The Journal of Systems Thinking (JoST) (ISSN 2767-3847) is the first and only open-access post-publication peer-reviewed (PPPR) journal dedicated to basic scientific research, innovation, and public understanding in the areas of Systems Thinking (cognitive complexity), Systems Mapping (visual complexity), Systems Leadership (organizational complexity), and Systems Science (ontological complexity). 

Submit your manuscript here: https://www.scienceopen.com/collection/systemsthinking_preprints

Editorial Team

Because systems thinking is an applied science, our editorial board members are comprised of a diverse array of scholars and practitioners from the public, private and academic sectors, as well as notable faculty and advanced students of systems thinking. All hail from many disciplines with expertise in many systems approaches from across the globe. We especially encourage advanced graduate students to participate in academic publishing in the field as well as involvement in the journal.

	Derek Cabrera, Ph.D., Cornell University, Cabrera Research Lab (Editor in Chief)
	Laura Cabrera, Ph.D., Cornell University, Cabrera Research Lab
	Gerald Midgley, Ph.D., University of Hull, Centre for Systems Studies
	(alphabetically)
	Fran Ackermann, BA, Ph.D., FBAM, GAICD, John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategy and International Business Discipline, School of Management and Marketing, Curtin Business School
	Gabriele Bammer, Ph.D., Professor of Integration and Implementation Sciences, The Australian National University
	Nora Bateson, President of the International Bateson Institute
	Kelvy Bird, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Presencing Institute
	Stefan Blachfellner, Managing Director, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science
	Sarah Brown, MPA, Strategy Advisor
	Cathal MacSwiney Brugha, Ph.D., MSc, MBA, FMII, Emeritus Professor of Decision Analytics, University College Dublin President, Analytics Society of Ireland
	Deeanna Burleson, Ph.D., LtCol (ret), Full Spectrum Solutions, Owner, Systemic Excellence Global, Co-Owner
	Danny Burns, Professor, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK
	Arturo Castellanos-Canales, J.S.D., Co-Founder and Creative Director at Demos Justice
	Iffat Sabir Chaudhry, Ph.D., Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi Campus, United Arab Emirates
	Shiang Chin, Ph.D. Candidate, Systems Engineering, Cornell University
	Alexander N. Christakis, Ph.D., Institute for 21st Century Agoras
	Josep M. Coll, Ph.D., Professor of Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation at EADA Business School
	Christa Court, PhD, Assistant Professor of Regional Economics, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida-Gainesville
	Angela M. Espinosa, Ph.D., Fellow of the British Cybernetics Society, Emeritus Fellow, Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull
	Thomas R. Flanagan, Ph.D., Board President of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras
	Jeff Foote, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Department of Management, University of Otago, New Zealand
	Ramses Fuenmayor, Ph.D., M.Sc., Universidad de Los Andes - Venezuela
	Emily Gates, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, & Assessment Department, Boston College
	Catherine Hobbs, BSc (Hons) Psychology, Msc Local Governance, Ph.D. Systems Science, Independent, Visiting Fellow at Northumbria University
	Ana Magdalena Hurtado, Ph.D., Professor, Arizona State University
	Tadeja Jere Jakulin, Ph.D., Full Professor, University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies - TURISTICA.
	Bryan Jenkins, BE(Hons), ME, Ph.D., MAdmin, FEIANZ, FIEAust, Adjunct Professor, University of Adelaide; President, Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand
	Jennifer Kushner, Ed.D., Assistant Director, CALS Global, University of Wisconsin.
	Paulina Lucio-Maymon, MPA & J.D. candidate, Juris Doctor Candidate and Public Interest Public Service Scholar at American University Washington College of Law.
	Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano, Ph.D., Computational Social Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and Lecturer at The University of Chicago.
	Janet McIntyre, Ph.D., Adjunct Associate Professor,, Flinders University
	Anita Mirijamdotter, Ph.D., Professor of Informatics, Linnaeus University, Sweden.
	Raquel Muñiz, J.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Law and Education Policy, Boston College.
	Eriberta B. Nepomuceno, Ph.D., International Scientist, Director of Albay Research and Innovation Center (ARIC), Office of the Governor, Albay Farmers Bounty Village, Cabangan, Camalig Albay, Philippines.
	Nam Nguyen, Ph.D., Director Australia and Southeast Asia, Malik Management Institute, Switzerland
	Luis Arturo Pinzon-Salcedo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Los Andes, Colombia
	John Pourdehnad, Ph.D., Visiting Professor at IESE Business School Doctoral faculty, Strategic Leadership Doctorate, and Executive Education, Research and Consulting, Thomas Jefferson University
	Roberto Poli, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy of Science, UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Systems,University of Trento
	Raghav Rajagopalan, Ph.D. (Systems Sciences), Fellow (Sumedhas), Fellow, Centre for Systems Studies, Hull; Fellow, European School of Governance, Berlin
	César Augusto Ramirez Corzo, Ph.D., Universidad Militar Nueva Granada UMNG: Law Faculty- and Catholic University: Law Faculty.
	Jessica Riehl, M.S., M.F.A., Visual Practitioner, Jessica Riehl Consulting, LLC.
	Luis Gomes Sambo, MD, Ph.D., D.Litt, Dr.h.c., Specialist in Public Health Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Honorary Professor at the University of Hull.
	Shankar Sankaran, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Project Management, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
	Nadarajah Sriskandarajah, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala
	Anne Stephens, MBA, PhD, BEd, BA Director, Ethos of Engagement Consulting
	Resham Thapa-Parajuli, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Research Fellow, Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Nepal
	Priscilla Koo Wilkens, MPA, Cornell University
	Susan A. Yoon, Ph.D., Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania
	Jae Eon Yu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Keimyung University, South Korea

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be rejected if they do not adhere to these guidelines. Editors are able to make a decision about the appropriateness of a paper for the journal. If the paper is accepted, then the paper goes to preprint and peer review. Once the paper has been peer reviewed, it will be accepted for publication. 

• I understand that the submission must follow the rules below.
• I have edited my paper for basic spelling, grammar and readability before submitting it.
• I have read the Author Guidelines (below).
• I uploaded a PDF of either the the Doc or LaTeX template which can be found here.
• My citations are in the PNAS bibliography style. Upload a BibTeX file of your references as well. 
• My submission includes a “Significance and Public Understanding” statement that explains the paper’s value to a particular audience and any implications it has for the general public. This statement should be written in plain English.
• I have all permissions (in writing) to use any images/figures for which I do not personally own the copyright.
• My paper is under 10,000 words (not including references). I must have editorial pre-approval for submissions over 10,000 words.

Author Guidelines

In addition to the requirements for all submissions, we strongly suggest—but do not require—the following. A paper consisting only of written words ignores what we now know about the brain and learning. Imagery and structure can add significantly to your paper's readability and to public understanding of science. Thus, we suggest that you: (a) Use an abundance of high-quality images to re-communicate points made in text. (b) Use examples, metaphors, and rich-imagery to ground your more abstract, theoretical ideas. (c) If you need to explain something extremely technical, do so using whatever technical terminology (not jargon) is necessary. But, also consider adding a sentence that summarizes what you’re saying in simple terms as well. (d) Try to design headers so that reading them alone tells a stepwise story. Use the structure of the paper (headers and levels) to communicate your point. Ask yourself if reading through the headers of your paper follows a logical thread and tells the story. (e) Consider the importance of repetition and summarizing and use the 3-part 'tell 'em' structure: (1) tell ‘em what you're going to tell 'em (pre-summarize), (2) tell ‘em (rich detail and meat of paper), (3) tell ‘em what you told 'em (post summarize). 

Copyright Notice

To put it plainly, once an author’s paper is published by JoST the copyright is held by JoST. However, JoST is committed to open-access and therefore authors retain the following rights.

The right to: 

1. Place the work on a course web site
2. Copy it for students or colleagues
3. Reuse portions in subsequent works (with proper citation)
4. Deposit the work into a subject repository for your discipline, funder, etc.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Review by academic peers is an essential part of the scholarly publishing and communication process. By sharing their expert opinion, researchers evaluate and improve the research of their peers. But traditional blinded peer review systems can suffer from a lack of transparency, recognition, and accountability.

The Journal of Systems Thinking is set to change this.

The Journal of Systems Thinking has chosen a novel open peer review system based on rapid posting of a preprint, open review, discussion and revision and then final publication in the Journal. The identity of the reviewers and their comments are visible at all times. This means that reviews have to be constructive, courteous, and well-written. Reviews are published with a Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY (4.0) license and also receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) from CrossRef, similar to a formal research publication. This means that reviews are re-usable, citable, and permanent records of your reviewing activities, and therefore all of your review activities can be integrated with ORCID, Publons, and ImpactStory, helping to build your profile as a researcher.

You can learn more about open peer review on ScienceOpen here: https://about.scienceopen.com/peer-review-guidelines/

Checklist for Reviewers

• Did you register with ScienceOpen and ORCID? If not, follow the instructions here.
• Did you link your ScienceOpen profile to ORCID publication history? Reviewers should have published at least five scientific articles.  To ensure that this condition is met, ScienceOpen has partnered with the non-profit ORCID. If you have questions about updating your ORCID profile to reflect your prior publications, feel free to contact us here. 
• Did you do your best to minimize bias? When writing a review, you must officially declare that you have no “competing interests” that might compromise your independent assessment. Please read our statement on competing interests.
• Are you aware that your review and/or comments are published alongside the original article under your full name with your corresponding ORCID? Your comments will be visible to the public

The Review Report

Reviews consist of two parts listed below.

General Factors Ratings

Please provide a rating from one star (poor) to five stars (excellent)

• Level of importance:

Is the publication of relevance for the academic community and does it provide important insights? Does the work represent a novel approach or new findings in comparison with other publications in the field?

• Level of validity:

Is the hypothesis clearly formulated? Is the argumentation stringent? Are the data sound, well-controlled and statistically significant? Is the interpretation balanced and supported by the data? Are appropriate and state-of-the-art methods used?

• Level of completeness:

Do the authors reference the appropriate scholarly context? Do the authors provide or cite all information to follow their findings or argumentation? Do they cite all relevant publications in the field?

• Level of comprehensibility:

Is the language correct and easy to understand for an academic in the field? Are the figures well displayed and captions properly described? Is the article systematically and logically organized?

The Written Review Report

After assigning the manuscript rating (see above), reviewers may submit a written review (up to 10,000 characters).  Reviews should stick to the aims and objectives set out above.  Try to structure your review as a list of major points followed by minor points and conclude with an overall impression of the manuscript. Keep in mind that the audience for the review includes both authors and readers (see above). 

Who is Able to Select and Invite Reviewers?

Authors are free to invite suitable reviewers for their own manuscript – as long as they are in accordance with our Peer Review Policy. There are no limits on the number of invited reviews. Editors or other ScienceOpen members may invite additional peers to review your work. Unsolicited comments and reviews make up an important component of our public peer review system.

Contact

450 East Miller Road
Ithaca, NY 14850

Principal Contact

Derek Cabrera

Cornell University

dac66@cornell.edu

Support Contact

Admin

hub@cabreraresearch.org