Pre-Submission Preflight (aos-submission)

When to trigger

• "We're submitting this week" — the last pass before Editorial Manager
• Unsure which files AOS's portal expects or how anonymization is enforced
• Deciding on the open-access option and its cost
• Declarations (competing interests, funding, AI, ethics) still unassembled

> Volatile facts below were checked on 2026-07-16 against the official ScienceDirect/Elsevier AOS pages. Portals, editors, and policies change — re-open the current Guide for Authors (sciencedirect.com/journal/accounting-organizations-and-society/publish/guide-for-authors) before uploading.

Verified AOS specs (re-check current values)

• Publisher / identity: Elsevier; ISSN 0361-3682; founded by Anthony Hopwood (launched 1976).
• Submission portal: Editorial Manager at editorialmanager.com/AOS — fully online; the system builds the review PDF from your uploaded source files.
• Review model: double-anonymized — the manuscript file must contain no author-identifying information; identity lives on the separate title page.
• Editors-in-Chief (verified 2026-07-16): Marcia Annisette, Martin Messner, Hun-Tong Tan — confirm the masthead on the journal homepage before writing any editor-specific cover letter.
• Length: no fixed word cap published in the Guide for Authors as of the check date; long interpretive papers are normal. Re-check on the official site rather than assuming.
• Fees: no submission fee is charged by Elsevier journals of this type as of the check date (re-check); publishing is free under the subscription route. Open access is optional (hybrid): the APC is journal-specific and personalized at submission — confirm the current amount in the OA options page / submission system before electing gold OA.
• Special calls: the journal runs conference and special-issue tracks in Editorial Manager (e.g., the 50th-anniversary conference used a dedicated "Conference submission" article type) — select the correct article type deliberately.

Editorial Manager file set

• ] Anonymized manuscript — no names, affiliations, acknowledgments, or self-identifying citations; file name and document metadata scrubbed
• ] Separate title page — title, all authors and affiliations, corresponding-author contact, acknowledgments, funding sources
• ] Declaration of competing interests (Elsevier declaration tool / statement) — completed even if "none"
• ] Tables and figures per current artwork instructions (editable tables; figure files at required resolution)
• ] Highlights / abstract elements if the current guide requests them — verify, do not assume
• ] Optional but wise: cover letter stating fit with AOS's interdisciplinary mission in two or three sentences
• ] Supplementary material (instruments, appendices, online-only exhibits) as separate files

Policy declarations (Elsevier-wide, enforced at AOS)

• ] Ethics: human-participant work (interviews, experiments, surveys) reports institutional approval and informed consent in the manuscript; documentation retained for editor request
• ] Generative AI: any use in writing declared in a statement per Elsevier policy; AI is never an author
• ] Originality: not under review elsewhere; overlapping working papers/conference versions disclosed in the cover letter
• ] Authorship: all authors approved the submission; CRediT-style contribution info ready if requested
• ] Data statement: what can and cannot be shared (field data usually restricted by consent/anonymity — say so plainly rather than silently omitting)

Final coherence pass

• ] Abstract, introduction, and discussion state the same conceptual claim in the same vocabulary
• ] Site pseudonyms and condition labels consistent across text, exhibits, and supplements
• ] References complete and in the journal's author–date format
• ] Article type, keywords, and suggested/opposed reviewers (if used) entered thoughtfully in EM

Anti-patterns

• Uploading a manuscript whose acknowledgments, metadata, or "our prior fieldwork at this site" phrasing defeats double-anonymization.
• Electing open access without confirming the personalized APC — the figure is journal- and author-specific.
• Submitting under the default article type when a special-issue or conference track was intended.
• Treating the ethics statement as boilerplate when the fieldwork's consent terms restrict what the paper may quote.

Output format

【Portal & type】editorialmanager.com/AOS; article type chosen ...
【Anonymization】manuscript, files, metadata clean? title page separate?
【Declarations】competing interests / funding / AI / ethics / data statement ...
【OA decision】subscription vs gold OA; APC confirmed if OA ...
【Coherence】claim, labels, references consistent ...
【Next step】await decision → aos-review-process; on R&R → aos-rebuttal

Resources

• templates/checklist.md — the full itemized preflight
• templates/manuscript_template.md — AOS-style skeletons (field study & experiment)
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official URLs behind every verified fact (checked 2026-07-16)