Author guidelines

Please read the guidelines below before visiting EJFB's submission site to upload your manuscript. You should use the EJFB's Microsoft Word template to prepare your Title Page. 

We also encourage you to visit our Journal information page and our Publishing ethics & research integrity policy for more information.

 

Preparing the manuscript for submission

Our manuscript submission system will guide you step-by-step through the process of entering your article data and attaching files. Online submission system requires the register as author role. User ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. The system will contain the files that make up the manuscript for the peer review process. The corresponding author will receive information about the review process of the manuscript via email.

Please do not hesitate to contact us (ejfb@uma.es) in case you have any question or any problem when submitting your article. Remember that we will be very pleased to support you.

Accepted file formats

Manuscripts should be uploaded as a single document containin the main text, tables and figures. Please insert the graphics (schemes, figures, tables, etc.) in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation. In revision stages, figures and tables must be provided as separate files.

The title page and the main manuscript files should be provided in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). Accepted  figures (charts, diagrams, images, etc.) file formats are as follows: TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files.

Important: Please anonymize your manuscript and prepare a separate title page file containing author details. .

Title page file

Please use the EJFB's Microsoft Word template to prepare your Title Page. This should contain:

  • Manuscript title. Concise and informative, written in English and Spanish (only Spanish speakers) with initials capitalized (excluding determiners, prepositions, etc.). Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. The title should not contain abbreviations.
  • Author details. Please clearly indicate the first name and the surname(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. In case of using double surnames, use a hyphen between them. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Provide the full postal address, including the country name and the e-mail address of each author. EJFB encourages to provide the ORCID of all authors.
  • Corresponding author. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author. Please include the ORCID number.
  • Conflict of interest statement. EJFB encourages to provide this information. If there are no interests to declare, please write: Declarations of interest: none.
  • Author contribution statement. All authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper should be listed. EJFB encourages authors to provide information about their contribution using the relevant CRediT roles. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. If authors have equal contribution, please write: Authors contributed equally to the work. 
  • Ethical statement. By making the submission, authors must include an ethical statement  that states the following:
    • Ethical approval of the ethics committee or instituional review board (if applicable).
    • Informed consent from all participant involved in the study (if applicable).
    • Confidentiality statement or non-disclosure agreement (if applicable).
  • Declaration on the use of generative AI in the writing and preparation of the manuscript (if applicable).
  • Data availability statement. Include this  statement so that readers can easily find where the research data associated with the paper is available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed.

Main manuscript file

Manuscript should be uploaded as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures) in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx).
Manuscript should be prepared following APA style (6th edition) including DOI in URL format. Paper should be in A4 size, using double line spacing, a minimum of 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins, and 12 point readable font.

Please organize your paper with the following structure: Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Thematic sections; Discussion, conclusions & implications; References; and Appendices.

Authors should write in an accessible way and avoid technical jargon so that the paper can be understood by a non-academic reader. 

Regular manuscript should be no more than 9,000 words (all-inclusive). Point/counterpoint debates, perspective pieces, commentaries, and practice papers should have a maximum length of 4,000 words and also include a brief abstract and keywords.

The abstract should not exceed 250 words. Exceptions may be evaluated by contacting the journal Editor. Abbreviations will be avoided in the Abstract. Clear writing and an attractive presentation are indispensable.

Manuscripts should have an introduction and a conclusion section, with the main body of the article divided into thematic headings. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc.), 1.2, etc.  Authors should not use abbreviations in the headings. Please define abbreviations the first they are mentioned in the abstract and manuscript.

Mathematical analysis and statistical data should be placed in appendices it is possible in order to provide smooth reading of article, thus reinforcing its orientation to business practice.

The first page of the manuscript 

Please remember that personal data of authors may under no circumstances appear in the manuscript.

The first page should contain:

  • Manuscript title. A short informative title should be provided

  • Abstract. A concise abstract is required, writen in English and Spanish (only Spanish speakers) and of not more than 250 words. The abstract should summarize the whole paper and not the conclusions alone. It should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. References and non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself

  • Keywords. Inmediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 4-6 keywords, using American or British spelling, avoiding general and plural terms, and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of', etc.). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible, since these keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Keywords are not capitalized.

  • Classification codes.  Please provide at least one JEL code. These classification codes may be accessed at JEL.

Main body of the manuscript

Please organize your paper with the following structure:

  • Introduction. This must state the objectives of the paper and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

  • Theory section. This must explain the theories that support the research, showing that the work is grounded in established ideas, theories and models.

  • Sample description and methods. This must include a description of the research method, procedures, as well as the reason for selecting them. Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher.

  • Results. They should be clear and concise. Authors should report, where relevant, whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected.

  • Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them

  • Conclusions. The main conclusions of the work must be presented in a short Conclusions section.
  • Practical implications. Practical implications are based on logic and reasoning. Please try as much as possible to be realistic in your description of what the results of your study might imply.
  • References. Citations will be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper, and be presented in alphabetical order in accordance with the APA style (6th edition).
  • Appendices. They should include mathematical analysis and statistical data, if it possible.

Where Greek letters or other special sorts are used, please ensure they are clear on the manuscript. Mathematical and statistical analyses should be placed in appendices where possible.

Illustrations, tables, figures, etc. must be included in the manuscript, in the correct place and numbered consecutively. The format admitted for all of them is JPG except tables than must be editable text. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and only use capital letters in the first word of the titles. All these must be properly referenced and, if any are copyrighted, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain the necessary permissions to use them.

Footnotes are incorporated into the text and numbered consecutively throughout the article.

Before submitting your work, please check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. Final accepted manuscripts typically should have less than 9,000 words including figures, tables, footnotes and references.

Funding

If article is accepted, funding information will be published within the article. Please list funding sources to facilitate compliance to funder’s requirements. Supply all deails required by our funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows: This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx]

Acknowledgements

If article is accepted, acknowledgements will be published within the article. 

Reference style

Books and journal articles should be referred to in the text by the authors name and year of publication, e.g. (Cooper & Martínez-Pereira, 1992) or Cooper and Martínez-Pereira (1992). Where there are multiple citations within the text, they should be ordered chronologically then alphabetically. Where reference is made to more than one work published by the same author in a single year, a suffix, a, b, c, etc., should follow the date, e.g. (Smith 1989b).

Please ensure that all citations in the text are listed in the reference list, and that all entries in the reference list are cited in the text. Citations will be listed alphabetically according to APA style (6th edition). It is mandatory the inclusion of the DOI in URL format when it exits, or the link to the electronic publication.

A full reference list should be included at the end of the paper using the following convention:

  • Reference to a journal publication : Aparicio, G., Ramos, E., Casillas, J.C., & Iturralde, T. (2021). Family business research in the last decade. A bibliometric reviw. European Journal of Family Business 11(1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.24310/ejfbejfb.v11i1.12503.

  • Reference to a book: Kellermanns, F.W. & Hoy, F. (2017). The Routledge companion to family business. Routledge. 

  • Reference to a chapter in a book: Pérez-Pérez, M. & Hernández-Linares, R. (2019). Commitment to learning, knowledge, and strategic renewal: do family firms manage them differently? In J. M. Saiz-Alvarez, J. Leitão, & J. M. Palma-Ruiz (Eds.), Entrepreneurship and family business vitality, 177-203, Springer.

  • Reference to a webpage or piece of online content: Gallo, M.A. & Pereira-Otero, B. (2018). The exercise of power in the family business. Practitioner FFI, June 27th. Retrieved from https://ffipractitioner.org/the-exercise-of-power-in-the-family-business 

  • Reference to a conference paper or poster presentation: Maseda, A. (2021). Women in family business: advances in research topics. Paper presented at the AINVEF 2021 Annual Meeting of SAFER (Sociedad Española de Investigadores en Empresa Familiar, Pyme y Emprendimiento). Bilbao, November 2021.

Tables

Tables should be included in the main body of the manuscript after the paragraph of its first citation. Tables should be numbered consecutively as Table 1, 2, 3, etc. Give each table a brief title.

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images.

Figures

All figures (charts, diagrams, images, etc.) should be submitted in an acceptable format [TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files] and with the correct resolution. All figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have clear captions. Please:

  • Do not supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors.
  • Do not supply files that are too low in resolution.
  • Do not submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption.  Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

It is responsibility of the author(s) to obtain the necessary permissions for the images that are subject to copyright.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.

Suplementary files

Supplementary material (e.g. research data, additional material, etc.) should be submitted as separate files alongside the title page and manuscript files. These files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the manuscript. 

Please note that EJFB will not make any changes to the material and it will not be copyedited. Authors will not receive proofs for the review. 

If authors choose to use an institutional or personal repository, they should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link to the repository within the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available.

 

After acceptance

After your paper is accepted, your files will be assessed to ensure they are ready for production. EJFB will carry out editorial copyediting and typesetting and return proofs to the corresponding author for the review. This is the opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. EJFB cannot accept request to rewrite text at this stage.

When the page proofs are finalized, the proofed version of the paper will be published online. This is referred to as the Article in press version (also called EarlyCite version), which has yet to be assigned to a volume and issue but it has a DOI and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the EJFB's issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.

When an author discover significant errors or inaccuracy in the published paper, we have the option of withdrawing it or introducing a correction notice. Please visit our  page on fundamental error in published works.

How to share scientific information (open access publications)

Open access (OA) refers to the practice of providing online access to scientific information (research articles and research data) that is free of charge to the end-user and reusable.

EJFB  is a fully open access journal. EJFB provides immediate and fully open access to its content, which means that all content will be permanently available for free without delay. There are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing publications.

In support of the OA initiative, we encourage authors self-archive their publications in open access repositories. Specifically, Spanish authors should  make a deposit of their accepted manuscripts to their respective institutional repositories upon acceptance of their articles. In papers published in EJFB, we encourage sharing their publications with colleagues and other stakeholders. For further information and guidance, please refer to the Recolecta website.

To make research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR), we also encourage authors to deposit their research data (data underlying publications considered as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation) in their institutional repositories or open access thematic repositories (e.g., repositories within the European Open Science Cloud initiative - EOSC).