What is I-O?

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the scientific study of the workplace. Rigor and methods of psychology are applied to issues of critical relevance to business, including talent management, coaching, assessment, selection, training, organizational development, performance, and work-life balance.

Journal of Business and Psychology: A New Direction

Steven Rogelberg
University of North Carolina Charlotte

Starting January 2009, I will be taking over as editor of Journal of Business Psychology (JBP). I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce JBP to our community and share with you some of the directions the journal will be taking. First, allow me to introduce the journal’s new Senior Advisory Board. This distinguished group of individuals has provided terrific advice and counsel regarding the vision of the journal, candidates for associate editor, and special features. They are:

Russell Cropanzano, University of Arizona
Angelo DeNisi, Tulane University
Michael Frese, University of Giessen
Tim Judge, University of Florida
Gary Latham, University of Toronto
Ann Marie Ryan, Michigan State University
Sheldon Zedeck, University of California Berkeley

Second, I want to introduce the terrific team of associate editors: 

Jim Diefendorff, University of Akron
Eric Heggestad, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Julie Olson-Buchanan, California State University, Fresno
Stephanie Payne, Texas A&M University
Jerel Slaughter, University of Arizona
Steve Zaccaro, George Mason University

We have also selected guest editors for our two special feature editions in the works:

Allan Church, Pepsico
David Altman, Center for Creative Leadership

JBP is an international outlet publishing high-quality empirical, theoretical, and conceptual papers designed to advance organizational science and practice. Since its inception in 1986, the journal has published impactful scholarship in industrial-organizational psychology, organizational behavior, human resources management, work psychology, occupational psychology, and vocational psychology.  We also welcome work from other behavioral science disciplines, including but not limited to organizational communication, organizational sociology, and public administration. 

JBP has three interrelated goals:

• To publish high-quality/impactful organizational science research in general, and especially research with an applied focus
• To bridge the science/practice divide 
• To promote interdisciplinary research connections

Typical subject matters include but are not limited to:

Rigorous quantitative, qualitative, field-based, and lab-based empirical studies are welcome as are novel and important theory development, synthesis, and conceptual papers.  Interdisciplinary scholarship is valued and encouraged.  Submitted manuscripts should be well-grounded conceptually and make meaningful contributions to scientific understanding and/or the advancement of science-based practice.  Papers will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Significance of the article
• Appropriateness for JBP
• Appropriateness of literature review
• Strength of methodology/approach 
• Strength of data analysis (quantitative or qualitative)
• Conceptual strength
• Quality of writing
• Potential impact for practice
• Potential impact for scientific advancement

In addition to publishing high-quality research on a regular basis, every 2 years one of the following special features editions will be released to promote our aspirations:

A “State of the Practice” edition.  This edition will have about 12 pieces (around 3000 words each), typically written by scientist–practitioners.  Each peer-reviewed piece will discuss best practices in a particular practice area that are extremely relevant in today’s business world (e.g., succession planning; high-potential identification). In addition, and most importantly, the piece would discuss the type of research that is needed to help in this area from a practice perspective. This will hopefully promote our science/practice ideals and further support the notion of evidence-based management.  

Interdisciplinary “Connections” edition.  A topic relevant across a wide range of disciplines will be chosen.  For each topic, four to six articles will be written. Each article discusses the topic from a particular disciplinary perspective, the methods that discipline would typically use to study it, the most relevant literature for them, and their general thinking about it.  These articles would not be critiques of other disciplines. They are designed to stimulate thought and boundary spanning for future work.  The first such special feature will be on Millennials and the world of work.  The contents will be:

A Few Final Notes

We strive for a timely, high-quality and constructive review process. We expect to make decisions in no more than 90 days after the receipt of the manuscript. 

Although JBP is a paper-based journal, it is also part of Springer’s Online First Program.  This program is designed to reduce the delay between acceptance of a manuscript and dissemination of its timely findings. Namely, manuscripts accepted for publication and awaiting publication in paper format are immediately published online. 

We have assembled a first-rate board of over 100 consulting editors.  They have distinguished records and come from four different continents and 13 countries.  Their names are listed below. We could not produce the journal without them.

If you are interested in doing ad hoc reviews, contact me at rogelberg@ uncc.edu or our excellent student assistant editors Marisa Adelman (madelman@uncc.edu) and David Askay daskay@uncc.edu).
                                                             
We look forward to reviewing your excellent work.