---
name: aos-submission
description: Use when running the final pre-submission preflight for an Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) manuscript — Editorial Manager files (anonymized manuscript, separate title page, declarations), Elsevier policies (competing interests, AI, ethics), and open-access decisions. Checks readiness to submit; it does not handle the post-decision response (aos-rebuttal).
---

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