Instruction For Authors

Submission of papers

Please submit contributions in LCJ format (Instructions & Template) using MS Word 6 or later by email to the Editors at editors@LeanConstructionJournal.org

Files containing viruses will be deleted unopened.

LCJ Topical Areas

Editors categorize submitted manuscripts into the topical area(s) they are primarily addressing.  This determines the Associate Editor ( co-Associate Editors as well) that will steward the review process.  The topical areas we have are as follows:

1. Lean Theory:  Developing new theory; bringing in theory form other fields and contextualizing it for Lean Construction.
2. Research Methods: How to do lean research; [ISO18404].
3. Lean and Green/Sustainability:  Research and experiences focused on the integration of lean and green, and how lean benefits the value proposition of green to owners by offsetting first costs.   Moreover, this is such a critical symbiotic relationship that we believe every paper should have a green/sustainability element – in the implications part of the structured abstract.
4. Health, Safety and Quality:  As the record shows, we injure and kill more people than any other industry.   Is there any worse waste ( unproductive use of resources) than this?  It is first a humane imperative and secondarily an economic one. Quality, and we define it as doing the right things right the first time, is the most direct route to better and sustained safety, health and wellbeing (example of topics:  lean and suicide reduction; lean and mental health; lean and occupational safety and health; lean ergonomic, lean human factors,  safety engineering, resilience engineering, etc.;  Quality is also the way to simultaneously reduce cost and improve productivity; lean and “fire-fighting”, lean as fire prevention.
5. People, Culture and Change: Developing and maintaining a lean culture; research on how to manage the transition from the current dominant culture to a lean way of working; helping people blossom in the transition and in the lean way of working; linguistic action; lean governance; lean leadership.
6. Learning & Teaching Lean: Simulations; games; developing a lean curriculum.
7. The Role of Customer in Lean Construction:  The customer has many heads – the buyer, the user, the next-trade(or designer)-in-line, neighbors, society  [customer = owner, client, employer, etc., depending on where in the world the conversation is]; Value from the point of view of the customer;  Value depends on the context and who is the customer; Opinions in the “customer system” vary; The delivery team may need to help their customer system be clear about what it is they value.
8. Construction Project Delivery Strategy / Procurement:  Project delivery method/strategy selection; contract selection; project governance; selecting and contracting with key delivery team members;
9. Project Definition: The process in which the customer defines what they want from the project, the business case + the process that the delivery team use to ensure that they have a full understanding of the customer requirements prior to the start of design.
10. Contract Management and Cost Management: Managing the contract and managing cost during a project.
11. Lean Design:  Product Development, Design Management, TVD, Production System Design, Set-Based Concurrent Engineering.
12. Digitalization: Enabling Lean with Innovative Technology; Lean Construction & Construction 4/5.0.
13. Production System Design: [Production system = process for realizing the design; happens in parallel with the development of the design] choosing the construction sequence, method, operating system, logistics.
14. Off-site Construction: OSF, Prefabrication, Modularization, Modern Methods of Construction, logistics.
15. Supply Chain Management: Lean approaches to the management of the delivery team (subcontractors, specialist trades, suppliers, etc.); developing supplier capability (outside a project); developing new ways to collaborate; using lean tools to built consistent workflow and address bottlenecks as a team; logistics.
16. Production Planning and Control:  Last Planner System, TAKT, LBMS.
17. Lean Commissioning and Handover: Developing lean approaches to the commissioning; commissioning design can start during the design process; requires high levels of collaboration; commissioning as a customer for assembly workers.
18. Lean Operations and Maintenance: Development and use of lean in the operations and maintenance of facilities.
19. Lean Refurb, Renovation, and Retrofit: Reducing the carbon etc. footprint of our existing built environment; using lean thinking to enable that work to flow; reducing disruption to building owners, tenants and users; and neighbors/communities.
20. Other: lean paper delivery; book reviews.

Reviewing

Papers will only be sent for review when the editors have:

• a correctly LCJ formatted version of your paper (please read and use  Instructions & Template)
• a completed copyright form for the paper (Copyright Form)
• your response to any Editors’ Review comments

LCJ papers are double blind peer reviewed by at least three members of our expert review panel. At least one of your reviewers will be a practitioner.  We may send a paper to 2 practitioners and 1 academic.

Forum Essays are reviewed by the journal editors, or at their discretion sent to one or two peer reviewers (double-blind process).

Revisions may be required before a decision is made to accept or reject the paper. This can involve a further review or reviews.

Publication

As LCJ is an on-line journal we publish as soon as your paper is approved.

Neither the Lean Construction Journal nor the Lean Construction Institute makes any charge for publishing papers that are accepted for publication or for reviewing your paper.

We begin a new volume each year and send out a full list of contents to lists like CNBR and IGLC in June and early January each year.

Copyright

Submission of a paper, forum essay, discussions, rejoinders or closure to Lean Construction Journal (LCJ) is understood to mean:

• it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere?
• it is not already published?

Author(s) are required to transfer limited rights to the Lean Construction Institute Board of Directors prior to the start of the review process. For more information see the copyright page.

Permission for papers published in LCJ to be re-published elsewhere must be obtained in writing from the Journal Editors. Any republication or personal use of the work must explicitly identify prior publication in LCJ.

Formatting Instructions

The LCJ format is designed to be easy to read on screen as well as on paper.

Please download, read and use formatting templates:

Instructions & Template (for papers, forum essays, technical notes, discussions, and closures)

Book Review Guidelines

Who are you writing for?

LCJ is aimed at thoughtful practitioners as well as academics and your style should be accessible to both audiences.

Document Structure

The Instructions & Template file is a typical example of how a paper is structured. The following features are common:

• First page:

• citation (Top left in the header section) – complete the author & title information, leave the rest blank
• the paper’s title in upper and lower case – choose carefully to reflect the content
• author(s) in 12pt bold upper and lower case. Use a footnote to provide the professional title, affiliation, and mailing address of the author(s).
• a structured abstract, and
• key words

Continue with the paper without a break. Most papers will start with an introduction, followed by background, methods, and discussion sections and ending with conclusions. Please ensure that all headings are upper and lower case together and in the correct styles.

Include references in the last section of the paper.

Paper size & margins

The Instructions & Template file is already sized correctly – A4 size portrait format (210 x 297 mm) with margins set:

• Top & Bottom: 3 cm;
• Left & Right: 2.5 cm.

Document Length

Unless noted, including title page and abstract, manuscripts should not normally exceed 10000 words or word equivalents.  Longer scripts will be accepted if the material justifies the additional length. [If you think your material justifies more than 10000 words, do discuss an outline of your paper with the editors before you write it.]

Clarity and conciseness of thought is more important than absolute length.  However long your paper, make sure it is clear and concise.  If you include a lot of unnecessary detail you are asking your reviewers – your customers – to spend more time reviewing it.  Please ensure that your reviewers’ time is well spent.  In general, background and methods should be kept to a minimum in the submitted paper.  Background and/or method appendices can be sent with your paper if you feel it will help your reviewer decide or if you want to make them available to Journal readers as a separate optional download.

Full Papers – preferred limit is 10000 words.

Technical Notes – preferred limit is 5000 words.

Case Studies – preferred limit is 10000 words.

Process Benchmark – preferred limit is 10000 words.

Discussions, rejoinders and closures – preferred limit is 2500 words.

Advanced Research – preferred limit is 5000 words.

Forum Essays – preferred limit is 5000 words.

Book Reviews – preferred limit is 2500 words.

Downloads

The  Instructions & Template file (for papers, forum essays, technical notes, discussions, and closures)

Book Review Guidelines

The papers on this site are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, click here.