About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management is the online management journal edited by Niccolò Cusano University and published by the same University. Founded in 1999 by University of Milano-Bicocca, and thanks to the active participation of leading academics and managers as well as the high presence on search engines, Symphonya is a leading outlet for academics and managers on emerging issues in management and global markets. Symphonya is published in English in both electronic and printed form with two monographic issues per year.

Symphonya is distinguished for:

its high scientific profile;
in-depth analyses of emerging issues in management and global markets;
a double blind peer review process;
free online access to all articles ensuring a high presence on search engines, worldwide circulation and a strong link between the academic world and top management, as reflected by the number of homepage clicks every year;
the active participation of leading academics and managers.

Publishers of Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management have always been the Rectors of the universities that own the Journal. Since the Journal’s foundation, the first Publisher was the Rector of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Professor Marcello Fontanesi from 1999 to 2012. The second Publisher, Professor Cristina Messa, was the Rector of the University of Milano-Bicocca and Publisher from 2013 to 2019. Finally, from 2020 the Publisher of Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management is Professor Fabio Fortuna, Rector of Niccolò Cusano University-Rome.

As an Italian scientific journal, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, is a very influential international scholarly journal, for both academics and managers, that focuses on emerging issues in global markets. The printed version is available by annual subscription.

Symphonya has been online online since 12 a.m. 1 June, 1999.

Peer Review Process

Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management is a monographic review featuring in-depth analyses of specific emergent managerial issues discussed in dedicated workshops. Academics and managers are encouraged to submit papers on all emergent issues.

Since 2009, the article review process consists in the following:

- Invited articles: written by leading experts, invited to submit papers by the Editor-in-Chief, Advisory Board and Scientific Committee. These articles are not subject to the refereeing process and are indicated as such with a specific footnote.

- Reviewed articles: all other articles submitted to the review process. Each proposal submitted for publication is read by at least one of the editors for an initial assessment. If the paper is in line with the editorial policies and the requisite quality level, it is sent to two reviewers for evaluation. Symphonya employs a double blind peer review process. Referees of Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management are more than two hundred, members of the Referee Committee. The Editorial Board selects two referees from the Referee Committee according to their field of specialization who then review each article and refer back to the Editor-in-Chief. When referees express very different opinions about an article, the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision. The review process aims to provide authors with competent opinions on their papers and should offer authors suggestions on how to improve their papers where appropriate. The peer-review process is managed with the OJS platform. As a prerequisite, all reviewers have themselves been published in Symphonya. Co-Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Symphonya is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0.

With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.

It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or journal board.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

Publication decisions

Symphonya's Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which submitted articles will be published in the journal.

The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play

The editors always evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The Editor-in-Chief and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer reviewers assist the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and are also intended to assist the authors in improving their paper.

Promptness

Any referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse him/herself from the review process.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation or argument has been previously reported should be accompanied by a relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained from peer reviewers must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work undertaken as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The underlying data should be represented accurately. The paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Where applicable, authors are asked to provide the raw data in relation to the paper under review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and where the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this is appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

Authors should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be provided. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that may be construed as influencing the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Publication Timeline and Frequency

Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management respects the publication timeline shown below in managing the editorial process:

- Receipt of the submitted manuscript will be acknowledged within one week.

- The manuscript/paper is sent to two reviewers without the name and affiliations of the author(s). The first review process takes a maximum 45 working days.

Symphonya publishes two issues per year in June and December.