The Bible of publishing: a perspective inspired by Don Lehmann

What constitutes good research, and how should it be evaluated and communicated in scholarly publishing? Drawing on nearly 25 years of editorial experience at leading marketing journals, we develop a unified perspective on the research and publication process, inspired by the legacy of Don Lehmann. We conceptualize good research as work that is interesting, important, and not wrong, and examine how trade-offs among these dimensions shape scholarly output. We contend that prevailing publication norms often overemphasize methodological sophistication and formal metrics, at the expense of interestingness and importance. In contrast, impactful research prioritizes meaningful questions, aligns methods with the problem, and communicates insights clearly. We want to stimulate a reorientation toward research that truly advances knowledge and practice. For researchers, we provide actionable guidance on how to craft work that is both publishable and influential. For editors and reviewers, we offer principles for decision-making and reducing type II errors—rejecting potentially high-impact work. For institutions, we challenge the reliance on imperfect metrics and call for better evaluation systems. Ultimately, we argue that the future of marketing scholarship depends not on maximizing publication counts, but on generating insights that are worth knowing, robust enough to trust, and consequential enough to matter.