Since 2008, WDI Publishing has been proudly working with current University of Michigan faculty to bring their research ideas and findings into their classrooms in the form of case studies, conceptual notes, exercises, and more. We professionally edit, publish and distribute these teaching materials on our e-commerce site, wdi-publishing.com. We also market them to other universities globally. To date, over 300 top tier universities worldwide have adopted WDI Publishing case studies.
Additionally, cases and teaching notes authored by U-M faculty may qualify to be distributed by Harvard Business Publishing, via our non-exclusive distribution agreement.
WDI Publishing offers two types of engagement options for U-M faculty, as follows:
OPTION #1: SUBMISSIONS
If you have a case study, conceptual note, exercise, or other teaching materials you would like to submit to WDI Publishing, and the materials are already completed or in a final draft mode, please review the Submission Process and Submission Requirements below.
- Timing: WDI Publishing cannot always guarantee how quickly a submitted case/teaching note will be entered into our pipeline of projects. Therefore, we recommend case authors submit their materials at least 6-8 weeks before they are needed in a course. While WDI Publishing will do everything possible to expedite projects through our pipeline, we encourage all submitters to allow as much time as possible for our editing, publishing and formatting processes.
Submission Process:
- Submitter emails case and teaching note documents to info@wdi-publishing.com in Microsoft Word format.
- WDI Publishing reviews documents and responds to submitter with any questions for clarification.
- When outstanding questions are answered, WDI Publishing will assign a case editor/writer to review the submitted documents.
The WDI Publishing case editor/writer will engage in an iterative process with the case author, providing “tracked changes” edits, suggestions, and comments. With each iterative version, the case author will respond to the editor/writer with acceptance of the edits/suggestions and/or comments.
- Once MS Word versions of the case and teaching note are final and approved by the author, the documents will be copy edited by a third party editor and then formatted and prepared for publication on www.wdi-publishing.com
OPTION #2: CASE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
If you have an idea for a case study (based on your research findings and/or other research data, student project, or other experience) and need a case writer to assist you in researching or organizing the data, as well as writing the case study, please contact WDI Case Publishing Manager Sandy Draheim directly at draheims@umich.edu or call +1-734-615-7319. She will schedule a meeting with you to discuss project details, requirements, and timing.
- Timing: If you need assistance in researching and/or organizing data, and writing a case, please try to contact us at least 3-4 months before the materials are needed in a course. Again, we will do everything possible to expedite your project but the development, writing, publishing and formatting processes for creating a new case study and teaching note can take 4-6 months or longer.
Submission Requirements:
- All submitted cases must include a teaching note. Both must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents.
- All submitted cases and teaching notes must adhere to the format and style described in WDI Publishing’s “How to Write a Business Case” and “How to Write a Teaching Note”.
- All submitted cases must include an abstract/description of 150-200 words.
- Authors must currently be in a teaching position at the University of Michigan. If a graduate or undergraduate student wrote the case, he/she will be acknowledged in the byline as having “written/developed this case under the supervision of John Smith, Acme Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.”
- All cases and teaching notes must include the appropriate use of end notes to cite sources of any non-original information.
- If a case is based on primary data (i.e., data gathered via personal interviews, etc.), WDI Publishing’s organizational release form must be signed by the appropriate contact within the organization before it can be published by WDI Publishing.
- Author(s) must sign WDI’s Distribution License and Royalty Agreement which states:
- Royalties:
- Author(s) receive a 15% non-negotiable royalty on sales if it is a submission, i.e., case and teaching note were submitted in a final draft format – only minor copy editing, fact checking, proofreading required.
- Author(s) receive a 10% non-negotiable royalty on sales if WDI Publishing provides significant case development assistance such as researching and organizing content, as well as writing the case.
- Royalties only paid via electronic transfer. (Completed EFT form required.)
- Royalties paid once/year in January, for the previous year’s activity.
- Author assigns WDI exclusive distribution.
- Author certifies and accepts responsibility for the type of data in the case as well as whether organizations and people in the case are disguised or fictional.
- Submitted documents must be previously unpublished, including any specific section of the case.
- Once published, the case author(s), as well as any other faculty from any other university, must pay the appropriate number of copyright permissions to use the case in a course/classroom.
- If a case author wants to include his/her case in a textbook they have written, they may do so without paying copyright permissions.
- If WDI Publishing is contacted with a request to publish the case in a textbook NOT authored by the case author, WDI Publishing will first seek permission from the author. If author grants permission, the publisher must agree to pay a permissions fee, based on the initial print run and/or estimated digital usage. (WDI Publishing tiered fee structure will apply.)
- Bylines for the submitted documents will adhere to WDI Publishing’s format and style.
- Layout and graphic look and feel of the final case and teaching note will adhere to WDI Publishing’s template, including branding.
Document Requirements:
- Case Title: No more than 12 words total. Should include the name of the featured organization.
- Exhibits:
- Exhibits include all graphs and charts contained within the body of the case
- Each should be called out as Exhibit 1, 2, 3, etc. and include a headline
- Tables
- Each should be called out as Table X and include a headline
- Columns should be separated with a single tab to allow ease of final formatting
- Appendices
- Appendices are tables, charts, or other materials that illustrate concepts introduced in the case and are displayed at the end of the case
- They should be referenced in the body of the case at the end of a sentence, e.g., (see Appendix B)
- If an Appendix is not mentioned in the text, the final sentence of the case should reference the unreferenced appendices, e.g., See Appendices 7-10 for additional information
- File Formats
- Embed all graphics within the Word document where you would like them to appear
- Send individual files of all figures, tables, and exhibits. Graphics should be 300 PPI or in a vector file format. Acceptable file formats are .ai, .bmp, .csv .eps, .gif, .jpg, .pdf, .png, .psd, .svg, .tiff, .xls, and .xlsx. Any artwork created using other programs (such as Powerpoint, Publisher, or QuarkExpress) should be saved as a .pdf
As of October 1, 2020, WDI Publishing is no longer accepting submissions from faculty/instructors outside the University of Michigan.
Exceptions include winning authors from case writing competitions administered by WDI Publishing.
Please direct any questions to: info@wdi-publishing.com
