Survey of journal editors sample the sample for this

Survey of Journal Editors
Sample
The sample for this study was generated from the UK
Association of Business Schools (ABS) compiled journal
list. Of the 23 business sub-disciplines on the ABS list, 12
sub-disciplines were selected as management related by
two expert researchers (the researchers selected sub-disci-
plines independently and reached consensus where there
was disagreement). Table 1 lists these sub-disciplines.
From the 12 sub-disciplines, 243 journals were currently in
publication and had a usable email address. Where possi-
ble, the direct email of the editor was used in preference to
the journal email address. The journal editors were con-
tacted by email with full details of the study (including an
explanatory statement) and invited to navigate to a web-
based questionnaire (hosted by Survey Methods, Inc. http://
). Of the 243 editors contacted,
90 usable questionnaires were returned giving a response
Research Ethics in Management Journals 513
123

rate of 37 %. The distribution of the 90 respondent journals
across the four ABS ranks (4 = highest, 1 = lowest) is
shown in Table 2 .
Instrument
An online survey was administered with 47 items. The first
question after entry to the survey (q. 2) asked respondents
whether management journals should require declaration
and if so when (q. 3) and how (q. 4). The next 23 items (q.
5–27) were attitudinal items (e.g., ‘‘Poor quality research
will be discouraged by a requirement of declaration’’)
presented with a five-point Likert scale with responses
ranging from ‘‘strongly agree’’ to ‘‘strongly disagree’’.
Eleven of these 23 items were framed in the negative, i.e.,
against declaration. The next 13 items (q. 28–40) were
questions about their journals current and planned practice.
Two questions (q. 41–42) asked the respondent whether
completing the survey changed their opinion of whether
their journal should require declaration. Four demographic
questions were asked (q. 43–46). Additional comments
were requested in q. 47. The survey took approximately 10
min to complete.
Analysis
The results were analyzed using SPSS for Windows (IBM
Corporation, NY, USA). Frequency analyses were con-
ducted to determine the proportion of responses for each
question. Chi square tests and Fisher’s exact test were used
to analyze dichotomous data. Spearman’s ranked correla-
tion coefficient ( r
s
) was used for analysis of Likert-scaled
items. Statistical significance was set at p \ .05.
Results
The results presented come from three sources: the survey
questionnaire, open-ended comments from the survey, and
interviews. A small number of additional comments were
gleaned from opinions expressed by editors in email ex-
changes (arising from the survey) and used with their
permission. Findings related to current and planned prac-
tice derive mainly from the survey, and findings related to
attitudes towards declaration derive mainly from the sur-
vey feedback and the interviews.