The International Leadership Journal invites submissions in the following categories:

  • Research (2,500 – 3, 500 words)
  • Practice (1,000-2,000 words)
  • Education/Development (2,000-3,000 words)
  • Reviews (1,000-1,500 words)
  • Teaching Cases accompanied by Teaching Notes (TC: 2,500 words maximum. TN: 3000 words maximum, guidelines available upon request)
  • Notes (500-1,000 words)
  • Dialogue (500 words maximum)

Note: Submissions in Research, Practice, Education/Development, and Reviews are peer-reviewed with a 25 percent acceptance rate.

Research (2,500-3,500 words)
Submissions should be theoretically-based articles that are readable by, and accessible to, a broad audience; that demonstrate rigorous research methods (quantitative or qualitative) while remaining open to readers from both academic and non-academic settings; and that offer original contributions to the development of knowledge in the areas of leadership and organizations. Submissions that include different national, cultural, or international perspectives, that introduce bold new ways of understanding leadership or organizations, and that have implications for leadership practice are especially appreciated. Articles that use interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, though articles within any of the following disciplines will be considered:

  • Leadership theory/research
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Organization theory/research/development
  • Business/management
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Sociology
  • Political science

In addition, the journal remains open to bold, innovative research that draws from other disciplines including, but not limited to the humanities, the art), and the natural sciences. Including these domains can promote new ways of understanding leadership and organizational phenomena.

Finally, the journal encourages research and practitioner articles that focus on formal organizations in a variety of sectors and will also entertain articles that focus on informal social networks, social movements, social activism, wherein leadership may be demonstrated. International contexts and situations are especially encouraged from Western and Eastern Europe.

Note: The International Leadership Journal seeks high quality articles in this category, but it does not intend to compete with major international research outlets such as Leadership Quarterly or Leadership. It seeks to complement such journals by offering a wide spectrum of authors and readers around the globe access to readable, useful, bold research with which they can interact and dialogue (see “Dialogue” below).

Practice (1,000-2,000 words)
Submissions that focus on innovative leadership practices at any level and in any sector or context are welcomed. Articles that discuss effective practices, new approaches to practice, or practices that may present challenges to accepted theories or suggest means of expanding or re-conceptualizing accepted theories are encouraged. Also, articles that address exciting, innovative practices in other nations or cultures or across other nations and cultures are especially appreciated.

Education/Development (2,000-3,000 words)
Submissions can include discussion of effective leadership education/development program or course designs and practices, teaching/training strategies or materials (e.g., problem-based learning, cases, simulations), the relationship between education/development and practice, or leadership education/development in the broad sense. Submissions that treat leadership education/development within organizational or other contexts in different national or cultural contexts or across such contexts are especially appreciated.

Teaching Cases accompanied by Teaching Notes (TC: 2,500 words maximum. TN: 3000 words maximum, guidelines available upon request).

Teaching cases must include a protagonist who is experiencing a leadership or organizational dilemma in any field, in any organization, in any region, country throughout the world.  The teaching note (TN) should include a summary of the case, learning objectives following Bloom’s Taxonomy, five research questions accompanied by suggested answers.  The TN may include an epilogue if appropriate.   More specific guidelines are available from the editor (jcsantora@gmail.com).

Reviews (1,000-1,500 words)
The journal will consider book reviews related to leadership theory/research, education/development, or practice. Reviews that place the books in the broad context of leadership, that challenge the assumptions in books, or that discuss books with different national, cultural, or international perspectives are encouraged. Also, the journal will consider reviews of a leadership education/development program, especially if this program exists within (or includes a strong focus on) different national, cultural, or international contexts. Bibliographic information for reviews should include the author(s), title of the book, publisher, place of publication, cost of the book, and number of pages.

Notes (500-1,000 words)
Notes should offer substantive thoughts about leadership theory/research, teaching/development, or practice, or about organizational phenomena pertinent to leadership. This category is intended to spur fertile debate and to encourage radical, divergent, and even contrarian thinking. We encourage provocative, passion-felt, stimulating thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. Submissions could address the following, for example, though by no means should these be considered exhaustive of possibilities:

  • Bold suggestions about ways to broaden, focus, amend, combine, or apply leadership and allied theories, or about completely new theoretical perspectives
  • Thoughts about the current state of leadership research, its evolution, or its future direction(s)
  • General and specific thoughts about leadership  – its scope, its growth over time, its directions, its gaps, its knowledge base, its taken-for-granted assumptions, whether it is a “field” or a “discipline” or something else altogether, and whether it should include concerns like substitutes for leadership, absent leadership, leadership by macro-level units of analysis (e.g., nation-states), and perspectives from other non-business/management disciplines
  • Thoughts about leader-less or leader-full groups, teams, or organizations
  • Ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) can complement or even replace leadership at various places in an organization
  • Unexplored contexts/situations for consideration by leadership scholars
  • Leadership: Is it becoming collaborative (shared responsibility) or is it based on mutual purposes?
  • The words we use: “Leadership” language in other countries/cultures
  • Unexplored methods/approaches for studying leadership
  • Is a grand universal theory of leadership possible?
  • Unusual leadership practices/behaviors in other countries/cultures
  • To what extent does leadership research, education, and practice address deep social needs or the needs of underrepresented populations?
  • Is “Bad” leadership really leadership?
  • Are leadership and followership related? How are they conceived in different countries/cultures?
  • The missing link in leadership and/or leadership education
  • What are current leadership practices? Are they accessible to practicing leaders?
  • The West and the East: What can they teach each other about leadership?

Dialogue (500 words maximum)
The journal encourages short responses to articles published under categories 1-3 above. It encourages authors to create dialogues with our readership. The intent is to move away from static texts to create an interactive “journal”. The online nature of the journal is especially conducive to such a dialogical journey. Responses in this category should be thoughtful, critical, provocative, and challenging to an author and to other readers.