Starting in 2013, the Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management (JCOM) will provide a forum for advancement and dissemination of scientific knowledge on co-operative organizations and their management. The journal will include up-to-date, high-quality, and original contributions – research papers, reviews, and syntheses as well as book and conference reviews – dealing with questions on how, why and when co-operative organizations occur and succeed, fail and disappear, and what can be done to influence the outcome.

Co-operative organization is broadly defined. It refers not only to co-operatives as an institutional form, but any other organization that follows the principles of co-operation. Examples include consumer, housing, producer, and worker co-operatives, credit unions and mutuals, multiparty alliances as well as different forms of collective, community, and social entrepreneurship. In addition to these types of co-operative entities, a variety of non-profit and voluntary organizations will be covered in the journal.

JCOM calls for contributions focused on the following organizational philosophies and the management of organizations operating along one or more of these philosophies:
• voluntary association of individuals and/or entities (co-operating and networking)
• freedom with fellow individuals and entities (pursuit of autonomy and independence)
• accountability of individuals and entities (membership in organizations and environments)
• user-members’ collective ownership of and control over the organization’s resources (democracy)
• engagement in action only if rewards/results are greater than costs/efforts (efficiency and beneficiality)
• transaction- or contribution-based distribution of economic surplus to members and stakeholders (fairness)
• education and training of members and stakeholders on co-operation and the underlying principles (knowledge of co-operation)