For Libraries, Deans, and Review Committees

OATCJ is an open-access scholarly journal of peer-reviewed teaching cases governed by a named editorial committee and a published set of editorial policies. This page provides an overview of the journal's scope, governance, and standards for libraries, institutional administrators, and committees involved in scholarly review.

Journal profile

Journal name: Open Access Teaching Case Journal (OATCJ)
Type: Scholarly journal of peer-reviewed teaching case studies
Founded: 2023
ISSN: Registration in progress
Scope: All management and business disciplines
Peer review: Double-anonymous; independent reviewers per submission
Access: Diamond open-access (free to use, free to publish)
Author charges: None; no article processing charges
Licence: Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY-ND)
Authors retain: Copyright
Distribution partner: The Case Centre (non-profit; United Kingdom and United States)
Publication cadence: Two issues per year
COPE alignment: Yes (policies aligned with Committee on Publication Ethics principles)
Language: English

Editorial governance

OATCJ is governed by a named editorial committee drawn from faculty across multiple institutions. The committee composition is published in each issue. The Co-Editors-in-Chief hold academic appointments and are responsible for editorial decisions. Editors are excluded from handling their own submissions, and the aggregate share of editor-authored cases is capped at 25% per year.

The full editorial committee, including affiliations, is listed on the About page.

Peer review practice

Every submission is assessed by independent reviewers with subject-matter expertise in the relevant discipline. The review is double-anonymous: reviewer and author identities are withheld from each other throughout the process. Editorial decisions are based on reviewer recommendations. Teaching notes are reviewed alongside the case manuscript.

Reviewer eligibility is determined by subject expertise and the absence of conflict of interest. The full review protocol is published on the Policies page.

Published ethics policies

OATCJ maintains written policies on the following:

Authorship. All named authors must have contributed substantively to the case or teaching note. Guest and gift authorship are not permitted.
Conflict of interest. Authors and editors must disclose financial, familial, or consulting relationships with the focal organisation. Editors are excluded from the handling of their own submissions.
Misconduct. Allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, or undisclosed duplicate submission are investigated in writing, with opportunity for the author to respond, following principles aligned with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Corrections and retractions. Substantive errors are addressed through formal errata or retraction notices that remain linked to the published record.
Editorial independence. Editorial decisions are independent of commercial influence, including from distribution partners and any institutional affiliates of the journal.

Distribution and indexing

All OATCJ cases are hosted, indexed, and distributed by The Case Centre, the established not-for-profit organisation that serves the global management-education community, including AACSB- and EQUIS-accredited business schools. Distribution through The Case Centre provides discoverable metadata and a controlled process for verifying instructor access to teaching notes.

What kind of publication is this?

OATCJ is a teaching case journal. All OATCJ cases are research-based: they are grounded in primary and/or secondary research and present factual accounts of real organisations and real people. Teaching cases are a recognised category of scholarship: they are authored, peer reviewed, and cited. They are increasingly included in teaching-track dossiers at AACSB- and EQUIS-accredited business schools and contribute to an author's record of pedagogical scholarship and open educational resources (OER).

Alignment with accreditation standards

Teaching cases contribute to faculty intellectual contributions (IC) under AACSB standards and to research outputs under EQUIS and AMBA frameworks. OATCJ cases are peer reviewed (double-anonymous, independently reviewed), indexed by a recognised international distributor (The Case Centre), and released under Creative Commons licences. This combination supports the documentation requirements of teaching-track and scholarly dossiers at accredited business schools.

Evaluating a case in a promotion or review file

Committees evaluating an author's OATCJ case may wish to consider:

Whether the case was peer reviewed (all OATCJ cases are double-anonymously reviewed).
The author's position in the authorship list and the author contributions statement (available on request).
The teaching note, which reflects the pedagogical contribution and is often the deeper scholarly artefact.
The adoption footprint of the case, available through The Case Centre's distribution reports (requestable by the author).
The alignment with institutional priorities around open educational resources (OER) and fee-free open access.

Collection development (libraries)

OATCJ is open access with no author or reader charges and is distributed by The Case Centre. Libraries do not require a subscription to provide OATCJ content to faculty and students. Recommended actions:

List OATCJ in the library's open-access journal directory, including the ISSN (once issued) and the distribution partner link.
Link the issues archive from library subject guides in business, entrepreneurship, management, and related fields.
Ensure that faculty hold a Case Centre account to access teaching notes.
Add OATCJ to any institutional repository or LibGuide dedicated to open educational resources (OER).

Documentation requests

If your institution requires additional documentation - a formal statement on peer review, editorial governance, indexing, or licensing - please contact the editorial office.