Editor's Notes

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21320
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Mark A. Hager

EDITOR'S NOTES

The first half of 2018 has been busy at Nonprofit Management & Leadership. In my last editorial, I

mentioned that 2017 was a record year for submissions, at 174. On May 12, 2018, we received our

66

th

new manuscript submission. Last year, we did not receive the 66

th

submission until June 22

nd

.

This suggests that we are not only on pace for another record year, but that we’re on pace to shatter

that record.

This quarter, I list and discuss a small assortment of questions that authors periodically bring to

me. I have also discussed each of these issues privately with authors or reviewers on more than one

occasion, so maybe there is value in posting the discussion publicly. Spoiler alert: As much as I like

to say yes to authors whenever I can, the answer to all four questions below is no.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

My paper appeared in a discussion paper series.

My paper was “published”in an official conference proceedings.

Much of my paper was “published”by my university academic center as a research report.

Q: Does this disqualify my paper from consideration at your journal?

A: No. Although journals’policies differ on these questions, none of these would disqualify

your manuscript from consideration at Nonprofit Management & Leadership, at least under my

editorship. If your paper, or any portion of it, has been published elsewhere, then it is either disqua-

lified or needs to properly attribute the overlap to the prior publication, depending on the nature

and degree of overlap. However, in the three cases noted above, the standard for prior publication

has not usually been satisfied, so your paper is likely still a candidate for academic journal

publication.

That said, once your paper has been accepted and displayed in Early View, it enters the scholarly

literature and is a candidate for citation. Authors who have control over earlier versions of the work

(such as entries in discussion paper series) may want to remove those versions from public view.

Leaving them visible to Google runs the risk that future authors will continue to find and cite your

working paper, while you should prefer that they cite your shiny new publication instead.

Q: Can I submit a given manuscript to more than one journal at a time? Since the odds of having

a paper accepted at a particular journal are against me, this could sure save me some time.

A: No. No, no. In all academic fields, this is considered a serious breach of propriety. Like most

journals, Nonprofit Management & Leadership asks authors in the submission process to confirm

that they are submitting original work that is not under consideration by another publication. The

checkbox in our Manuscript Central system requires a positive response to “confirm that the manu-

script has been submitted solely to this journal and not published, in press, or submitted

elsewhere.”

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21320

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