Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being

Overview

Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being (ROSWB) is an annual edited-volume series published by Emerald Publishing Limited that advances theory and research on occupational stress, health, and well-being. Identified by ISSN 1479-3555 and the series DOI 10.1108/roswb, the series has appeared on Emerald's platform since 1999 and has grown into one of the most recognized dedicated outlets for scholarship on work-related stress and its consequences for health, performance, and organizational life.

The series' defining format is the themed volume: each annual instalment explores a specific theme, bringing together cutting-edge work from leading researchers to bridge disciplines and provide critical insights into work-related stress and its impact on health. This structure gives every volume the coherence of a focused symposium while the series as a whole accumulates into a comprehensive library of stress-and-well-being scholarship. Across more than twenty volumes, the series has examined stress from nearly every angle — theoretical mechanisms, emotions and physiology, interpersonal dynamics, individual differences, leadership, organizational politics, economic crises, military contexts, entrepreneurship, teams, and the strategic level of the organization.

Editorial leadership is shared by three prominent scholars: Pamela L. Perrewé of Florida State University, Peter D. Harms of the University of Alabama, and Chu-Hsiang (Daisy) Chang of Michigan State University. Perrewé, a Distinguished Research Professor whose work on stress, politics, and well-being has shaped the field for decades, provides continuity with the series' earlier years; Harms and Chang, both widely cited researchers in organizational behaviour and occupational health psychology, represent its contemporary direction. An earlier editorial configuration paired Perrewé with Christopher C. Rosen of the University of Arkansas, who co-edited volumes in the mid-2010s.

The series matters because occupational stress is not a niche concern: it is implicated in cardiovascular disease, depression, burnout, turnover, and enormous economic costs, and it sits at the intersection of psychology, management, public health, and organizational practice. ROSWB serves the researchers who study these problems, the doctoral students learning the field, and the practitioners — in HR, occupational health, and management — who need evidence-based understanding of how work affects well-being and what can be done about it.

Aims and Scope

The series aims to advance theory and research in occupational stress, health, and well-being by publishing themed volumes that showcase the best current thinking on a defined problem. Its scope is deliberately interdisciplinary: although anchored in organizational behaviour and occupational health psychology, the series draws on and speaks to management, sociology, public health, physiology, and related fields. The publisher's description emphasizes bridging disciplines — a genuine feature of the volumes, which routinely combine psychological mechanisms, organizational context, and practical implications.

The themed-volume model allows the series to go deep where journals must stay broad. A volume on Mistreatment in Organizations (Volume 13) can assemble the leading researchers on workplace aggression, bullying, and incivility in one place; a volume on The Role of Leadership in Occupational Stress (Volume 14) can examine how leaders create, transmit, and buffer stress; and a volume on Occupational Stress and Well-Being in Military Contexts (Volume 16) can address the distinctive stressors of service life with contributions from researchers who specialize in that domain. This depth-per-theme is the series' signature contribution.

The scope has evolved with the field. Early volumes concentrated on theoretical mechanisms, historical perspectives, and the work–nonwork interface — the foundational questions of stress research. Middle volumes turned to emotion regulation, demographics, individual differences, and the stress effects of the economic crisis that began in 2008. Recent volumes reflect the field's maturation and its response to contemporary working life: entrepreneurial and small-business stressors, the shifting nature of occupational stress in a changing economy, the paradox of stressors that can both build resilience and create depletion, stress and well-being at the strategic level of the firm, and stress and well-being in teams. The trajectory shows a field moving from individual-level mechanisms outward — to teams, to strategy, to the broader economic context.

Methodologically, the series is pluralist, publishing conceptual advances, quantitative studies, qualitative investigations, and integrative reviews. What unites the chapters is not method but ambition: each volume aims to move understanding of its theme forward in a way that a scattered set of journal articles cannot, by concentrating expertise and encouraging authors to engage directly with one another's ideas.

Publication Details

Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being is published as a book series: each themed volume carries its own print, electronic, and ePub ISBNs alongside the series ISSN, and each chapter receives an individual DOI. Volume 22, Stress and Well-Being in Teams (2024), for example, carries print ISBN 978-1-83797-732-1 and electronic ISBN 978-1-83797-731-4 under series ISSN 1479-3555, with volume DOI 10.1108/S1479-3555202422. Libraries acquire the series through Emerald's eBook collections, and chapters are available individually through Emerald's platform, including pay-per-view options.

The themed structure has a practical consequence for discovery: researchers often encounter the series through a volume title relevant to their work (e.g., The Role of Leadership in Occupational Stress) rather than through the series title itself. When citing, always include the volume title and number alongside the series title, plus chapter DOI, so that the thematic context of the work is preserved.

Editorial Leadership

Pamela L. Perrewé of Florida State University is one of the founding figures of the series and among the most influential scholars in occupational stress research. Her work on the role of personality, politics, and social support in the stress process has been cited thousands of times, and her long editorial stewardship has given the series its reputation for theoretical seriousness. She edited the landmark early volumes and continues as a series editor alongside her co-editors.

Peter D. Harms of the University of Alabama researches leadership, personality, and well-being, and is known for work connecting leader behaviour to follower stress and health outcomes. Chu-Hsiang (Daisy) Chang of Michigan State University studies occupational stress, employee well-being, and workplace behaviours, with particular attention to how individual differences shape stress experiences. Together they edited Volumes 20 through 22, including Examining the Paradox of Occupational Stressors (2022), Stress and Well-Being at the Strategic Level (2023), and Stress and Well-Being in Teams (2024).

The series is supported by an editorial review board drawn from the top ranks of stress and organizational-behaviour scholarship. Board members listed in recent volumes include Terry Beehr (Central Michigan University), Yitzhak Fried (Texas Tech University), Dan Ganster (Colorado State University), Leslie Hammer (Portland State University), Russ Johnson (Michigan State University), John Kammeyer-Mueller (University of Minnesota), E. Kevin Kelloway (Saint Mary's University), and Jeff LePine (Arizona State University), among others. The calibre of this board is itself an indicator of the series' standing: these are scholars whose own work defines the field, and their involvement signals the seriousness with which manuscripts are evaluated.

Earlier in the series' history, Christopher C. Rosen of the University of Arkansas served as co-editor alongside Perrewé, editing volumes including Power, Politics, and Political Skill in Job Stress (Volume 15). The transition to the current three-editor team reflects the series' evolution and its broadening thematic reach.

Volume History and Landmark Volumes

Twenty-two themed volumes constitute a systematic map of occupational stress research since the turn of the millennium. The sequence repays attention as an intellectual history of the field.

Volumes 1–4 laid the foundations: Exploring Theoretical Mechanisms and Perspectives, Historical and Current Perspectives on Stress and Health, Emotional and Physiological Processes and Positive Intervention Strategies, and Exploring Interpersonal Dynamics. Volumes 5–8 expanded the territory to employee health and coping methodologies, the work–nonwork interface, job-stress recovery, and new theoretical approaches to job stress. Volumes 9–12 examined individual differences, the economic crisis, emotion and emotion regulation, and demographics — showing the series tracking both enduring questions and the field's response to the Great Recession.

Volumes 13–16 represent a particularly strong run: Mistreatment in Organizations (13), The Role of Leadership in Occupational Stress (14), The Role of Power, Politics, and Influence in Occupational Stress and Well-Being (15), and Occupational Stress and Well-Being in Military Contexts (16). Each took a socially important problem and assembled the researchers best placed to advance it — the mistreatment volume, for instance, consolidated a literature that had been scattered across journals into a coherent statement of what was known about bullying, incivility, and aggression at work.

Volumes 17–19 pushed into less-charted territory: well-being in the marketing discipline, entrepreneurial and small-business stressors, and the shifting nature of occupational stress itself. Volume 20, Examining the Paradox of Occupational Stressors: Building Resilience or Creating Depletion (2022), tackled one of the field's most interesting theoretical puzzles — the evidence that the same stressors can sometimes promote growth and sometimes cause harm — with contributions aimed at resolving or at least mapping the paradox.

Volume 21, Stress and Well-Being at the Strategic Level (2023), moved the lens upward from individuals and teams to the organization as a whole, asking how strategic choices — about business models, growth, restructuring — create or alleviate stress. Volume 22, Stress and Well-Being in Teams (2024), edited by Harms and Chang, examined stress as a collective phenomenon: how stressors are shared, transmitted, and managed within work teams. Together, the two most recent volumes show the series continuing to expand the field's level of analysis — a sign of a healthy, self-renewing research programme.

Indexing and Abstracting

As an edited-volume series, ROSWB is indexed through book and chapter channels. Each chapter carries a Crossref-registered DOI, supporting citation tracking in Google Scholar and in Scopus and Web of Science where citing works are covered. The series is held by research libraries worldwide, with British Library catalogue records for its volumes, and full text is searchable through Emerald's platform and library discovery systems.

For researchers, the practical upshot is that ROSWB chapters are fully citable, peer-reviewed publications that accrue citations and count in assessments recognizing book chapters and edited volumes. Because the volumes are themed, chapters also benefit from collective discovery: a scholar who finds one chapter on, say, abusive supervision will naturally encounter the neighbouring chapters on related forms of mistreatment — a discoverability advantage that scattered journal articles do not offer. Emerald's platform provides abstracts, reference lists, and citation exports in multiple formats for every chapter.

Metrics and Standing

Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being does not carry a Journal Impact Factor — it is a book series rather than a Clarivate-indexed journal, and any "impact factor" quoted for it should be treated with scepticism. Its standing is better assessed through the indicators appropriate to edited volumes: the distinction of its editors and editorial board, the prominence of its contributors, the coherence and influence of its themed volumes, and its continuous publication over more than two decades.

On those measures, the series is a leader in its domain. Occupational stress and well-being is a large, multidisciplinary research area, and ROSWB is one of the few publication venues dedicated specifically to it in long-form, peer-reviewed fashion. Its chapters are routinely cited in journal articles, review papers, and subsequent edited volumes, and several of its themed volumes — on mistreatment, on leadership and stress, on recovery — function as standard references that scholars consult when entering those sub-literatures. For researchers in occupational health psychology and organizational behaviour, a chapter in the series is a recognized scholarly achievement, often weighted comparably to a strong journal article given the invited nature of contributions and the series' selectivity. The presence on its editorial board of scholars such as Beehr, Ganster, Hammer, and Kelloway — names synonymous with stress research — confirms the esteem in which the series is held by the field's leaders.

Submission Guidance

Contributions to Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being are developed through editorial dialogue around the series' themed volumes. Scholars interested in contributing should monitor Emerald's announcements and the series' presence in occupational-health networks for calls for chapters tied to forthcoming themes — the themed structure means that fit with a volume's topic is the first criterion for consideration.

Prospective authors may also approach the series editors with proposals, particularly when they have a distinctive theoretical contribution, an integrative review, or a programme of research that speaks to an announced or anticipated theme. As with any Emerald edited volume, accepted chapters go through peer review and editorial development, and authors work within Emerald's production process on formatting, permissions, and copyright. Individual chapters are copyrighted to their authors and published under exclusive licence to Emerald.

Practical advice: because volumes are themed, the most successful chapters speak directly to the volume's organizing question while making a contribution that outlasts the volume — a conceptual clarification, a critical synthesis, or an empirical advance that other researchers will build on. Engage the interdisciplinary character of the readership: a chapter that speaks only to a narrow methodological tribe will have less impact than one that connects mechanisms to contexts to implications. Write with the practitioner-adjacent reader in mind as well; the series' audience includes occupational-health professionals and managers who need research they can act on. Authors interested in open access should discuss options with Emerald, as arrangements for edited-volume chapters differ from journal workflows.

Who Should Read and Publish Here

The series' core readership is researchers in occupational health psychology, organizational behaviour, and management — faculty and doctoral students — along with scholars in public health, sociology, and related disciplines who study work and well-being. Doctoral seminars on stress, well-being, leadership, and workplace mistreatment routinely assign ROSWB chapters, and the themed volumes serve as efficient, authoritative entry points into sub-literatures.

Beyond academia, the series reaches HR professionals, occupational-health practitioners, consultants, and managers concerned with burnout, turnover, workplace culture, and employee well-being — readers who need rigorous evidence about what causes work stress and what interventions actually help. For authors, the series is the natural home for substantial contributions to stress and well-being scholarship: theoretical advances, definitive reviews, and programmatic empirical work organized around the themes the series takes up. Scholars whose research addresses one of the series' past or anticipated themes will find no more fitting venue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being a journal?
No — it is an annual themed edited-volume book series published by Emerald, carrying series ISSN 1479-3555, with each volume published as a book with its own ISBNs.

Who are the series editors?
Pamela L. Perrewé (Florida State University), Peter D. Harms (University of Alabama), and Chu-Hsiang (Daisy) Chang (Michigan State University). Christopher C. Rosen (University of Arkansas) co-edited earlier volumes.

What is the ISSN and series DOI?
Print ISSN 1479-3555; series DOI 10.1108/roswb.

How does the themed-volume format work?
Each annual volume explores one specific theme (e.g., mistreatment, leadership and stress, well-being in teams), with chapters commissioned from leading researchers on that theme.

How many volumes have appeared?
Twenty-two; Volume 22, Stress and Well-Being in Teams, was published in 2024.

Is it peer-reviewed?
Yes — chapters are developed with the series editors and an editorial review board, and undergo peer review consistent with Emerald's book-publishing standards.

Does it have an impact factor?
No Journal Impact Factor is assigned to book series. The series' standing rests on its editors, board, contributors, and citation influence.

Is content open access?
Volumes are subscription-based, with individual chapter purchase and pay-per-view options. Authors interested in open access should consult Emerald's current policies for edited volumes.

How do I cite a chapter?
By chapter DOI (series prefix 10.1108/roswb), with volume title, volume number, volume year, series title, and Emerald as publisher.

Who sits on the editorial review board?
Leading stress researchers including Terry Beehr, Dan Ganster, Leslie Hammer, E. Kevin Kelloway, Jeff LePine, Yitzhak Fried, Russ Johnson, and John Kammeyer-Mueller, among others (as listed in recent volumes).

Content batch identifier: DEPTH-BATCH201