brycewang-stanford Writing in JIBS House Style (jibs-writing-style)
When to trigger
- The argument is settled and the manuscript needs a full prose pass
- Prose buries the phenomenon, the IB contribution, or the cross-level logic
- Terminology about countries/cultures is loose or risks essentializing
- You are over the inclusive word limit and must cut without losing the argument
Lead with the phenomenon, deliver the IB contribution
JIBS is phenomenon-driven. Open by anchoring the reader in a concrete cross-border problem, then state — early and explicitly — what the paper contributes to IB theory. The reader should know within the first page why this is an international-business question that no single-country study could answer. Mirror that contribution statement in the discussion (promised vs. delivered).
Respect the inclusive word budget
The JIBS article word count includes abstract, text, endnotes, and references; tables, figures, and online supplemental appendices can follow. Target ~10,000 words for a strong/broad contribution or ~7,000 for a narrower one; Research Notes should be 4,000-6,000 words including everything in the manuscript. Write tight: every method nuance not essential to the inference belongs in an online appendix. The abstract is capped at 200 words — use it to name the phenomenon, the design, the finding, and the IB contribution.
Discipline cross-cultural language
Because JIBS scrutinizes how country and culture are handled, your prose must avoid essentializing. Do not write that "country X is collectivist" as if a nation acts; describe the level and mechanism ("respondents in higher-uncertainty-avoidance contexts..."). Define cultural/institutional/distance constructs the first time they appear, and keep terminology consistent with how they are measured. Be precise about whose perspective (HQ vs. subsidiary, home vs. host) a claim takes.
JIBS Style Guide conventions
Follow the JIBS Style Guide: 11-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, author-date (name, year) in-text citations with a matching reference list. Keep hypothesis labels, construct names, and table/figure numbers consistent throughout. Write in clear, active prose; international readers and reviewers value plain, unambiguous phrasing over jargon. Spell out acronyms (MNE, FDI, OLI) on first use.
Style execution pass for Journal of International Business Studies
Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the cross-border mechanism, level of analysis, institutional context, and generalizability claim; then test whether the manuscript addresses international-business reviewers who expect cross-border theory, context sensitivity, and credible firm or institution evidence.
- Primary move: Rewrite the opening and transitions so the venue-level claim, evidence object, and contribution are visible before technical detail.
- Decision ledger: return
claim / evidence / blocker / next editrows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly. - Neighbor test: compare against Strategic Management Journal for strategy theory, Journal of Management for broader management, International Business Review for applied IB breadth; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
- Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open
resources/official-source-map.mdfor volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.
Output format
【Phenomenon-forward open】present? IB contribution stated early? ...
【Word budget】count vs. ~10k/7k article target or 4k-6k Research Note rule; abstract ≤200 ...
【Cross-cultural terminology】essentializing removed; level/mechanism precise ...
【Style】11-pt TNR, double-spaced, author-date consistent ...
【Consistency】hypothesis/construct/exhibit labels aligned ...
【Next step】jibs-submission
Anti-patterns
- A method-first or gap-first opening that hides the phenomenon and contribution.
- Essentializing countries ("Germans are...") instead of naming level and mechanism.
- Ignoring that abstract, text, endnotes, and references count toward the article word target.
- A non-author-date citation style straight from a reference manager.