Submission Guidelines

Submission Instructions
Please click on the button below to submit your New Case Application. You will need to create an account if you don't already have one. Once you've created an account,

  1. Click the "Author" tab on the navigation bar;
  2. Select "Start New Submission";
  3. Follow steps 1-6 to submit the case application.

A BHCS editor will contact you within 7-10 business days when you submit your application.

  Online Case Application

 

Note: If you are not a current Haas faculty member, you may still submit a case study for consideration. However, all cases must have a Haas faculty sponsor, who will be listed as the lead author. If you already have a fully developed case study, please contact us. If you are interested in developing a new case study, please consider consulting the Haas faculty directory to find a Haas faculty sponsor who may be interested in working with you on your case study.


Please note that we give priority to case proposals that would have the broadest appeal. Such cases typically:

  • support the Berkeley-Haas Case Series mission
  • feature innovative companies that are of high interest
  • include a compelling protagonist
  • provide an inside look at a company's practices
  • present critical decisions in a specific timeframe
  • incorporate proprietary quotes and information from industry leaders


Permissions Forms

Authors are required to complete three consent forms prior to publishing their case:

  • Author Publication Agreement
  • Open Access Waiver
  • Company Consent Form

Forms will be sent via DocuSign. We ask that authors review, sign, and return these forms within three business days. Extensions are possible in situations where it may take longer to receive written consent from a signing authority at the subject company.


Copyright Requirements

Authors must obtain copyright permission for all proprietary information that will be part of the case, regardless of whether it was obtained from a public source (e.g., logos, charts, figures, graphs, interviews). This is a critical (and the most often overlooked) requirement of publishing. Copyright acquisition is ALWAYS easier to obtain at the beginning of the case writing process than after the fact.

A case cannot be published or distributed until all necessary written permission has been submitted to the Berkeley-Haas Case Series.

 BHCS Exhibit Permissions Form

This form is needed if any copyrighted exhibits or images are used in the case study.


Deadlines

We send new cases to our publishing partners on a quarterly basis. The deadlines below pertain to each quarterly distribution date.

  • Full case packages submitted by February 1st will be made available online by April 1st.
  • Full case packages submitted by May 1st will be made available online by July 1st.
  • Full case packages submitted by August 1st will be made available online by October 1st.
  • Full case packages submitted by October 1st* will be made available online by January 1st.

* Note that this deadline is earlier than the other quarters due to the holidays.

 

Guidelines

Formatting

  • Text - single spaced, Times New Roman 11pt
  • First level headings - Times New Roman 13, bold
  • Second level headings - Times New Roman 13, bold, italic
  • Third level headings - Times New Roman 13, non-bold, italic
  • Exhibits - at the end and referenced sequentially within the text (unless essential to put them with the body of the case)
  • Cases should be approximately 1,500 to 3,500 words in length, about 8 pages or so, using our case template.

References

The layout of citations should be as follows: Author, “article title,” book title, edition number publisher, place of publication, year of publication, page number. All references to websites must note when the website was accessed. A bibliography of academic sources utilized in the case preparation should go in the teaching note, not in the case.

Permissions

It's important to note that the public availability of information does not necessarily mean that it's public domain and free for you to use. For example, large extractions of text are examples of material often requiring permission. If material found from a public source is copyrighted, permission must still be obtained (e.g., photographs, logos, screenshots, website content, etc.).

Exhibits

We require a source for each exhibit. Advise as to whether the exhibit is an original document extraction or a creation of the author using data from the original document. Exhibits should be of reproductive quality. Spreadsheets and tables should be inserted into the document as editable objects, not as images, in case further editing is required. All tables, figures, appendices, etc. should be referred to as Exhibits, and should generally be placed at the end of the case.

Case Length / File Size

Unit sales of a case drops off very quickly once it exceeds 8 pages, so we generally prefer cases around 6-8 pages and no more than 10 pages. Photographs significantly increase the electronic file size so use them only where necessary. Referencing an image or video with a URL is a good alternative.

Poetic License

In cases written from public sources, it is not legal to attribute statements, actions, or feelings, etc. to actual persons. You do not know for certain that they are true. Speculating or fictionalizing not only erodes the credibility of the writing but leaves you open to a lawsuit.

Tense

Cases should be written in the past tense. The events have already occurred. Industry notes and teaching notes can be written in the present tense.

Berkeley Haas Case Series

A new collection of business case studies from Berkeley Haas

The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

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