Author Guidelines

What We Do

MIT Sloan Management Review offers practical insights and big-picture thinking for companies and leaders seeking to create long-term value and better serve all stakeholders in an increasingly complex world. We examine the impact of technology on strategy, operations, and the workforce; seek out new ideas for managing innovation, fostering diversity and inclusion, and promoting sustainability; and address the evolving leadership skills required to navigate uncertain times.

MIT SMR publishes articles in a range of formats, from short essays and opinion pieces to full-length articles that translate the best research and evidence-based insights into practical wisdom for leaders. Shorter pieces are typically 800 to 1800 words long; features range from 2,500 to 4,000 words. We publish all articles online; a subset is selected for publication in our quarterly print magazine.

What We Want

We look for the most potent, useful, and directly applicable new management insights and translate them into actionable information so leaders can put them to work. Although we seek submissions on a wide range of management disciplines, we have a special interest in research and analysis focusing on:

  • Strategic Leadership (strategy making and execution; leading diverse, hybrid teams; skills to navigate uncertain times, and related topics)
  • Digital Innovation (the impact of technology on strategy, operations, and workforce; the evolution and application of AI and other emerging technologies)
  • Sustainable Business (business resilience; diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental sustainability; stakeholder capitalism)

We welcome submissions that meet the following criteria:

  1. They offer fresh thinking. We’re looking for great new ideas that have the potential to transform management thinking and practices. Authors should clearly articulate what’s new about their idea, placing it in the context of any previous work in the field and explaining how they are advancing the discussion.
  2. They are directly relevant to managers. Articles must offer clear value to business professionals, with direct implications for how managers think about or tackle an urgent, current problem. Managers should be able to apply new theories and frameworks in practice, assisted by detailed examples.
  3. They make a strong case. Authors should provide ample and direct support for their arguments with original research whenever possible.
  4. The author has standing as an expert in the topic area. Credibility matters to us and to our readers. Authors should have deep experience and expertise in the topics they are writing about, as scholars, practitioners, or analysts.

How to Submit Content to MIT SMR

Prospective authors should use our online submissions interface to submit:

We encourage authors to submit a proposal before writing a complete article; this gives us the opportunity to provide advance guidance on the best approach to a topic that’s of potential interest to us. However, if you have already written the article, it’s preferable that you submit the article rather than a proposal.

Please complete the entire submission form in our online submissions interface. We ask our authors to disclose any financial relationships they have with companies cited in the proposed article. You will be asked to confirm that the article has not been published elsewhere and that it will not be sent to another publication of any kind unless it is declined by MIT SMR. You should be prepared to assign copyrights to MIT SMR upon your article’s acceptance.

An article proposal should describe the article’s purpose, its core thesis, the research or evidence the author will draw upon to support it, and the specific value the article will deliver to our audience of business professionals. It should include a brief outline of the article and communicate how it meets the four criteria listed above. A proposal should be no longer than 1,500 words and be submitted using the Article Proposals option via our online submissions interface.

We will respond to article proposals as quickly as possible. While we may encourage you to write a full article, we do not decide whether to pursue publication until we have reviewed the full manuscript.

Full-article submissions should be submitted as Word documents (.doc or .docx files) — no PDFs, please — using the Article Submissions option via our online submissions interface.

Submissions intended as full-length feature articles are typically 2,500 words, up to a maximum of 4,000 words (including references, tables, and figures). They should also include a section on research methodology, which is not included in the word count. Please refer to our guidelines for endnotes in preparing your manuscript.

Submissions intended as shorter-length articles should range from 800 to 1,800 words, including references, tables, and figures. Please include links to all references.

Our Position on the Use of Generative AI

AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper. They cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing which AI tool was used and how it was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Adapted from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

What Happens Next

We understand that your ideas are important, and we intend to respond to them in a timely fashion. We will acknowledge receipt of your article or proposal immediately upon submission. After that, submissions will be reviewed internally and may, in some cases, be sent out for peer review.

If your submission is promising, it will be assigned to an editor as provisionally accepted. The editor’s role is to ensure that your ideas are communicated clearly and persuasively to our audience of business executives. We work collaboratively with our authors in developing articles for publication, but we do edit and rewrite substantially in order to best serve our primary audience.

We are grateful for your interest in contributing to MIT Sloan Management Review.