Having an article published in the Journal of Advertising Research will expose your work to a broad audience. In addition to its academic readership at more than 5,000 universities in 127 countries, and its ARF-member audience, JAR’s practitioner audience includes subscribers to Warc.com. Among them are the world’s largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, and advertisers in more than 100 countries.
The Journal of Advertising Research welcomes manuscript submissions from both academic and practitioner authors. This means there is an emphasis on publishing papers that achieve advancements in both theory and practice. All submissions should be made through our online Editorial Manager system at www.editorialmanager.com/jar. If you have any questions, please contact us at jar@warc.com.
JAR is looking for actionable research findings, and as a result there is preference for submissions that include empirical data (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, or mixed). Conceptual submissions are encouraged only if they contribute major advancements of understanding relevant to advertising practice.
JAR now differentiates between the guidelines for submission of new and accepted papers. Only if your paper is accepted will you be asked to revise it to JAR style and format for publication.
GUIDELINES FOR NEW PAPER SUBMISSIONS
- Research articles should be 7,000 words or fewer, excluding references and any web appendices. Full-length research articles make significant contributions to advertising knowledge. These are typically empirical articles that include strong support (either quantitative, qualitative, or both) for, and explanation of, their findings. Research articles also include literature reviews or conceptual articles that are likely to stimulate research in an area. Exceptions to the word limit are possible in select cases by emailing the Editor.
- Research notes, a recent addition to eligible submissions, should be 3,500 words or fewer, excluding references and any web appendices. The shorter format of research notes is appropriate for insights on new and cutting-edge topics, phenomena, and methods. While theoretical explanation in research notes may be preliminary and untested, strong empirical support (through multiple studies, large samples, or both) should be provided for their novel or surprising findings. Since the goal of research notes is to stimulate new research in an area, potential explanations of effects and ideas for future studies should be included.
- Please do not include authors’ names or affiliations within the manuscript, as papers undergo double-blind review.
- Include a web appendix with any information that is useful, but not central, to your paper (e.g., stimuli, scale items, etc.).
- Authors should submit their manuscript as a Word file. Figures and tables can be placed either within the text or at the end of the paper.
- Include details on how you obtained your data and any controls (e.g., attention checks, etc.) used to ensure quality. We are open to data from any source, provided the data is appropriate to your study design and research questions.
- Authors are welcome to use any paper format, but all papers should include key elements necessary for peer review (abstract, 3-5 management slant bullet points summarizing key findings for practitioners, keywords, introduction, methods, results, theoretical implications, managerial implications, references, tables and figures).
- Please do not use acronyms (unless they are very well-known) and minimize use of jargon.
- Given our strong practitioner readership, please place particular emphasis on the managerial implications of your research findings.
- References can be included in any style or format, provided the referencing is consistent. Key information (e.g., author(s) name(s), article or book title, year of publication, journal name, volume/issue, and pages) should be included. Including the DOI is encouraged.
- If a paper is accepted, authors will be asked to revise their paper to follow JAR’s Guidelines for Accepted Papers (found below).
GUIDELINES FOR ACCEPTED PAPERS
- Titles consist of two headlines, each consisting of around 100 characters. The primary headline should clearly articulate the theme of the article and be understandable when read on its own, while the secondary headline reinforces the primary. Authors should think outside their siloes when creating a headline, so that it is clear to readers from all disciplines. Include words that will make your article easy to search for and discover. This structure is important not only for alignment with the JAR headline template, but because many databases only include the primary headline. Clever wordings should only be included in the subheadline. For example, “Helping the Hidden Be Seen: How Graphics Reduce Banner Blindness” is incorrect, but “How Graphics Reduce Banner Blindness: Helping the Hidden Be Seen” works.
- Include any acknowledgements of financial or technical assistance at the end of the paper.
- After the title page, include biographies of up to 100 words of each author including their title, research specialties, and academic research journals and/or conferences where their work is published.
- Ensure your abstract is 100 words or less, and that it mentions your key findings.
- Immediately after the abstract, include 3-to-5 “Management Slant” bullet points summarizing key implications for practitioners.
- The abstract, management slant and biographies may be edited for publishing.
- Include 3-to-6 keywords or key phrases.
- Revise your paper to use short, simple sentences in American English, and avoid siloed jargon and use of acronyms (unless they are widely used; e.g., ASMR, but spell it out on first reference). This will make your writing accessible to a broader, global audience.
- Revise your paper to use the active voice (except for the methods section).
- Submit editable (Microsoft Office-compatible) files for all tables and charts. Any photos or screenshots should be high resolution (minimum 190 mm wide at 300 dpi).
- Check that citations are used to support an argument. For example, write “Black is white (Precourt, 2013)” rather than “Precourt (2013) found that black is white.”
- Check that in-text citations use authors’ last names and date only in parentheses. For example: “Black is white (Precourt, 2013).”
- Check that all references are included and listed alphabetically by first author’s last name at the end of the paper in the reference section. The easiest way to confirm the format is by checking recent articles. You can access our Best Papers free of charge by going to the website’s Articles tab, then ‘JAR Best Paper’ in the dropdown menu (having trouble accessing JAR? Email nanette@thearf.org or alan.saywood@warc.com).