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Policies for Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA)

Contents

Philosophy of Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA)

Please see the Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA) Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA) provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

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General Submission Rules

Authors should carefully review these instructions. They should also feel free to contact the Editors-in-Chief, to discuss questions or problems they may have with a submission.

Submission system

JITTA is using the bepress review system that is accessible via the AIS Electronic library presence of the journal at http://aisel.aisnet.org/jitta. All papers submitted to the journal for publication should be submitted through this system.

Submission form

The submission consists of two parts, (1) the paper itself without author information, (2) the note to the Editors indicating the Senior Editor preference and reviewer suggestions.

The paper format

All of the materials for a submission, including figures and tables, must be in one MS Word (any version) document file. The review system will convert the upload to a .pdf file. Authors also have the option to submit a .pdf file directly to the system. If you have difficulty complying with these requirements or have questions about any aspect of submitting papers to JITTA, please contact the editors-in-chief. Format the document as plainly as is practical. Format it as double-spaced and single-sided. Do not imitate the style of the published journal. Author names and affiliations may be stripped from the paper; they are entered separately into the system. The initial submission should include:

1. An abstract that independently summarizes the paper, i.e., is not part of the paper

2. A contribution section (see below)

3. A complete and appropriately formatted reference list. All articles that are listed in the reference list must be cited int he paper.

4. Figures and tables should be captioned with sufficient clarity so that a reader, opening the paper to a figure or table can understand its meaning. Table captions go above the table, figure captions below. Captions should not be embedded in graphics, i.e., they should be in text. Axes, other dimensions, and shapes in figures should be labeled. Tables and figures must be discussed in text and should be pasted into the document near the location where they are first discussed.

Double blind review

JITTA accepts submissions for a double blind review process. Double blind means that the authors and the reviewers are both anonymous to each other. Authors must strip all identifying information from the paper. Consider entries in the paper that might reveal your identity, such as the document properties and self citations. A title page should not be included in the main document. Don’t worry; the paper submission system keeps accurate track of your identity.

The note to the editor

Include in an accompanying note to the editor, also entered into the system as an MS Word document, include:

1. Identification of the type of paper being submitted (see call for papers).

2. The names, institutions, addresses, fax, telephone numbers and email addresses of four people who are well qualified, in your opinion, to serve as reviewers for the paper. The reviewers must have no explicit professional or personal connection, e.g., current or former co-author, student, teacher, advisor, institutional colleague or relative, with the authors. It is wise to include nominees who have a variety of levels of experience, i.e., not all senior researchers, and with whom you are not obviously connected by institution, vicinity, co-authorship, or mentorship. Generally, JITTA’s editors won’t send papers to JITTA’s own editors or editors of other journals for review. Likewise, very high profile researchers tend to receive more review requests than they can handle; hence assistant and associate professors are sometimes better nominees.

3. One or two suggestions for your preference of senior editor for the paper. We may or may not be able to honor your request for SE, depending on his/her availability.

4. Discussion about how the paper’s contribution and quality should be evaluated.

5. Anything else that you would like to address to the editor.

Final preparation

When the editor informs you that a revision of the paper will not be going back to the reviewers, the JITTA style template should be used to prepare the final version of the manuscript (see Formatting Requirements section below). The paper must also include:

1. A title page with all of the identifying and contact information as you want it published in the article

2. Author biographies of approximately 50-100 words for each author pasted into the end of the document

3. Author photos pasted into the end of the document. Photos should not exceed 50 Kb before pasting into the document. They should be head and shoulder only shots in black and white or color.

Statement of contribution

Because JITTA entertains innovative paper forms, it is especially important that reviewers, editors, and readers have a clear understanding about what the paper contributes to research and/or practice, in the view of the authors. Include a section, labeled “Contribution,” at the beginning of the paper that explicitly describes the intended contribution of the paper in terms of the paper’s research objectives, the precise nature of the new knowledge created, and the audience of readers to whom it is addressed. The reviewers and readers will use this section to help understand and evaluate your contribution. It may also influence the selection of reviewers. It must be sufficiently explicit and detailed so that reviewers can use it as a standard with which to measure what you have done in the paper. Note that the contribution section isn’t the same thing as an introduction, which has a somewhat broader purpose and is also expected.

It is also not the same as an abstract. An abstract summarizes the paper. Its purpose is to provide a very short summary of the paper, incorporating the important contents, concepts, and results of the paper to help users of bibliographic databases determine whether to obtain a copy of the full paper.

The contribution section highlights the value created by the article so that readers can evaluate it appropriately. For example, if a paper written for ISR, (Dos Santos, Peffers, and Mauer, 1993), had actually been submitted instead to JITTA, a contribution section in the paper might have looked like the example below.

Contribution (example)

This paper makes a contribution to IS research in several ways. To our knowledge it reports on the first use of “event study” methodology in IS research. This methodology is well regarded in the accounting and finance literature, has a wide following, and has many potential uses for the investigation of research problems in IS. This is also the first study to examine the impact of announced IS investments on the value of the firm from the perspective of the investor, as measured by daily returns in the firm’s equity securities.

The study provides evidence that, on the whole, the market does not react positively to announced IT investments, suggesting that such investments do not systematically provide higher than required industry rates of return. However, IT investments classified as innovative did result in positive reactions, suggesting that investors expect such investments to provide abnormal returns. This research is expected to be very interesting to researchers focusing on the business and economic impacts of IT investments and substantially interesting to IS researchers in general. It may be moderately interesting for sophisticated IS managers and practitioners who are interested in the expected impact of IT investment announcements on stock market returns.

Editor’s preliminary review

The editor-in-chief screening your paper will briefly review the submission prior to sending it out to reviewers. Any of the following will result in the paper being rejected. When a paper is rejected at this stage the editor will generally not make suggestions for development of the paper content.

1. Not ready for review. It would be rejected if the paper lacks elements, such as an abstract, appropriate introductory front end material, an adequate statement of contributions, discussion and conclusions, properly formatted citations and references, or other elements requested in the instructions or call for papers. It would also be rejected if the form, language or other presentation elements of the paper are not workmanlike. Authors are urged to circulate a paper to colleagues before submitting it to JITTA and to have the paper edited by an English language editor if presentation in English is not the authors’ strong point.

2. No contribution. If the paper lacks an explicit statement of contribution or if the statement indicates, in the opinion of the senior editor that the paper does not make a prima facie case for contribution.

3. Not likely to be successful in review. A paper may be rejected if the editor concludes that it is unlikely that the paper can be made acceptable in one major and one minor round of revisions.

4. Not suitable for JITTA. A paper would be rejected if it is not within the editorial scope of JITTA, such as submissions not related to the IS discipline.

Review process in brief

JITTA’s review process starts with a blind peer review. Editors will generally attempt to refer papers to reviewers who will be interested in and can understand the paper’s contribution. This may include members of the Editorial Review Board, other researchers from around the world, and knowledgeable practitioners, when appropriate. JITTA editors have discretion to determine the weight they will assign to reviewer comments and suggestions.

“One major revision/one minor revision” rule

Because of its objective to publish with short publication cycle times, JITTA aims to play less of a development role for authors than some other journals. Submissions to JITTA are generally limited to, but not assured, no more than one major revision and one minor revision. This means that the senior editor will reject a submission, if after review, he or she cannot specify to the authors how to make the paper acceptable or if he or she thinks that it is not likely that the authors can make the paper acceptable in one review cycle. Consequently, it is important that papers submitted to the journal be finished and revised by the authors. They should not be first drafts.

Revision

When a paper is revised at the request of the editor, it is important for authors to make sincere efforts to revise the paper well by making the best use possible of the recommendations of the reviewers and editor. Authors are encouraged to discuss possible revisions with the senior editor. On revision or resubmission, the editor will reject the paper if he or she cannot specify how to make the paper acceptable for publication with minor revisions.

The authors should also include a point by point response to each recommendation of the reviewers and the editor, indicating what they did about the recommendation and where in the paper they did it or why they did nothing. This response should be added as a separate document to the resubmission.

Appendix: References, Citations and Intellectual Property issues

When appropriate to give credit for the intellectual contributions of others, authors should include in-text citations to sources that are described in a reference list. Normally, there should be a one-to-one relationship between citations and reference list items, i.e., cited items must appear in the reference list and vice-versa. Authors should format papers for submission so that in-text citations and items in the reference list conform to the following style.

Permissions for use of figures

If you use a copy of a figure from a published work, this requires permission of the copyright owner. Generally it is better to make a new drawing that adapts the concept for your purposes. You would then say that this new drawing is “Adapted from (citation to the original).” If the figure is used with permission (you’ll need to provide us with the permission letter from the copyright holder) then you’d say, “(Citation) Used with permission.” Scanned figures from other journals are generally not good enough for us to publish. Always redraw.

Original work

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA). If you have concerns about the submission terms for Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), please contact the editors.

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Formatting Requirements

Beginning with volume 10, JITTA has implemented a new formatting style that adheres to the Association of Information System's standard. Accepted manuscripts need to be submitted using the JITTA style guide. The style guide contains important information about the heading formats, table and figure styles, and citation and reference styles. It is the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the final article as a Microsoft Word or RTF file that can be converted to a (PDF) file. The final document must be created using the JITTA style guide as a template. It must include all figures and tables (in the appropriate location rather than at the end of the document), and author bios with photographs (color headshot in high resolution). Authors are encouraged to adhere to the guidelines for the abstract and the contribution section as outlined in the JITTA style guide.

For initial submissions, authors do not need to use the JITTA style guide as a template. However, the JITTA citation and reference styles (as outlined in the style guide) must be used. The text should be submitted in 12 font with double line spacing in order to ensure good readability during the review process. Figures and tables may be placed where they should appear when published (not at the end of the document).

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Rights for Authors and AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), requires credit to AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) as copyright holder (e.g., AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) © 2010).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) website and/or software agree not to misuse the AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) service or software in any way.

The failure of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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