Business History Review seeks articles drawn from rigorous primary research that address major debates and offer comparative perspectives. We consider the history of entrepreneurs, firms, and business systems, and the subjects of innovation, globalization, and regulation. We are also interested in the relation of businesses to political regimes and the environment.

Manuscripts are considered for publication on the understanding that they are not currently under consideration elsewhere and that the material—in substance as well as form—has not been previously published.

Authors must remember not to identify themselves in the body of the manuscript; specifically, references to their own work in the text should be in the third person, and citations should be written without possessive pronouns—not "See my …."

We use the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (2017) and spell and hyphenate words according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Send a bio of three to four sentences, stating affiliation and recent publications.

Be sure to include one to five keywords at the start of your paper as well as an abstract of no more than 180 words outlining the main point(s) of the paper and placing the article in context. Subheads should be used to divide the manuscript into three or four sections (or more, depending on length).

Articles should not be more than 10,000 words in length, including footnotes.

Each table and figure must be accompanied by a complete source.

When submitting figures, please include the data files. Any figures submitted using colour will publish using colour online but will be black and white in print.

Tables should be prepared in a Word format to facilitate in-house editing.

Authors are responsible for obtaining all illustrative materials and permissions for reproduction, and for writing captions.

The journal encourages authors to use gender-neutral prose in all cases where it is not anachronistic to do so; male nouns and pronouns should not be used to refer to people of both sexes.

We use the day-month-year form for dates in citations, as 11 February 2007.

Double quotation marks should be used for journal article titles and direct quotation; single quotation marks are used for quoted material inside quotations.

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the editor and any reviewers. We list a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation, and suggest that authors contact as appropriate: www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/language-services

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge published journal.

Sample Citations

Book: Thomas K. McCraw, Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), 205-21.

Journal: Naomi R. Lamoreaux, "Scylla or Charybdis? Historical Reflections on Two Basic Problems of Corporate Governance," Business History Review 83 (Spring 2009): 9-34.

Note that we do not include the publisher in book citations. We do not use loc. cit., op. cit., idem., or ibid. Where you would use “Ibid.” previously, now use the shortened citation format. For example:
1. McCraw, Prophet of Innovation, 205-21.
2. McCraw, 205-210.