Jom Writing Style

---
name: jom-writing-style
description: Use when drafting or polishing prose for a Journal of Operations Management (JOM) empirical manuscript — front-loading the operations argument, writing for both academics and practitioners, keeping APA house style, and meeting JOM's length, formatting, and text-overlap rules.
---

# Writing Style for JOM (jom-writing-style)

## When to trigger

- Prose is jargon-heavy, passive, or buries the operations argument
- The paper reads as academic-only and ignores the practitioner audience
- You need to meet JOM/Wiley formatting, length, and similarity rules
- You are reconciling citations and references to APA

## Front-load the operations argument

JOM readers — and ASCM's practitioner audience — want the point early. State the operations phenomenon, the puzzle, and the contribution in the first page, before the literature scaffolding. Use active voice and concrete operational language (cycle time, fill rate, supplier dependence, recall severity) rather than abstract management prose. Because the work must show **operations at the heart of the question**, every section should keep the operations phenomenon in view.

## Write for academics and practitioners

JOM demands **both academic and practical relevance**. Explain operational constructs plainly, translate statistical results into operational consequences (what changes on the floor, in the network, at the bedside), and avoid theory-for-its-own-sake. A manager and a reviewer should both finish a section knowing why it matters.

## Format and length rules

- **Length:** no strict page limit, but most manuscripts should not exceed **~40 pages**; very long manuscripts are returned for streamlining before review — cut, don't pad.
- **Manuscript setup:** double-spaced, single-column, 12-point font, one-inch margins, numbered pages, **no running headers/footers**.
- **Citation style:** **APA**; any consistent format accepted at first submission (journal style preferred); Wiley applies final reference styling at proof.

## Text-overlap discipline (enforced)

JOM screens with iThenticate/CrossCheck and applies stricter rules than a single global threshold: **no single source should account for more than ~1% of wording** (outside quotations), and an overall similarity score **above 15% must be justified in the cover letter**. Paraphrase your own prior work and others' text; do not recycle method or literature paragraphs verbatim.

## Anti-patterns

- A long literature run-up before the reader learns the operations point.
- Passive, nominalized prose that hides who did what to which process.
- Practitioner relevance asserted but never made concrete.
- Padding to look comprehensive (triggers a streamlining return).
- Self-plagiarism or boilerplate that trips the 1%/15% rules.

## Output format

```
【Front-loaded?】operations point in first page ...
【Dual audience】operational consequences stated for practitioners ...
【Length/format】~40 pp, double-spaced 12-pt, APA — compliant? ...
【Similarity risk】single-source <1% / overall <15% or justified ...
【Next step】jom-submission
```