Journal of Industrial Relations
Economical & Industrial Democracy | Economics (General) | Industrial Relations (General)
The journal aims to provide fora for research and discussions on a wide range of industrial relations related issues, including employment and employer practices, work organisation, pay and conditions, labour law and state policies, representation and rights at work, and trade unionism, as well as broader social and economic issues such as job quality, the future of work and digitalisation, workplace health and safety, diversity including gender, ethnicity, age and disability, and modern slavery.
The Journal's mission is to publish high quality research papers that can advance multi-disciplinary knowledge of past, present and future issues relating to employment, work organisation and labour regulation. It promotes improved theoretical understanding of contemporary issues affecting capital and labour and the changing nature of industrial relations in Australia and internationally.
The JIR’s vision is to contribute to academic scholarship, policy debates and professional practice in industrial relations in the twenty first century. We aim to enhance the journal’s reputation in Australia and globally, through a multidisciplinary approach to work and employment issues to ensure the journal contributes to the furthering of theory, knowledge and practice in the industrial relations field.
Edited by Professors Amanda Pyman and Lucy Taksa with a team of Deputy and Associate Editors, the Journal welcomes contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, examining all aspects of industrial relations that contribute to advancing understanding of the field. The journal prides itself in being interdisciplinary and international in scope. It accepts studies of and contributions from all parts of the world and from all humanities and social science disciplines.
While the field of industrial relations is broad, drawing on many disciplines, contributions need to engage with the scholarship in this field and with broader considerations for the employment relationship and the actors within that relationship, including working people, employers, employment institutions (trade unions, employer organisations), civil organisations and the state. Such broader considerations may relate to legislation and regulatory frameworks, technology and technological change, labour market trends, discrimination, and climate change, as they affect or are affected by work and social relations.
Contributions examining traditional and emerging actors and institutions in industrial relations, as well as studies addressing the intersection of the workplace, family, community, and the state, are welcome. We urge all our contributors to locate their empirical work in relevant literatures and debates.
The journal welcomes critical perspectives and multi-level analyses that challenge conceptual and methodological orthodoxies. It publishes rigorous qualitative and multi-method analyses, including theoretically informed case studies and international and comparative papers. The journal accepts critical analysis of research methodologies in industrial relations. However, it does not accept papers that centre on developing or validating research instruments.
| Amanda Pyman | Deakin University, Australia |
| Lucy Taksa | Deakin University, Australia |
| Donella Caspersz | University of Western Australia, Australia |
| Amanda Coles | Deakin University, Australia |
| Nikki Balnave | Macquarie University, Australia |
| Larissa Bamberry | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Sharlene Leroy-Dyer | The University of Queensland, Australia |
| Tyron Love | University of Canterbury, New Zealand |
| Karin Mathison | University of Tasmania, Australia |
| Michael O’Donnell | UNSW Canberra, Australia |
| Mahan Poorhosseinzadeh | Australian Institute of Business, Australia |
| Valeria Pulignano | KU Leuven University, Belgium |
| Troy Sarina | University of Technology Sydney, Australia |
| Mark Wooden | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Søren Kaj Andersen | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Greg Bamber | Monash University, Australia |
| Janice Bellace | University of Pennsylvania, USA |
| Santina Bertone | Central Queensland University, Australia |
| Marco Biasi | University of Milan, Italy |
| Sara Charlesworth | RMIT University, Australia |
| Premilla D’Cruz | Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India |
| Jean-Philippe Deranty | Macquarie University, Australia |
| Andreas Diedrich | University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
| David J. Doorey | York University, Canada |
| Tony Dundon | University of Limerick, Ireland |
| Ray Fells | University of Western Australia, Australia |
| Michele Ford | The University of Sydney, Australia |
| Chris Forde | University of Leeds, UK |
| Judy Fudge | McMaster University, Canada |
| Peter Gahan | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Chris Gibson | University of Wollongong, Australia |
| Anthony Gould | Laval University, Canada |
| Bernadine Van Gramberg | Swinburne University of Technology, Australia |
| David Guest | King’s College London, UK |
| Anita Hammer | King’s College London, UK |
| Josh Healy | The University of Newcastle, Australia |
| Wei Huang | Renmin University of China, China |
| Christian Lyhne Ibsen | University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Jun Imai | Sophia University, Japan |
| Sanford Jacoby | University of California,USA |
| Stewart Johnstone | University of Strathclyde, UK |
| Dong-One Kim | Korea University, South Korea |
| Sunghoon Kim | The University of Sydney, Australia |
| Gill Kirton | Queen Mary, University of London, UK |
| Joohee Lee | Ewha Womans University, South Korea |
| Tamara L. Lee | Rutgers University, USA |
| Fang Lee Cooke | Monash University, Australia |
| Adam Seth Litwin | Cornell University, USA |
| Mingwei Liu | Rutgers University, USA |
| Therese MacDermott | Macquarie University, Australia |
| Robert MacKenzie | Karlstad University, Sweden |
| Colm McLaughlin | University College Dublin, Ireland |
| Suzanne Mills | McMaster University, Canada |
| Joellen Riley Munton | University of Technology, Sydney, Australia |
| Michelle O'Sullivan | University of Limerick, Ireland |
| Andreas Pekarek | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Andrew Pendleton | UNSW Sydney, Australia |
| Valeria Pulignano | KU Leuven University, Belgium |
| Erling Rasmussen | AUT University, New Zealand |
| Mia Rönnmar | Lund University, Sweden |
| Jill Rubery | The University of Manchester, UK |
| Tania Saba | University of Montreal, Canada |
| Melisa Serrano | University of the Philippines, Philippines |
| Peter Sheldon | UNSW Sydney, Australia |
| Melanie Simms | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Jean-Baptiste Suquet | NEOMA, France |
| Maite Tapia | Michigan State University, USA |
| Julian Teicher | Central Queensland University, Australia |
| Louise Thornthwaite | Macquarie University, Australia |
| Paolo Tomassetti | University of Milan, Italy |
| Jennifer Tomlinson | University of Leeds, UK |
| Keith Townsend | Griffith University, Australia |
| Peter Turnbull | University of Bristol, UK |
| Anil Verma | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Leah Vosko | York University, Canada |
| Adrian Wilkinson | Griffith University, Australia & University of Sheffield, UK |
| Sue Williamson | UNSW Canberra, Australia |
| Kyoung Hee Yu | University of Technology Sydney, Australia |
| Neroli Ellis | President |
| Anna Lee Cribb | Secretary |
| Leigh Johns OAM | Treasurer |
| Greg J. Bamber | Professor, International Consortium for Research in Employment & Work, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Australia |
| Jason Antony | Deakin University, Australia |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Industrial Relations (JIR)
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jir to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Industrial Relations will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Industrial Relations may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- Manuscript Guidelines
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
The Journal of Industrial Relations (JIR) is an ISI-ranked, peer-reviewed international journal administered by the Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA). ALERA (formerly the Industrial Relations Society of Australia) was established in May 1958 and the first issue of the Journal of Industrial Relations appeared in the following year. ALERA brings together representatives of management, trade unions, government, the professions and academia.
The editors invite scholarship from a range of disciplinary perspectives, examining all aspects of industrial relations. We publish rigorous qualitative and multi-method analyses, including theoretically-informed case studies and international and comparative papers. Contributions examining traditional and emerging actors and institutions in industrial relations, as well as studies addressing the intersection of the workplace, family, community and the state, are welcome. We urge all our contributors to locate their empirical work in relevant literatures and debates and to seek to make a contribution to those conceptual concerns.
Before submitting your manuscript to the Journal of Industrial Relations, please ensure you have read the Aims and scope.
- Rigorous qualitative and multi-method analyses, including theoretically-informed case studies and international and comparative papers; research notes; review essays; all of which are peer reviewed.
- Shorter articles: from practitioners and academics on current controversies in industrial relations.
Articles submitted to the JIR should adhere to the following guidelines:
- The maximum length of the full manuscript (including references, tables etc.) is 10,000 words.
- Research Notes and Controversies should be between 4,000-5,000 words.
- All manuscripts should be anonymised and include a separate title page: with the author(s) affiliation and full contact details: full name of author(s), institution, postal and email addresses (noting the corresponding author) as well as a short biographical note for each author (100 words max).
- The manuscript should include an abstract (150-200 words) and keywords (3-5 words).
- The manuscript should follow the Harvard (author, date) system of referencing, with ‘endnotes’ (if necessary and kept brief) rather than ‘footnotes’.
Research Notes and Controversies – Guidelines:
Research Notes and Controversies are shorter (4,000-5,000 words) than a full research article. They will tend to be more focussed on the topic they address, and they will tend to present the most recent evidence on a particularly topical issue that would fit within the journal’s aims and scope and be of interest to the Journal’s readership. Both types of manuscript should stimulate new debate, question accepted thinking and add to the body of knowledge in a particular focus areas. These pieces are subject to the same double-anonymize peer review of all JIR articles, after editorial consideration.
A Research Note might consist of contributions on the following:
- Methodological issues and problems associated with particular research approaches or questions.
- An evaluation of research agendas in a particular area and arguments as to the need for change.
- Reports of fieldwork that illuminate wider methodological, theoretical or issues of policy and practice.
- An emerging or innovative research topic or method which warrants urgent attention.
A Controversy contribution might consist of the following:
- A reflection on key concepts or body of knowledge that aims to stimulate new debate.
- An engagement with a body of literature that produces a new interpretation or proposes a new theoretical or empirical direction.
- A polemical critique of accepted wisdom on a topic. This must be serious in intent and considered in tone.
- An investigation of a particularly important/ground-breaking issue of policy or practice relating to the world of work.
Papers will not be accepted as either Controversies or Research Notes if they are underdeveloped versions of a standard article or do not raise substantive methodological/theoretical/policy issues.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
- The JIR adheres to a double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from each other.
- All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that fit within the aims and scope of the journal, and meet the academic and editorial standards of the journal, are sent for outside review.
- Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Journal of Industrial Relations requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Journal of Industrial Relations encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
2.6 Research Data
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Journal of Industrial Relations and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Journal of Industrial Relations
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
The Introduction (no heading) should clearly state the purpose of the article, give only strictly pertinent references, and not review the subject extensively. Material, Methods and Results must be presented in logical sequence in the text, with text and illustrations emphasizing only important observations. Ethical approaches to research on sensitive topics with children must be described. The Discussion should emphasize new and important observations of the study and conclusions therefrom. Do not repeat in detail data from results. Include implications of the findings and their limitations, and relate observations to other relevant studies.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
The JIR does not currently accept supplemental files.
Journal of Industrial Relations adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Journal of Industrial Relations is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jir to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Journal of Industrial Relations editorial office as follows: JIR@deakin.edu.au
Book Reviews:
Please contact: JIR@deakin.edu.au