From the Editors—Disciplinary Code Switching at AMJ: The Tale of Goldilocks and the Three Journals

Once upon a time, there lived an aspiring management scholar named Goldilocks. She decided her manuscript was ready for submission to a top journal. After surveying the landscape, she narrowed her focus onto three excellent journals. She decided to try a psychology-oriented journal first. The editor’s rejection letter stated: “This paper is too applied, lacks causality, and only has one study!” After days of looking up authors’ first names for reference reformatting, she submitted to the second, sociologyoriented journal. “This paper doesn’t cite Weber!” the editor’s rejection letter proclaimed. Goldilocks spent another day reformatting headers to be bolded and centered, and then pressed submit at the third journal, Academy of Management Journal. The editor’s letter read: “I have decided to give you a chance to revise and resubmit your manuscript to AMJ, although I would characterize this as a high-risk revision.”Goldilockswas relieved: “Ahhhh, just right!”