‘Debate Essays’

The first section is intended to extend IJMR’s posi-

tioning as a review journal which seeks to develop

theory in organization and management studies. A

number of scholars have recently highlighted the im-

portant role played by literature reviews in develop-

ing knowledge, shaping new debates and shifting re-

search directions (Hoon and Baluch 2019; Kunisch

et al. 2018). Hoon and Baluch (2019), for exam-

ple, define theorizing from reviews as ‘activities of

conceiving and constructing out of the phenomenal

world – as represented in the review data – with ex-

tant theory to inform subsequent work’. Post et al.

(2020) define a review paper as one which ‘anal-

yses and synthesizes an existing body of literature

by identifying, challenging, and advancing the build-

ing blocks of a theory through an examination of a

body (or several bodies) of prior work’. IJMR has

been leading in this area, publishing papers which

‘make significant conceptual contributions, offering

a strategic platform for new directions in research,

and making a difference to how scholars might con-

ceptualise research in their respective fields’ (Gatrell

and Breslin 2017, p. 1).

The purpose of this new section is to provide a dif-

ferent format for authors to develop theory within the

journal, and to continue conversations seeded by the

publication of a review in IJMR. We have received a

number of queries from potential authors who have

read articles published in the journal, and would like

the opportunity to respond to the arguments made,

or present a different viewpoint. As Editors, we wel-

come the opportunity for the journal to provide a

forum for theoretical debate and discussion around

topics raised by authors. Accordingly, we are intro-

ducing a new ‘Debate Essays’ rolling special section.

This section will allow authors to question, critique

and challenge contributions made in published liter-

ature reviews, opening up conversations to wider au-

diences.

Readers who wish to respond to articles published

in IJMR may submit a short debate essay of up to

5000 words. Essays should only address articles pub-

lished in IJMR within the previous three issues of the

journal, or those that are currently within the online

Early View section of the journal website.Authors of

the original article published in IJMR will also be in-

vited to respond and this response, if provided, will

be published alongside the debate essay. The Editors

will make the final decision over whether to accept

debate essays for publication. We feel that this new

section will enable and encourage authors to engage

in a dialogue with one another to stimulate thinking

and further advance theory.

‘Review Methodology’ Papers

The second section is a new section on literature re-

view methodologies. Despite a growing number of

journals publishing review articles, methodological

advice on how to actually conduct a literature review,

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