Strategic Management Journal Submission Guide

Source: SMJ on Wiley, Strategic Management Society, Clarivate JCR 2024, accessed April 2026.

This is the SMJ-specific structural detail authors most often miss:

The strategic implication: pure-entrepreneurship strategy papers fit SEJ; pure-international strategy papers fit GSJ; broad strategy fits SMJ. Authors should articulate the SMS-journal choice in the cover letter.

Three operational signals govern editorial assessment:

1. Strategy specialization. SMJ requires substantive strategy contribution. Pure-OB or pure-management work without strategy framing faces redirection.

2. Methodological rigor. Whether quantitative-empirical, qualitative-case, or modeling work, methods must be top-tier.

3. Theoretical contribution. SMJ weights novel theoretical advance, not just empirical findings.

Recent SMJ issues span:

• Dynamic capabilities and strategic change

• Corporate governance and firm performance

• Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

• Innovation strategy and technology adoption

• International strategy and FDI

• Sustainability strategy and ESG

• Behavioral strategy and managerial cognition

• Platform strategy and ecosystem dynamics

For specific recent papers and DOIs, see SMJ on Wiley. Representative recent papers:

• 10.1002/smj.3489

• 10.1002/smj.3567

• 10.1002/smj.3623

• Initial decision: typically 6-10 weeks

• First decision after review: typically 12-16 weeks

• Revision rounds: typically 2-3 major revisions to acceptance

• Time to publication after acceptance: months (Early View available)

Start with the official rules for upload mechanics, then judge the draft itself. The review tells you whether your paper clears the Strategic Management Journal fit check before upload, especially around strategy framing thin, wrong SMS journal chosen, and theoretical contribution incremental. Paid Manusights reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

Three patterns generate the most consistent rejections.

Strategy framing thin

SMJ requires substantive strategy contribution. The fix is to articulate the strategy contribution explicitly.

Check strategy framing thin before submitting to Strategic Management Journal →

Wrong SMS journal chosen

SMJ competes with SEJ (entrepreneurship) and GSJ (international). The fix is informed routing.

Check wrong sms journal chosen before submitting to Strategic Management Journal →

Theoretical contribution incremental

SMJ weights novel theoretical advance. The fix is to articulate genuine theoretical contribution. A SMJ manuscript readiness check can identify whether strategy framing, theoretical contribution, and SMS-journal alignment align before submission.

Check theoretical contribution incremental before submitting to Strategic Management Journal →

SMJ requires these at first submission:

• main manuscript file fully anonymized for double-blind peer review (no author names, no institutional affiliations, no acknowledgements, self-citations suppressed or written in third person)

• separate title page with author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, and contact information (uploaded separately so reviewers do not see it)

• cover letter establishing the strategy contribution and the SMS-journal-fit (SMJ for broad strategy; SEJ for entrepreneurship-strategy intersection; GSJ for international strategy)

• structured abstract per Wiley convention

• author CRediT contribution statement (uploaded with the title page, not the anonymized manuscript)

• competing-interests declaration covering financial relationships, industry consulting, equity, and any editorial-board-member conflicts that should route the manuscript to a non-conflicted Co-Editor

• ethics statement for human-subjects research (qualitative interviews, survey data, archival studies with identifiable individuals)

• self-plagiarism disclosure: SMJ asks authors to cite all their prior relevant research and disclose any overlap in data with their prior work (the journal will not knowingly publish self-plagiarized research)

• data and code availability statements with deposit references (OSF, Mendeley Data, Wiley OnlineOpen repository); SMJ is open to publishing peer-reviewed dataset articles for datasets that enable broader research exploitation

• suggested reviewers with institutional affiliations and email addresses (must avoid same-institution and recent-co-author conflicts for the double-blind review)

• $0 USD APC for subscription publication, or Wiley OnlineOpen Hybrid OA APC if opted in (typically $3,500-3,800 USD; many institutional Wiley transformative agreements cover the fee)

• declaration of generative AI use in the writing process per Wiley policy

• for revised submissions, point-by-point reviewer response and marked-up manuscript

For SMJ submissions, the most common artifact-related issue is incomplete self-plagiarism disclosure on submissions that draw on author dissertations, prior working papers, or conference proceedings with substantial text or data overlap. SMJ explicitly will not knowingly publish self-plagiarized research and asks authors to cite all prior relevant work; submissions where the data-overlap or text-overlap with prior author work is not disclosed face routine acceptance-conditional revision requests after acceptance, which delays publication by 2-4 months while authors document the prior-work relationship.

Run a Strategic Management Journal pre-submission readiness check before clicking submit to verify the package meets the journal's broad-strategy-contribution bar and full anonymization standard.

SMJ manuscripts move through a four-stage editorial timeline shaped by the SMS Co-editor and Associate Editor assignment process. The editorial triage pattern at SMS journals favors submissions where the cover letter names a failure pattern in current strategy theory or practice that the manuscript addresses. Co-editors routinely reject submissions that fit better at SEJ or GSJ rather than SMJ's broad-strategy scope, and consistently screen for cover letters that demonstrate awareness of the journal's recent editorial culture around theoretical-and-empirical contribution integration.

Day 0 to 7: Research Exchange portal intake and Wiley editorial-office technical check

The Wiley platform performs format and anonymization checks (separate title-page upload, declarations, ORCID linking, self-plagiarism disclosure, conflict-of-interest declarations for editor-routing). Editorial staff verify the cover letter and the blinding of the manuscript.

Day 7 to 28: SMJ Co-editor and Associate Editor assignment

The Co-editor team routes the manuscript to an Associate Editor based on expertise and workload, avoiding editorial conflicts. The Associate Editor performs the substantive desk-screen on broad-strategy contribution and methods.

Week 5 to 16: External peer review (double-blind)

Manuscripts that pass desk-screen go to 2-3 reviewers under double-blind peer review. Reviewer turnaround in strategy research is slower than laboratory science; 10-16 week peer-review windows are typical.

Week 16 to 32: Decision and revision rounds

First decisions arrive at the 4-month median, typically as major revision (revise and resubmit). Revision cycles add 4-8 months each. SMJ rarely accepts at first decision; 2-3 revision rounds are typical for accepted papers.

• Is Strategic Management Journal a good journal?

• Academy of Management Journal Submission Guide

• Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal Submission Guide

Before the reviewer-invitation stage, read the Strategic Management Journal package against the same risks this guide flags in the Manusights section. The practical question is whether the abstract, cover letter, figures or tables, methods, reporting statements, supplementary files, and references all make the journal choice obvious.

• If the abstract still points toward strategy framing thin, revise the central claim before upload.

• If the evidence package leaves wrong SMS journal chosen, strengthen the methods, controls, figures, or supplementary material rather than expecting reviewers to infer it.

• If the cover letter cannot resolve theoretical contribution incremental, compare the target journal against the adjacent venues named above before submitting.

How do I submit to Strategic Management Journal?

Submit through Wiley's ScholarOne Manuscripts. SMJ is published by Wiley as the official journal of the Strategic Management Society (SMS). The journal accepts Articles, Research Notes, and book reviews, with multi-section editorial handling across strategy subfields.

What does Strategic Management Journal publish?

Top strategy research: competitive strategy, corporate strategy and corporate governance, international strategy, strategy process and dynamic capabilities, strategic entrepreneurship, technology and innovation strategy, behavioral strategy, sustainability strategy, and emerging strategy topics. SMJ is widely considered the top strategy-specialist journal globally.

What sets SMJ apart from sister strategy / management venues?

SMJ (SMS-sponsored, strategy specialist) competes with Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ, sister SMS journal for entrepreneurship), Global Strategy Journal (GSJ, sister SMS journal for international strategy), Academy of Management Journal (AOM, broader management hypothesis-testing), Journal of Management (SMA, broader management), and Journal of Management Studies (Wiley, organizational theory + strategy). SMJ distinguishes itself through strategy specialization and the SMS journal-family routing.

What is the SMS journal family?

The Strategic Management Society sponsors three journals: Strategic Management Journal (SMJ, broad strategy), Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ, entrepreneurship strategy), and Global Strategy Journal (GSJ, international strategy). Authors should match contribution focus to the right SMS journal: broad strategy fits SMJ, entrepreneurship fits SEJ, international fits GSJ.

How long is an SMJ review?

Initial decision typically 6-10 weeks. Full review with revisions 12-18 months. SMJ's selectivity (~10% acceptance) means substantial revision rounds before acceptance.

Or see example reports before you finalize.

Last verified: April 2026 against SMJ editorial pages.