Please note:
We are currently accepting case submissions. To submit a case, please see the case submission guidelines.
The Open Access Teaching Case Journal (OATCJ) publishes descriptive/evaluative or decision-based teaching case studies in all disciplines. Cases must be based on factual real-life occurrences that involve actual organizations and people (OATCJ does not accept fictional cases). Authors may choose to disguise the names (organizations or people) in the case. Previously published cases or articles (except those in proceedings or workshop presentations) are not eligible for consideration. There is no specific page limit expectation for the case submission, though shorter cases are preferred. The target audience for published case studies is students.
Cases are open access licensed, free to access and published free of charge. The costs involved with editing and publishing are covered by the host institution, Conestoga College.
All submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed by the OATCJ case research reviewers. Wherever possible, reviewers with subject matter expertise related to disciplines associated with submitted cases will be assigned. See the
how to contribute as a reviewer section for information about becoming an OATCJ reviewer.
An instructor's manual (teaching notes) should be included with each case submission. See the case study and teaching note guidelines for more information about the required format for case teaching notes. All teaching notes will be made available to instructors on a vetted basis.
We are currently accepting case submissions. To submit a case, please see the case submission guidelines.
Contact OATCJ editors via email at oatcj@conestogac.on.ca.
About OATCJ
Strategic vision
“OATCJ is aligned with the United Nation’s Principles of Responsible Management Education by offering a multi-disciplinary repository of quality, real-world teaching cases for students and instructors that are free and accessible to all. OATCJ provides rigorous and developmentally supportive peer-review process for case authors without the expectation of financial remuneration. OATCJ has a robust reviewer community from a broad spectrum of disciplines.
(SDG #4 Quality Education, SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities)”
Open access licenses for OATCJ
The OATCJ publishes cases exclusively using open licenses such as Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Applying a Creative Commons (CC) license to creative works helps creators retain some copyright “rights” while at the same time sharing their work with a clear indication of what others may and may not do with that shared work. The Open Access Teaching Case Journal (OATCJ) requires case writers to choose one of the open licenses. Creators will retain some rights to their creations.
Licensing the case study
Since cases are non-fictional events with non-fictional people, creators will want to choose a license that allows others to retain, reuse, and redistribute cases but not allow for revisions or remixes. The Creative Commons license choice is between CC-BY-NC-ND and CC-BY-ND. In both choices the creator retains some copyright rights for their creations and students are not required to pay. Once a Creative Commons license is applied to a work, it cannot be revoked.
CC-BY-NC-ND allows others to download and share the work if they give the creator attribution, do not make changes, or use it commercially.
CC-BY-ND allows others to download and share the work (even commercially) if they give the creator attribution and do not make any changes.
Creators may choose CC-BY-ND if they want to submit the case to a publisher journal. Keep in mind that publisher journals may not want to accept a work that has a CC-BY-ND license and has been published for free in an open journal.
Publisher journals typically require the creator to give up their rights to the work. This results in paywalls for the creators and their students. Once a creator has given up their rights to their work, they no longer have the right to apply an open license to that work.
Teaching notes
Teaching notes will be treated like test banks and faculty wishing access to teaching notes will be vetted and made aware that teaching notes are to remain confidential and not be redistributed. We ask that any requests for teaching notes be made to the OATCJ so that appropriate vetting and data collection for knowledge dissemination can be calculated. Once per year the reported adoptions and associated statistics about your case will be sent to you.
Please see the Creative Commons website for other open license choices.
The OATCJ
Please see the OATCJ to access the cases. When linking to individual cases from Learning Management Systems, or other classroom management software please use the “permalinks” available for each case by right clicking — or command button clicking with Macs — on the case titles, and selecting "copy link location."
Submission guidelines
Authors should submit their manuscripts using our online submission platform. All submissions must include a manuscript for the case study and a separate teaching note. Please carefully read the case study and teaching note guidelines before submitting your manuscript to avoid delays in the review process.
Submissions must include a release form signed by the authorized people within the organization referenced in the case. This case release form requirement also applies to the cases where names are disguised. The case release form is not required for cases developed using publicly available resources (published sources) or secondary sources instead of personal experience or interviews. The case release form will be distributed at the time of case publication. All sources are required for secondary source cases.
Case authors who submit cases for review at OATCJ will be asked to review cases in the future. This reciprocity is part of the scholarly process, and we very much appreciate your continued collaboration.
How to contribute as a reviewer
The OACTJ is actively looking for contributors to act as reviewers and editors. As a multi-disciplinary journal, we are actively soliciting reviewer participation from a broad swath of scholarly disciplines. These may include disciplines outside of business and management studies. We invite those who have experience writing and reviewing pedagogical business cases based on real-world situations to apply.
To apply as a reviewer, please complete the OATCJ Reviewer Application Form, and we will send you a reviewer invitation.
OATCJ editorial and review team
Dr. Jane Gravill
Jane Gravill is a professor at Conestoga College School of Business in the Accounting, Audit & IT and International Business Management degree programs. She earned her PhD from Western University, Ivey School of Business, and MBA from Queen’s University, Smith School of Business. Her research focuses on the case research methodology in the areas of Management Information Systems, Project Management and Sustainable Business Management with many research cases published in leading peer-reviewed case journals.
Dr. Fatih Yegul
Fatih Yegul is a professor at Conestoga College School of Business and teaches under the International Business Management degree program. He has two decades of industry experience. His background is in industrial engineering, and he holds a PhD from the University of Waterloo. His expertise and research areas are operations management and supply chain management.
Kimberlee Carter
Kimberlee Carter is the open educational resource consultant at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. She holds an MA in leadership from the Gordon S. Lang School of Business, University of Guelph, and a BEd in adult education from Brock University. Kimberlee spent 15 years as a professor preparing learners for work in the health care administration field. She has published multiple collaborative open educational resources related to health care administration.
Dr. Kevin McDermott
Kevin McDermott is a researcher, post-secondary instructor, and e-learning specialist. Kevin's scholarly interests include writing and reviewing pedagogical case studies for peer-reviewed publications. Empirical research involves automated data extraction and analytics techniques, examining social entrepreneurial resource mobilization, and motivation for the piracy of intellectual property. Kevin has instructed courses in business and technology, leadership, HR, entrepreneurship, business strategy, sustainability, among other topics at several post-secondary institutions to undergraduate and post-graduate students.
