About This Journal & Calls for Submissions
About the Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, is concerned with advances in the study of leadership. We seek to inform scholars interested in the historical, present-day, and ethical implications of leadership (i.e., leadership as it was, is, and ought to be). To this end, IJLS promotes both quantitative and qualitative, theoretical research-based inquiries into the study of leadership in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. The journal and its authors emphasize explorations into continuities and changes not just in leadership, but also the field of leadership studies. IJLS focuses intently on interdisciplinary research into matters of leadership and comparative approaches to leadership studies.
Call for Papers for Issue 3: What's Wrong (and Right) with Leadership Studies
The study of leadership has been at the center of learned reflection for millennia. As an academic discipline, however, leadership studies is--when compared to other fields of study—only decades old. On the one hand, a sizeable portion of the field has been dedicated to developing leaders. More specifically, leadership studies has focused almost entirely on building evidence-based, best practices for developing organizational, group-based, and individual leaders. The field, in this way, has been not merely practical, but applied. On the other hand, in recent years, scholars are increasingly using leadership as a lens to study aspects of human societies and culture—a framework to think more intently about humanity as it was, as it is, and as it should be. Leadership studies is asking better questions about the nature of humanity, how humans live together, and how people influence the course of history. We believe, after nearly half a century, it is time to reflect on precisely how far the field has come and where it needs to go. How has leadership studies developed recently and what do those developments tell us about the field’s glaring omissions?
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. In addition to the Open Call for Papers (below), the Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. For this journal’s third volume, we are currently accepting paper proposals that question the state of leadership studies as an academic discipline. More specifically, we invite papers that question where the field of leaderships studies is currently, what the field lacks, and, perhaps, what the field has gotten wrong.
We welcome both collaborative and individual-based papers. Submissions must be received by October 1, 2024 for inclusion in the 2024 issue (Volume 3). Papers must be submitted using this online portal and follow the guidelines outlined at Submission Guidelines.
Call for Papers for Issue 4 (2025): Politics and Leadership, Leadership Studies and Politics
Politics and leadership: two subjects that are commonly known, yet also deeply misunderstood. Politics is not merely the activities of official decision-makers and the ideas (and people) that give rise to them, but also, more broadly, how human groups determine who gets what (and under what circumstances—by consent or coercion). What if leadership is not entirely a person or position? Perhaps, leadership is a negotiation— a complex moral relationship between people that is predicated on role agreement. We might say, then, that leadership is a dynamic process that cannot be separated from the politics of human groups. Leadership, in this way, is very fundamentally political.
In times increasingly characterized by deepening polarization, partisan gridlock, humanitarian crises, climate change, and any number of national/international conflicts, for our fourth issue, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership studies invites scholars to think about the relationship between politics and leadership. We are currently seeking papers that question how we imagine politics and leadership more generally and think about the centrality of political thinking to leadership studies. This edition also encourages papers that contemplate and question how politics and leadership got us to this point. We are also interested in submissions that consider what politics and leadership might look in the future, particularly in the light of the present.
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. In addition to the Open Call for Papers (below), the Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. For our journal’s fourth volume, we are currently accepting paper proposals that question the state of leadership and politics.
We welcome both collaborative and individual-based papers. Submissions must be received by or before October 1, 2025 for inclusion in the 2025 issue (Volume 4). Papers must be submitted using this online portal and follow the guidelines outlined at Submission Guidelines.
Open Call for Papers
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. We are currently accepting paper proposals on all research-based, quantitative and qualitative topics regarding leadership and leadership studies. We welcome both collaborative and single-authored papers. Papers must be submitted using this online portal and follow the guidelines outlined at Submission Guidelines.
Open Call for Commentaries
The "Commentaries" section of IJLS is designed for a more casual, yet still scholarly, approach to modern topics relevant to leadership studies, including contemporary social, political, or philosophical debates, popular culture, or new innovations in science, technology, or business. Pieces for "Commentaries" should be designed to help scholars and teachers think about and have access to new ideas that are still percolating, ideas that reach across disciplinary boundaries, and ideas that might be more accessible to undergraduate or high school students without an extensive background in leadership studies. Submissions should be grounded in evidence, but may be more casual in tone, have less extensive citations, and be shorter in length than a standard academic article in the author's field. Submissions should be made using the online portal and otherwise follow the guidelines at Submission Guidelines.
Open Call for Book Reviews
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, aspires to keep scholars of leadership studies abreast of the newest scholarship in the field. We aim to raise awareness about new books and their usefulness to the study of leadership by a rigorous process of assessment. Reviews of books and the books under review should focus squarely on interdisciplinary material that advances and contextualizes our understanding of leadership and leadership studies. To this end, we welcome both solicited and unsolicited book reviews (the latter subject to approval by our editorial board). These reviews vary in length from 500 to 1000 words. For reviews of single-authored monographs, the standard length is 500 words; for multi-authored, edited volumes and essays, the standard length is 1000 words. For more information on the IJLS book review guidelines, please review our Submission Guidelines.
Open Call for Special Issues
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, seeks fully-edited Special Issue proposals to be published in the same year as our regular issues. Proposals for Special Issues should include a 250-500 word description of the theme or topic of the issue along with a drafted call for submissions to the Issue or abstracts for all proposed chapters (if the issue is already fully planned). All articles for Special Issues will be subject to peer review, as well as the editorial review of the editors in charge of the Special Issues. Special Issue proposals should be submitted using this online portal and follow the guidelines outlined at Submission Guidelines.