SEPTEMBER 2020

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

September brings a season of looking ahead for SBE. There are always learnings and follow-ups from the August conference. We start to plan for the following year’s membership registrations and conference. And we consider new leadership to guide SBE in the years hence.

First, thank you to everyone who attended the 2020 SBE Virtual Conference, and especially to everyone who completed the post-conference survey! Despite this year’s pandemic, the conference attracted 231 registered attendees… the fourth-highest attendance in the last dozen years. Eighty-one respondents to the post-conference survey reported a mean satisfaction with the conference of 4.47 / 5 (with 4 representing “Satisfied” and 5 representing “Very Satisfied”), with a standard deviation of 0.85. I am personally grateful to all who contributed to such a successful conference under such challenging circumstances, with special thanks to Program Chair (now SBE President) Danielle Warren, and to Treasurer Tim Mazur… both of whose dedication and expertise were indispensable for the conference’s success.

Second, the Call for Papers is now available for the 2021 SBE Annual Conference, July 30 – August 1 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You can find the CfP, a link to book a room at our conference hotel (The Sonesta), and (later this year) links to conference registration and the ScholarOne submission site on the SBE website.  The “Review Paper” submission type is being discontinued due to relatively few submissions, but I am excited to announce a new submission type for the 2021 program: “Coffee with an Author.” Monographs and textbooks are important for our field, and this year we are creating an opportunity to critically engage them in an informal, round-table format. Submissions should take the form of book reviews, but must also confirm that at least one author of the chosen monograph or textbook will be present at the session to discuss the reviewed work. Participants will gather at a table with an author and reviewer of a given work; we plan to schedule a session with multiple tables among which participants may choose. That session will abut a break so that participants can bring a cup of coffee (or water or tea, if they prefer) to enjoy at their table. It holds promise to be a lively discussion!

Third, nominations are now being accepted for the upcoming election of the next member of the SBE Board of Directors. The elected candidate will serve as an at-large Board member from 2021 to 2022, the Secretary from 2022 to 2023, the Program Chair from 2023 to 2024 (i.e., for the 2024 Annual Conference), the President from 2024 to 2025, and the Immediate Past President from 2025 to 2026.  Details of the Board’s responsibilities are established in Articles III and IV of the Society’s bylaws.  Current SBE members are invited to submit nominations (including self-nominations) via email to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Jeff Frooman, at frooman@unb.ca. Nominations will be accepted through October 15.

I am proud to serve a Society whose members have continued to lead the conversation about business ethics in the midst of social, political, and economic crises! Thank you for your involvement in our shared project – Jason

2021 ANNUAL CONFERENCE: CALL FOR REVIEWERS

The Society for Business Ethics welcomes reviewers for its 2021 Annual Conference. You can create or update your reviewer profile at this website: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sbeconference. The site will open for .pdf submission uploads later this year. 

If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact the Program Chair, Kirsten Martin: SBEProgramChair2021@gmail.com. Information regarding the conference registration and hotel is available here on our website.

FEATURE: NEWS FROM BEQ

Journal Awards

During this year’s virtually convened annual meeting of SBE in August we presented this year’s award for outstanding article published in BEQ in 2019. Nominations come from editors of the journal, and the selection was made by a committee of associate editors, which this year included Jerry Goodstein, Kelly Martin, and Juliane Reinecke. Click here to access the full Awards recognition.
 

Journal Metrics

Each summer brings updates to citation metrics intended to summarize academic impact of scholarly journals. The new numbers from Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports put BEQ’s five-year impact factor at 4.116, which ranks fifth among fifty-five journals in ethics across disciplines and professional fields. Our latest Scopus CiteScore of 4.9 ranks BEQ fourth out of more than six-hundred journals in philosophy. Nice though it is to share numbers that put the journal in a favorable light, it is important to keep in mind that these and other citation metrics draw too much attention in relation to their precision and validity. To the extent that universities and other academic entities pay attention to them, they risk overreliance in processes involving funding, appointment, and promotion. As an ethics journal we should be especially mindful of how these metrics can distort rather than assist the identification of what qualifies as premier scholarship. We are fortunate that BEQ’s publisher, Cambridge University Press, is committed to fostering better practices in the evaluation of research and journal prestige that limit reliance on citation metrics of questionable value.

Special Issue Submission Window Coming

Over the summer the journal announced a call-for-submissions to an upcoming special issue of BEQ on the topic Socio-Technological Conditions of Organized Immaturity in the Twenty-First Century. The call invites prospective authors to “consider the role of (business) organizations and organizing in both control and emancipation of the individual in business and society, and to analyze possible ethical implications.” The full call appeared in the July issue of the journal, and can also be accessed through BEQ’s website here. Manuscripts in response to this call can be submitted during the window opening March 31, 2021, and closing May 31, 2021. 

BEQ, published by Cambridge University Press, is the official journal of the Society for Business Ethics.

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