Research Methods Division News

Those who attended the Research Methods Division business meeting at the August 2007 Academy of Management (AOM) conference were able to receive updated information regarding ORM's operations and recent successes.  Once again, ORM was highly visible at the AOM meetings and the number of submissions, prestige, and reputation of the journal are improving constantly. As is usual now, ORM was invited to be part of panels of editors organized by the majority of the largest divisions of the Academy of Management.

Below are some updates regarding Organizational Research Methods:
  

• For a limited time only (through September 30, 2007), Sage Publications offered ALL articles ever published in ORM available electronically free of charge. This feature also includes manuscripts that have been accepted for publication but have not yet appeared in print (click on OnlineFirst to view, download, and/or print these manuscripts). These manuscripts have been copy-edited and proof-read so that the version of the manuscript available online is identical to the article that will eventually be published. To take advantage of this offer, please register for free at https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register?registration=FT1079234 <https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register?registration=FT1079234>
• The July 2007 Thomson Scientific Journal Citation Reports for 2006 assigned ORM an overall impact factor of 1.53 and ranked ORM 21st out of 78 journals (73rd percentile) in the Management category and 15th out of 54 journals (72nd percentile) in the Applied Psychology category.  This information regarding ORM's most recent impact factor confirms ORM's visibility and influence as previously noted by results of a journal prestige study which placed ORM in the top-10 list of most prestigious journals (Zickar & Highhouse, 2001). The speed at which ORM has positioned itself among the group of elite scholarly journals is an achievement that few publications can claim.
• In calendar year 2006, ORM received more than 120 new submissions. Based on the number of submissions received in calendar year 2007 as of the writing of this editorial, the yearly number of new submissions has become fairly stable and ranges from about 120 to about 130.
• Since January 1, 2005, the average turnaround time from new manuscript submission to authors receiving a decision letter is approximately 50 days (yes, you read this correctly, turnaround time is just over 6 weeks!).  The vast majority of authors submitting papers to ORM receive comments from 3 reviewers. The acceptance rate is about 10-20%.
• ORM has published the following feature topics in 2007: (a) Nonresponse to Organizational Surveys (guest editors: Rogelberg & Stanton; April 2007 issue), and (b) Multilevel Methods and Statistics (guest editors: Bliese, Chan, & Ployhart; October 2007 issue). ORM will publish the following feature topics in 2008: (a) Meta-analysis (guest editors: Williams & Aguinis, January 2008 issue), (b) Mediational Inferences in Organizational Research (guest editors: Bergh, DeShon, & Mathieu), (c) Determining the Quality of Qualitative Research (guest editors: Easterby-Smith, Golden-Biddle, & Locke), and (d) Methodological Issues in Strategic Management Research (guest editors: Bergh, Boyd, & Ketchen). These feature topics reflect the broad interests of ORM's readership including qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as micro- and macro-level issues.
• We have revamped ORM's web site (see http://orm.sagepub.com <http://orm.sagepub.com/> ). If your library subscribes to ORM, you can download full-text articles (in pdf format) and conduct searches using various parameters (keywords, author, etc.). If your library does not subscribe to ORM, please forward the following link to your librarian showing various subscription options: http://www.sagepublications.com/subscriptioninfo.htm <http://www.sagepublications.com/subscriptioninfo.htm>
• You can receive ORM's table of contents via email a few weeks prior to the publication of each issue free of charge. For information on how to do this, please visit https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register <https://online.sagepub.com/cgi/register>
• ORM is now using a web-based system for processing new manuscripts. Information on the new manuscript submission process is available at ORM's website (http://orm.sagepub.com <http://orm.sagepub.com/> ).

Finally, we would also like to report on the recipients of ORM awards for 2006. First, after a very careful process involving the entire ORM editorial board, the 2006 Best Article of the Year Award went to Charles E. Lance, Marcus M. Butts, and Lawrence C. Michels (all at the University of Georgia) for their article titled 'The Sources of Four Commonly Reported Cutoff Criteria: What Did They Really Say?' (vol. 9, pp. 202-220).  Also, after careful deliberations with the associate editors, the 2006 Best Reviewer of the Year Award went to Philip Bobko (Gettysburg College), James M. LeBreton (Purdue University), and Michael G. Pratt (University of Illinois).  Both decisions were extremely difficult given the very large number of highly deserving nominees.

In sum, ORM is doing very well. Please feel free to disseminate the information included in this editorial to colleagues and doctoral students. Given our turnaround time of just over 6 weeks and increasing visibility, reputation, and impact, we hope prospective authors will find it very appealing to continue to send their best methodological work to ORM.

As always, do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or ideas on how to improve ORM. We look forward to your continued support of ORM as authors, reviewers, and readers.

Herman Aguinis, Editor
Robert J. Vandenberg, Incoming Editor
Organizational Research Methods
http://orm.sagepub.com <http://orm.sagepub.com/>