Conflict of Interest

To promote objective evaluations, the International Commerce Institute prohibits members of the Research Grant Application Committee from handling papers by researchers and/or authors with whom they have a conflict of interest. An author or member of the Application Committee has a conflict of interest with:

• his/her major professor or a student for whom he/she served as a major professor,
• people working at the same institution,
• co-authors on work completed or in progress during the last four years.

If a member of the Research Grant Application Committee is uncertain about whether he/she has a conflict of interest with a suggested researcher/author, he/she should disclose their relationship with this person to prevent any possible misunderstanding.

Researchers or authors with questions about the conflict of interest policy are encouraged to contact the International Commerce Institute’s secretariat at secretariat@ecr-institute.org.

Copyright Policy

Technical papers
The International Commerce Institute encourages the publication of the research in scholarly journals. However, authors are required to clearly acknowledge funding of this research by the International Commerce Institute. The Application Committee of the International Commerce Institute must be notified of the intent to publish in such scholarly journals at the time of the application for research funds.

Non-technical papers
The International Commerce Institute will not accept that non-technical papers concerning the research funded by the Institute are published, regardless of the medium, by another institute or organisation. Abstracts of this non-technical paper may appear in other publications but these abstracts should be substantially different from the non-technical paper submitted to the International Commerce Institute and clearly acknowledge funding of this research by the International Commerce Institute. The Application Committee of the International Commerce Institute must be notified of the intent to publish such papers at the time of the application for research funds.

Authors may post their final papers on their personal website after publication by the International Commerce Institute, as long as the site is not copyrighted or does not serve as a formal repository.

Ethical Guidelines

Submission of an application for research funds to the International Commerce Institute means that the author certifies that:

1. The research is new and not funded by any other grant.
2. The findings reported in the paper are substantially new and do not include significant repetition of results reported in other submitted or published papers by authors or other scholars (to the authors' best knowledge).
3. If similar research or parts of the research have been conducted earlier, the details of this earlier research must be made known to the Application Committee at the time of application.
4. Any previous work by the author(s) that is relevant to the results of the submitted paper is properly cited.
5.  If an application, or an earlier version of it, was previously not retained by the Application Committee of the International Commerce Institute, this fact and the justification for resubmission has to be clearly communicated in the new application.
6. Authors will clearly acknowledge funding of this research by the Institute in scholarly journals

Violation of these ethical guidelines is a serious matter and may result in sanctions beyond rejection of the application or resulting paper.

Length and Style Requirements

1. Deliverables should include all references, tables, graphs and appendices typeset using Microsoft Office formats.
2. Double-spacing should be used throughout, including abstract, references and footnotes.
3. Papers should have one inch margins on all sides and use 11 point font.
4. Technical papers should not exceed 34 pages.
5. A non-technical paper not exceeding 10 pages must also be submitted and written in a journalistic style palatable to non-academics. This paper may be published in the International Commerce Review: ECR Journal.
6. Papers should include a non-mathematical abstract of not more than 200 words that communicates significant contribution to retailing.
7. References should be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper in conformance with journal style. In-text citations should be indicated by the author’s last name and year of publication, e.g., (Norman 1977) or Norman (1977).