Dear I.C.B.C. 2014 Competitors,

It has been brought to our attention that under the current rule structure, teams would be incentivized to not cite any or all sources they may use in preparing their Preliminary Round submissions in the interest of meeting page limit requirements. As such, we have included a couple of rule revisions to promote proper citations and to ease exhibit formatting in general. However, we would first like to remind competitors of two things:

1. I.C.B.C. is an academic case competition, and students are representatives of their respective universities. As such, all submissions are expected to be in accordance with academic integrity guidelines of both competitors’ schools as well as those of the host school, Queen’s School of Business (http://www.queensu.ca/calendars/business/pg208.html). Please note that citations of the I.C.B.C. 2014 Preliminary Round cases themselves are not necessary.
2. I.C.B.C. is case driven. Most if not all of the information used in Preliminary Round submissions should be from the case itself. While outside sources are permitted in the Preliminary Round, and may aid a submission, they should only be used as a supplement to material from the case.

With regard to rule revisions and explanations, please see below:

What Competitors Can Research

I.C.B.C. competitors are able to use any outside resources that the reasonable and typical undergraduate student would be able to access. For example, password-protected databases and discussions with personal connections would not be permissible. Competitors are reminded that discussion of case content with anyone outside that specific event team is not permitted, as agreed in the ethics forms. For example, the accounting team cannot discuss case content with the marketing team. Outside advice is only permitted for general case and case competition advice, library services, logistics support, and photocopying support.

Footnotes, Endnotes and Citations

As per standard academic integrity guidelines, competitors are expected to source any outside resources. We have determined that it is best if competitors source using endnotes. An “Endnotes Page” with all citations used will NOT COUNT against either the 5-page exhibit page limit or the 5-page report page limit. Please note that any content in the endnotes other than citations in a standard format will result in deductions. MLA, APA, Chicago and other standard formats are all permitted; the expectation is that teams will be consistent. As such, in-text citations could be considered redundant at this point, and would be a waste of space. Also, since outside sources are now expected to be listed as endnotes, we see no further purpose for footnotes. As such, footnote usage will now result in deductions.

Exhibit Formatting

It has been brought to our attention that certain types of information, such as spreadsheets, do not display well on portrait page orientation, particularly given the standard I.C.B.C. font size, font style and margin requirements. As such, we would now like to permit teams to use landscape orientation for any of their exhibit pages. We understand that this may result in further formatting challenges (ex. Some exhibits on portrait pages, others on landscape pages), and have decided that teams can have different exhibits on different Word and PDF documents, provided the total submission length falls within I.C.B.C. guidelines. We would request, however, that if such an approach is used, that documents are numbered, with the total number of documents included. (For example, if the team decides to have the report and endnotes as part of one document, a second document for a few exhibits on portrait oriented paper, and a third document for a few exhibits on landscape oriented paper, then the report and endnotes would be (1 of 3), the portrait exhibits would be (2 of 3) and the landscape exhibits would be (3 of 3)). Teams are of course reminded that all documents must be submitted in both Word and PDF formatting.

These rule changes were intended to simplify the citation process and level the playing field between competitors that may have distinct outside resource advantages or disadvantages. We apologize to all teams for any inconvenience these changes may cause – particularly those teams forced to convert either in-text citations or footnotes to endnotes, and to teams that have already done substantial exhibit formatting. Please contact the co-chairpersons with questions and comments specific to the above rule changes at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it instead of the University Liaison, Chloe Tait.

To download a copy of the Preliminary Round case submission format requirements for ICBC 2014, please click here.

To download a copy of the I.C.B.C. 2014 Preliminary Round Rules, please click here.

Best of luck with the Preliminary Round.

Kindest Regards,

Samir Kulkarni and Ziming Yang
Co-Chairs | 2014 Inter-Collegiate Business Competition
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