JCRI Editorial Policy
Approved by the JCRI Editorial Board March 9, 2017; updated September 15, 2022, April 6, 2024.
Aim and Goals
The Journal of Case Research and Inquiry (JCRI) is a publication of the Western Casewriters Association (www.westerncasewriters.org). JCRI publishes peer-reviewed case studies (cases) prepared from primary and secondary research, as well as pedagogical articles, notes and exercises. The journal publishes one issue per year, and if submissions so merit, may publish additional issues with editorial board approval. JCRI publications are available online, full text, and free of charge at www.jcri.org.
Scope and Content of the Journal
The journal publishes cases that address significant contemporary and perennial issues faced by organizations and managers in the areas of business and public administration, nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship, economics, education, and public policy. The journal publishes both Teaching Case Studies and Consulting Case Studies. Cases may be derived from primary field research, secondary research, or a combination of both. JCRI does not accept fictional cases, nor cases, notes, or articles previously published elsewhere.
Teaching Cases are primarily intended to support classroom instruction, including decision-making and the application of theory and best practices, and may or may not require a managerial decision. Teaching case studies have been used in higher instruction for more than 125 years. Teaching cases are necessarily accompanied by detailed Teaching Instructor Manuals (TIMs) that are not published but may be provided to instructors.
Consulting Cases ask the reader to develop solutions to issues faced by managers and organizations, with emphasis on practical solutions; these cases may be appropriate for final exams or other assignments. Consulting cases are accompanied by a detailed Consulting Instructor Manuals (CIMs).
All cases, IMs, notes, exercises, and articles are double blind peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. IMs submitted should follow the guidelines provided at www.jcri.org. Case authors are required to obtain signed release forms, when necessary, from the organizations studied. The journal also publishes peer-reviewed articles, notes, and exercises. Articles are scholarly papers on case research, teaching with cases, and related pedagogical issues. Notes are industry or theoretical analyses or summaries of research or law to accompany cases. Finally, Exercises provide a "case like" learning experience in the classroom and may be associated with teaching cases or stand-alone; exercises are typically accompanied by a peer-reviewed instructor manual.
JCRI Open-Source Availability Policy
Cases, articles, notes, and exercises are available online at www.jcri.org at no cost. Instructors and students at state and nonprofit educational institutions are granted the right to reproduce JCRI published materials for educational purposes. The journal encourages instructors to include in their course syllabi links to the JCRI website so that students can easily access cases, articles, notes, and exercises. For reproductions by for-profit institutions, or for publication in textbooks or elsewhere, authors shall retain all rights.
Submission of Manuscripts
Authors should submit manuscripts electronically to editor@jcri.org. All submissions must follow the JCRI submission guidelines available in detail at www.jcri.org.
Review Policy
At the editor's discretion, a submission to the journal may be rejected without a full review, particularly if the manuscript does not align well with the aim and scope of the journal. Otherwise, all submissions shall be blind peer reviewed by at least two qualified reviewers. Authors shall receive reviewers' comments, together with a decision (reject, revise and re-submit, conditionally accept, or accept) by the Editor. Unless approved by the Editorial Board, no cases or papers shall be invited, and none published without undergoing the peer review process. The journal's Publication Ethics policy, including requirements for reviews, retractions, corrections, and appeals is available at www.jcri.org.
WCA Membership Requirement for Authors
There shall be no fees to publish in the journal, however the policy of the journal is that at least one author of each case, article, note, or exercise must be a WCA member for the year in which the case is published. To join WCA, please visit www.westerncasewriters.org. Attendees at the annual WCA conference are automatically members of the association for the year following the conference.
WCA Conference Cases
Authors of cases presented at the WCA conference will be invited and encouraged to submit their work to the journal. However, all submissions (whether presented at WCA, NACRA, or another conference) will undergo the peer review process. No paper - even a WCA award-winning case - shall be guaranteed publication in the journal.
Release forms
The journal shall require signed release forms from organizations, which must be collected by case authors for any case to be published that was carried out using primary research. A sample release form can be found at www.jcri.org.
Ownership and Distribution of Instructor Manuals
Instructor manuals (IMs) shall be archived by the journal for a period of at least three years after publication of a given case. IMs will only be provided to instructors who request them to editor@jcri.org when such instructors are formally affiliated with a nonprofit or governmental educational institution. No fees shall be charged to instructors who receive IMs, nor is membership in the WCA required to receive an IM. After the three-year period, inquiries for IMs should be made directly to the case author.
JCRI Policy on the use of Artificial Intelligence
Authors must be fully transparent regarding the use of generative AI in their submissions. If authors used AI or AI-assisted software to aid in writing any portion of their submission, this use must be declared in full in the instructor's manual of a case study and/or in a statement at the end (prior to references) of an article, note, or exercise. Authors must include what program was used, prompts, and details of outputs and any adaptations of outputs that appear in the submission. Authors should also include a footnote on the first page of the case, article, exercise, or note indicating that some of the content in the case was written by an AI or with the support of an AI tool. AI and AI-assisted software tools cannot be considered co-authors on submissions. (Adapted from North American Case Association (NACRA) submission details, March 22, 2024.)