Introduction

Building Abt Associates’ Reputational Capital is a focus of the company’s strategic plan. Key elements of reputational capital are thought leadership and visibility.  Abt’s staff and diverse portfolio of projects are rich in knowledge and experience that should be disseminated, both internally and externally, to help raise staff recognition and esteem, as well as further enhancing the company’s reputation and opportunities for future work.

Abt is expanding the Thought Leadership (TL) Paper Series as a vehicle for disseminating  our work.  This is an open-access, on-line journal hosted on Abt’s website as well as on AGI. We plan to publish 3-4 papers every quarter across all Divisions over the next year.

The Series seeks submissions that present Abt’s innovative ideas and achievements and our experiences with programs, policies, and methods on topics of strategic importance to the company and substantial interest to the field.  They should be well-written, clearly argued, and grounded in logical thinking and evidence.

Some papers in the series may be destined for submission to peer-reviewed journals, some may have already been published in journals, and others may be published only in this series.  The initial guidance on parameters and types of submissions (below) is deliberately flexible and subject to revision depending on the types of manuscripts that we receive during the first few months.

Why the TL Paper Series?

Several factors might attract authors to the TL paper series:

·         Those with limited experience with publication in peer-reviewed journals may find the series’ process more friendly and supportive

·         The series offers a mechanism to field-based staff for sharing ideas, experiences, and lessons learned.

·         The series offers a faster turnaround time than most journals.

·         The series is appropriate for policy-relevant “think pieces” that  may  be more difficult to place in journals.

·         The series will be a dynamic forum to show and share practical experiences and results from the implementation of policies, projects, and programs.

·         Publishing in the series offers a more direct method of contributing to Abt’s reputational capital and to the company’s prospects for winning new work in key strategic domains.

Editors

Ted Hammett, an Abt Vice President and Principal Associate in the International Health Division, has been named Editor of the Series. Ted has been with Abt for 33 years, serving in both domestic and international divisions and both in Cambridge and overseas. He has a long record of publication in peer-reviewed journals, primarily on HIV/AIDS issues.

Ted will be assisted by an experienced group of Associate Editors representing all divisions and both U.S. - based and field staff. These Associate Editors are : Elena Besedin (ERD-Cambridge); Omar Dary (IEG-Bethesda); Tim Kessler (IEG-Mexico); Ayman Abdel Mohsen (IHD-Bethesda); Takondwa Mwase (IHD-Malawi); Ram Ganesan (IHD-India); Jill Khadduri (SEP-Bethesda); and Bill Rhodes (USH-Cambridge). Jacob Klerman will be Editorial Advisor to the series.

Process for submission and review

The Series will accept both unsolicited and invited submissions. Authors in all divisions, including Abt SRBI and Abt JTA are encouraged to submit manuscripts.  

Manuscripts may be submitted at any time. Authors should discuss their ideas for manuscripts with their Division leadership and with an Associate Editor in their Division prior to preparing a manuscript. They should also submit an abstract or outline of the paper to the Editor for initial screening for appropriateness and interest. Authors passing the initial screen will be encouraged to prepare a draft manuscript. In most cases, the authors will then be asked to present the draft to a seminar attended by series editors and others interested in the topic. If the response of the seminar is positive, the author will finalize the manuscript for formal submission to the series. 

Submitted manuscripts will receive at least two internal peer reviews. Authors should expect that, in most cases, at least one round of revision will be required before acceptance.  Series editors will apply the same review standards that are applied at good journals and those that are used by Abt’s PQA advisors. 

The series is committed to a fast track for review and publication.  Reviews and re-submissions will be completed within 30 days of submission. 

Parameters for submissions

There are no formal minimum or maximum lengths for submissions but generally “op-ed” length pieces would be considered too short and, at the other end of the continuum, the series will not publish lightly edited versions of full Abt reports. All submissions should be derivative products of Abt project work or the thinking of Abt staff.

Authors are responsible for securing and documenting any required client approvals to publish information and data collected in specific projects, and including any acknowledgements of support and disclaimers required by their clients or contractual language when required. They are also responsible for knowing and understanding any limitations on subsequent submission to a peer-reviewed journal that may be imposed by publishing in the TL Paper Series.

Types of submissions sought

These fall into five categories but the current list is not exhaustive and is open to additions and deletions based on experience and evolving priorities.

1.      “Think pieces” – papers with a clearly articulated point of view on an issue of policy, program, or method.

2.      “Lessons from the field”

·         Papers describing achievements, innovations, outcomes, and impacts of Abt projects; 

·         Presentations of Abt’s technical approaches, methods (e.g. logic models, statistical and econometric models, and other analytic tools)  and innovative interventions in key strategic business development domains;

·         Papers presenting the State of the Art in program areas or methods and highlighting  Abt’s contributions to that SOTA and/or to achieving specific outcomes and impacts in a program area, with careful attention to issues of causation and attribution.

3.      Review papers

·         Reviews of published and unpublished work in a substantive or methodological field;

·         Systematic literature reviews resulting in narrative synthesis or meta-analysis.

4.      “Working Papers”  that might later be revised and submitted in different form to peer-reviewed journals,  if allowed by the journal. 

5.      Reprints of papers already published in journals (if Abt can secure the rights to post them in the series). Note that these would not normally go through another peer review before posting in the series.

Conference presentations will not be accepted but they certainly may be the basis of papers developed for submission to the series. In addition, the series’ web page will include a link to other pages where conference presentations are posted.

Support for preparation of manuscripts

Authors are encouraged to leverage contract funds wherever possible. If necessary, they should also explore with their Divisions the possibilities for support from Client Development or Technical Dissemination budgets.  In the future, some dedicated Reputational Capital funds may be available to support submissions to the TL Paper Series.

Questions?

Please feel free to contact Series Editor Ted Hammett with questions at any time: ted_hammett@abtassoc.com; +1-617-520-2584. You may also contact the Associate Editors in your division.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark D Spranca, PhD | Vice President of Reputational Capital and Technical Leadership | Abt Associates

55 Wheeler Street | Cambridge, MA 02138-1168

O: 617.349.2634 | F: 617.386.7650 | www.abtassociates.com