Working Papers Series

The School of Business Administration Working Paper Series serves as the pre-publication outlet for disseminating research and promoting constructive debate on relevant issues. Our series is intended to share research findings in an informal and quick manner to solicit peer comments. The papers are drafts prepared for presentation at conferences and seminars, including various departmental seminar series at SBA, and are presumed to be eventually submitted for publication. The SBA Working Paper Series will have a global audience, comprising fellow academics, practitioners and policymakers.

Access to the Working Paper Series is available through the AUS Library website.

Scope

The scope of the submitted papers spans the SBA disciplines, although interdisciplinary submissions with relevance to SBA fields are also considered.

Paper Length and Format

There is no page or word limit for the submitted papers. The language is English using American spellings. The following guidelines must be adhered to by the authors:

• The manuscript should include consecutive page numbers at the bottom of the text (exact location is unimportant).
• Fonts must be size 12 Times New Roman for the main text, which should be double spaced.
• The paper size should be A4.
• The abstract should be no more than 200 words in length.
• Footnotes are preferred, but endnotes are acceptable as well.
• Chicago style citation format should be used. The screening committee will convert other styles to Chicago style before posting the papers.
• It is the author’s responsibility, also, to ensure that a consistent system of referencing is used throughout the paper, so the reference section lists all cited sources but no non-cited sources.

Inquiries, Submission, Review and Publication

• The author(s) must submit their paper in Word format to the Working Papers Series Coordinator via email ([email protected]). In the subject line, the authorship department will be stated for classification purposes.
• Papers should include:
  • name and contact information of author(s)
  • abstract, introduction, body of the paper, and conclusion
  • keywords
• The coordinator, who is appointed by the dean for a two-year, once-renewable term, heads a five member WPS Committee representing the five departments.  Members are appointed by the department heads for a two-year, once-renewable term.
• The WPS Committee will decide whether a paper meets the criteria for publication, reserving the right to decline papers that are not considered sufficiently well developed or relevant for SBA scholarship.
• All inquiries and issues about the WPS must be addressed to the coordinator, who ensures that the process is fast and communicative.

Publication Venue and Caveats

The SBAWPS website will host the papers that are available for free download. SBA reserves the right to post its working papers on SSRN and RePec. Papers will be classified according to their authorship departments.

Publication in our series is for informational purposes only, and it does not preclude the author(s) from seeking publication elsewhere. Therefore, there are no copyright restrictions for authors in using the material from their own working papers. Each paper will be classified according to its main authorship department.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in SBA WPS are those of the author(s) and not any SBA department, SBA, American University of Sharjah (AUS) and/or any of their affiliates. Additionally, all papers in the series are made available on an “as is” basis. We—that is, the relevant department at SBA, SBA, AUS and/or any of the affiliates—hereby expressly disclaim any warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied, including without limitation, the warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Furthermore, we offer no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, sufficiency or suitability of the material found in the published papers. The users have the sole responsibility for inspecting and testing all content to their satisfaction before using them.

Licensing Agreement

Non-Exclusive Distribution License

“By submitting this manuscript, you (the author(s) or copyright owner) grant to American University of Sharjah (AUS) the non-exclusive right to reproduce, translate (as defined below), and/or distribute your submission (including the abstract) worldwide in print and electronic format and in any medium, including but not limited to audio or video.

You agree that AUS may, without changing the content, translate the submission to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation.

You also agree that AUS may keep more than one copy of this submission for purposes of security, back-up and preservation. SBA also reserves the right to post its working papers on SSRN and RePec.

You represent that the submission is your original work, and that you have the right to grant the rights contained in this license. You also represent that your submission does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon anyone's copyright.

If the submission contains material for which you do not hold copyright, you represent that you have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner to grant AUS the rights required by this license, and that such third-party owned material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of the submission.

IF THE SUBMISSION IS BASED UPON WORK THAT HAS BEEN SPONSORED OR SUPPORTED BY AN AGENCY OR ORGANIZATION OTHER THAN AUS, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE FULFILLED ANY RIGHT OF REVIEW OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS REQUIRED BY SUCH CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT.

AUS will clearly identify your name(s) as the author(s) or owner(s) of the submission, and will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this license, to your submission.

Nevertheless, the author has the rights to revoke the distribution rights of AUS at any point – thus allowing the author the freedom to ask AUS to remove their paper from the web so that they may submit it to a publication journal that might have restrictions on working papers being pre-published. AUS may still keep the citation information of the paper for the sake of completeness in the series even if the paper has been removed from the system.”