Journal of Critical Incidents (JCI)

Submissions are due by Monday, May 31, 2021. Please send submissions via Ignited.

The Journal of Critical Incidents does not publish long cases. JCI's focus is on brief incidents that tell about real situations. Each incident tells a story about an event, an experience, a blunder, or a success. Unlike long cases, incidents provide only essential historical details and limited situation development. Instead, each incident provides a focal point that stimulates students to arrive at a course of action or analysis. Most incidents are decision-oriented, but well written descriptive incidents are possible. Quantitatively oriented incidents need to include questions that require judgment.

Critical incidents can be based on either field work or secondary research. The maximum length of a critical incident is three single-spaced pages. The SCR Manuscript Guidelines for Authors provides layout and submission requirements.

A Teaching Note must be submitted with each critical incident. The quality of a teaching note is central factor to the review and acceptance process. Teaching notes are not published in JCI. They are archived by the Society for Case Research and are available for purchase by adopters of published Critical Incidents. Copies of the Teaching Note are provided free of charge to the author[s] and members of their personnel, promotion, and tenure committees.

For many authors, the ideal first step in the JCI publication process is to present a draft of the Critical Incident in the Case Research Track at the Annual MBAA International Conference, where Critical Incidents receive feedback from session discussants. One month after the MBAA Conference, all authors (whether they have presented or not) may elect to submit their Critical Incidents to the JCI Editor. Submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed as part of the editorial process.

The Journal of Critical Incidents is listed in Cabell’s and is published annually at the end of the calendar year.