Journals, like organizations, can have cultures
that impact the kinds of manuscripts that are submitted
to them, how those manuscripts are written
and framed, and how editors and reviewers receive
and critique them. A secondary focus of our study
was therefore to examine how trends in theory
building and theory testing within AMJ corresponded
to changes in the artifacts that might represent
the journal’s culture. The most salient tangible
manifestations of AMJ’s values likely include its
“Information for Contributors,” which instructs authors
on how to prepare journal submissions, and
its “From the Editors,” which provides a forum for
editors to speak directly to the journal’s readership
(Beyer, 1987; Vance, 1967). Given the limitations of
our data, we were unable to directly attribute any
shift in theory-building or theory-testing levels to
changes in these journal artifacts. Still, we present
this analysis in a descriptive and historical fashion
in an attempt to provide some context for the trends
observed in our data.