A milestone year for Career Development International: editorial insights and community updates

We are delighted to share that CDI has moved from B to A rank in the 2025 ABDC Journal Quality List. Professors Jennifer A. Harrison and William E. Donald, in partnership with Emma Ferguson at Emerald Publishing, dedicated significant time preparing an extensive dossier of evidence as part of the application process. Special thanks to our Senior Editor, Associate Professor Michelle Gander, for making the formal submission on our behalf and to the many individuals from around the world who wrote detailed letters of support. This represents a significant milestone as we continue to celebrate our 30th Anniversary at CDI.

Alongside this achievement, we are also seeing substantial growth in submissions. For example, submissions in Q1 increased 49.68% from 2025 to 2026. As such, we have set up an editorial office to deal with all journal-related queries. This will initially be run by William E. Donald for 2026 and 2027, and we will then seek to appoint someone to take on the role from 2028. Please direct all queries to our new email address: CDI.Editorial.Office@gmail.com

We are delighted to welcome Associate Professor Huong Le, Associate Professor Jessica Good and Dr Piotr Mamcarz as Senior Editors at CDI for 2026. They join the existing team of Senior Editors who continue to serve the journal from 2025.

We are also delighted to welcome Dr Joseph Regina as our incoming Special Issue Editor for 2026. Our sincere thanks to the outgoing Special Issue Editor, Associate Professor Joanne Mutter, for their valuable contribution to CDI.

We are currently seeking two additional Senior Editors who specialize in quantitative research. Interested individuals who have a Ph.D., publication experience in the field of career development and the capacity to manage circa four manuscripts at a time are welcome to contact either of the Editors-in-Chief for consideration.

It has been great to see the expansion of our Early Career Reviewer Board, led by Dr Ai Ito and supported by Dr Joseph Regina. We have begun quarterly voluntary meetings that are hosted virtually and alternate between Asia- and North America-aligned time zones. These meetings offer a great opportunity to engage with the journal, ask questions and connect with fellow scholars.

We are currently seeking to expand the Early Career Reviewer Board further. If you are in the final year of your Ph.D. or up to five years after graduation, then please contact either of the Editors-in-Chief with a copy of your CV for consideration.

We are delighted to announce that the CDI Breakfast will return at the Academy of Management Conference in 2026. This is a great opportunity to network with colleagues. More details will be shared by email in due course.

CDI has seen two Special Issues published so far in Volume 31 (2026). Issue 2 was a special issue on “Changing, Evolving, Persisting: Exploring the Role of Masculinity in Careers and Family”, Guest Edited by Dr Joseph Regina, Dr Haley R. Cobb, Dr Yingyi Chang and Dr Danielle M. Gardner. Issue 3 was a special issue on “STARA (Smart Technology, AI, Robotics, and Algorithms): Implications for Career Research”, Guest Edited by Professor Annabelle Hofer, Associate Professor Sarah Bankins, Dr Anna Carmella Ocampo and Professor Eva Selenko.

We have two further Special Issues in the peer review stage. The first is a special issue on “Shaping the Future: Proactive Behaviors in the Workplace”, Guest Edited by Professor Arnold B. Bakker, Professor Liisa Mäkelä, Dr Huatian Wang and Dr Tom Junker. The second is a special issue on “AI, Remote Work, and Productivity: Implications for the Future Labor Market and Career Development”, Guest Edited by Professor Tony Fang, Professor Greg Bamber, Professor Jennifer A. Harrison and Professor Fang Lee Cooke. These are anticipated for publication in Volume 32 (2027).

We then have one open call for papers on “Career Development and Student Entrepreneurship for University-to-Work Transition in Emerging Economies”, Guest Edited by Professor Ugochukwu Chinonso Okolie, Professor Yuliya Shtaltovna, Dr Paul Agu Igwe, Dr Priscilla Bahaw and Dr Chibueze Tobias Orji, with a submission deadline of 1st October 2026.

Given the continued growth in submissions, we apply rigorous desk review criteria, and as a result, a significant proportion of manuscripts are not sent out for external peer review. As the volume of submissions increases, the threshold for progressing beyond desk review also rises. Accordingly, we want to share the five most common reasons for desk rejection to support individuals preparing manuscripts for the journal.

1. Lack of novelty or theoretical contribution. Please review recent works in the journal from 2025, 2026 and online first to see the level of novelty and theoretical contributions expected. What might have been sufficient in earlier years may no longer meet current expectations.

2. CDI is moving away from considering cross-sectional quantitative studies. However, time-lagged studies will still be considered.

3. CDI is primarily a career development journal. If your reference list mainly focuses on works from human resource management (HRM), human resource development (HRD) or organizational behavior (OB), then the manuscript is likely a better fit for a journal in one of those areas. That is not to say works submitted to CDI cannot contain references to works from HRM, HRD, OB or other areas; rather, that career development must be the dominant literature engaged with, supplemented by other literature streams.

4. CDI receives a large number of literature reviews. We prioritize submissions that generate new theory and research agendas rather than those that are primarily descriptive in nature.

5. Submissions to CDI are expected to engage with literature published within the last three years. This means that works submitted in 2026 should look to meaningfully engage with related works published in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (as well as 2026).

Additionally, CDI now has a word count limit of 8,000 words (including references), increased from 7,000 words for 2026. We can allow up to 8,500 words (including references) on a case-by-case basis, but this additional word count is to support addressing peer reviewer comments. As such, initial submissions exceeding 8,000 words or revised submissions exceeding 8,000 words (or 8,500 words on a case-by-case basis) will be unsubmitted and returned to the corresponding author. This approach ensures we manage the number of pages available in the print issue of the journal each year.

However, we recognize that certain types of submissions may require more space. In such cases, you can submit a “Supplementary File” marked as “Supplementary File for Peer Review” in the Scholar One submission system. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, this file will be published via a link alongside it on the journal's website exactly as you submit it. When using a supplementary file, do not report the word count of anything within that file when reporting the total word count during the submission process.

Please also follow the guidelines set out in Emerald's Publishing Ethics, paying particular attention to the policy on artificial intelligence: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/publish-with-us/ethics-integrity/research-publishing-ethics

For any queries, please contact CDI.Editorial.Office@gmail.com

Thank you to everyone who reviews manuscripts for CDI. As you will no doubt be aware, it is getting increasingly difficult to secure reviewers. However, such support is critical because delays in issuing decisions on manuscripts tend to disproportionately impact early career scholars and those on fixed-term contracts. We completely understand how many review requests scholars (including ourselves) are receiving these days. However, if we can please ask that, if you agree to review a manuscript: (1) you provide the review report, and (2) if you recommend major revisions, you agree to review the revised version of the manuscript in the next round. We all know as authors how frustrating it can be when a reviewer from an initial round declines to review in the next round, and suddenly a new reviewer has to join the process. Naturally, there will be circumstances where reviewers cannot agree to review again, and we completely understand. But if the default can please be to agree to review revised versions of manuscripts where you have requested revisions from the authors, that would be much appreciated.

In closing, thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to CDI. We are honored that you are part of our CDI community.

Adjunct Professor William E. Donald

Professor Laxmikant Manroop

Co-Editors-in-Chief, Career Development International