Business Process Management Journal: Scopus, Metrics & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Business Process Management Journal?

Business Process Management Journal is a peer-reviewed management journal published by Emerald Publishing. Its stated purpose is to examine how business processes that are central to organizational efficiency and effectiveness are integrated and managed for competitive success, while disseminating good practice in business process management.

The journal covers both established BPM concerns and technology-enabled process questions. Its official scope includes business process management in eBusiness, eCommerce and eGovernment; enterprise application integration; ERP, CRM and supply-chain systems; knowledge management; process modelling and analysis; continuous improvement; performance management; change management; and BPM case studies.

Emerald’s current indexing list includes Scopus, and the source record supplied for this profile identifies Scopus Source ID 145291. Researchers should still verify the live Scopus source profile when their university, doctoral programme or funding body imposes a specific indexing or coverage requirement.

Key Takeaways for Researchers

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing; official ISSN 1463-7154 and eISSN 1758-4116.
• Core focus: management, design, integration and improvement of business processes, including digital and organizational dimensions.
• Indexing: Emerald currently lists Scopus and the Social Science Citation Index among the journal’s abstracting and indexing services.
• 2025 metrics displayed by Emerald: CiteScore 9.8, Journal Impact Factor 5.8 and five-year Impact Factor 5.4.
• Submission format: 8,000–10,000 words, structured abstract up to 250 words, up to 12 keywords and Harvard references.
• Review: double-anonymous, with at least two independent referees for manuscripts sent to peer review.
• Publisher-reported workflow data: 28 days to first decision, 15.5% acceptance rate for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and 33 days from acceptance to publication for the previous 12 months as last updated in April 2025.
• Open access: optional gold open access is available after acceptance; green open-access sharing is also supported under Emerald’s policy. Current APCs should be checked before choosing gold OA.

Business Process Management Journal at a Glance

The table separates stable journal identifiers from time-sensitive metrics. Values that change by reporting year are dated deliberately.

Metrics can move from one reporting cycle to the next. For institutional decisions, treat the latest Scopus and Clarivate records as the final check rather than relying on an undated third-party metric page.

What This Journal Guide Covers

• the journal’s aims, scope and likely readership;
• Scopus, SSCI and other verified indexing information;
• dated CiteScore, Impact Factor, SJR, SNIP and quartile context;
• official article categories and manuscript requirements;
• submission through ScholarOne and double-anonymous review;
• gold and green open-access arrangements and fee cautions;
• publication ethics and Emerald’s current generative-AI expectations;
• a practical fit framework, examples and pre-submission checklist.

How This Profile Was Researched

This profile prioritizes the current Emerald journal and author-guideline page, the supplied Scopus source identity, and official publisher policies. Scopus is used as the indexing reference point, while Wageningen University’s journal browser is used only to add dated 2024 Scopus metrics such as SJR, SNIP and category quartiles that are not all exposed on Emerald’s public page.

Journal information is time-sensitive. Indexing, editors, calls for papers, metrics, open-access prices and submission rules can change. The purpose of this page is therefore to provide a well-sourced decision guide, not to replace the journal’s current author instructions or the live database record.

Business Process Management Journal Aims, Scope and Research Themes

BPMJ is centered on the process view of organizations: how work is organized into processes, how those processes interact with technology and people, and how better process management can support efficiency, effectiveness and competitive performance. The scope is broader than a narrow “process mapping” journal. It joins operations and management questions with digital systems, organizational learning, performance and change.

Areas explicitly included in the journal’s scope

• BPM in eBusiness, eCommerce and eGovernment;
• web-based enterprise application integration;
• electronic BPM and enterprise systems, including ERP, CRM, application service providers and supply-chain management;
• knowledge management and the learning organization;
• business-process modelling, analysis and design methods, techniques and tools;
• the shift from one-off business process re-engineering toward continuous improvement;
• best practices in business process management;
• performance management;
• change-management tools and techniques;
• business process management case studies.

What that scope means for manuscript fit

A paper does not need to use “BPM” in every sentence, but its contribution should be intelligible to a process-management audience. A study of artificial intelligence, sustainability, supply-chain resilience or digital transformation may fit when the process implications are central to the research question and discussion. The same topic may be a weak match when BPM is only a peripheral application context.

Based on the journal’s stated scope, potentially relevant research themes include process mining and analytics, robotic process automation, AI-enabled workflow redesign, process governance, digital transformation capabilities, process innovation, supply-chain process resilience, knowledge-intensive processes, customer-process integration, public-sector process transformation, process standardization versus flexibility, performance measurement, continuous improvement and organizational change. These are practical examples derived from the scope, not an exhaustive official topic list.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

For researchers whose institutions require database visibility, BPMJ has a clear current signal: Emerald lists Scopus and ISI: Social Science Citation Index in its indexing section. The journal is also listed by Emerald in services including EBSCO Business Source products, DBLP, INSPEC, ProQuest, ReadCube Discover and TOC Premier.

Quartiles deserve particular care. The Wageningen record reports BPMJ in Q1 for 2024 in both Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous) and Business and International Management, with different percentile positions in each category. A researcher should therefore say “Q1 in the applicable 2024 Scopus category” rather than simply describing the journal as “Q1” without a year or category.

Publisher and Editorial Leadership

BPMJ is published by Emerald Publishing. The journal’s current public editorial listing names Professor Elena-Madalina Vatamanescu of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania, as Editor-in-Chief and Professor Simona Popa of the University of Murcia, Spain, as Managing Editor. The page also lists associate editors from institutions across several countries and identifies Professor Mohamed Zairi as Founding Editor.

For an author, editorial names are less important than the expertise represented by the editorial structure. The team spans process management, international business, digitalization, innovation and management-related research, which is consistent with the journal’s interdisciplinary process focus. Editorial appointments can change, so prospective authors should use the official page as the current source before submission.

What Does Business Process Management Journal Publish?

The official author instructions classify submissions as Original Articles and provide five article categories: research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper and case study. This range allows empirical, conceptual and practice-connected contributions, but the article must still make a clear contribution to the journal’s BPM-oriented readership.

Before selecting a category, compare the manuscript with recently published BPMJ papers using similar methods or theoretical framing. That is a publication-readiness step, not an official requirement, but it can reveal whether the paper is speaking to the journal’s actual research conversation.

Is This Journal a Good Match for Your Research?

A strong match begins with the research contribution, not the journal metric. Use four tests: process centrality, audience relevance, article-type compatibility and evidence of recent editorial interest.

Journal-fit checklist

• Is a business process, process capability, process architecture or process-management problem central to the research question?
• Does the discussion explain why the findings matter for BPM theory, methods, organizational practice or process-enabled digital transformation?
• Does the journal publish the type of paper you have prepared?
• Can you connect the manuscript to recent BPMJ conversations without inserting irrelevant citations merely to target the journal?
• Does the methodology support the claims and contribution you make?
• Will BPMJ readers understand why the problem matters beyond the specific organization, country or technology studied?
• Can the manuscript meet the 8,000–10,000-word range and structured-abstract requirements?
• Does the journal’s current indexing meet your institution’s rules?
• Do you understand the optional open-access route and any potential APC before submission?

A manuscript can be excellent research and still be a weak BPMJ submission if the process contribution is incidental. In that situation, choosing a journal closer to the paper’s primary disciplinary argument is usually more defensible than rewriting the title and keywords to make the paper look process-oriented.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Length, title, abstract and keywords

Emerald states that BPMJ articles should be 8,000–10,000 words. The total includes the structured abstract, references, all text in tables and figures, and appendices. Authors are asked to allow 250 words for each figure or table when considering the limit.

The title should be concise. The structured abstract must be no more than 250 words, including keywords and article classification. The mandatory headings are Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality. Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications are optional when relevant. Authors can provide up to 12 keywords.

Author information and anonymity

Author names and affiliations are entered in ScholarOne rather than left in the review manuscript. Each contributing author needs a ScholarOne account, and the corresponding author should ensure that all legitimate contributors are listed in the intended publication order. Because BPMJ uses double-anonymous review, the manuscript should be checked for names and other identifying material, including identifiers hidden in figures or captions. Acknowledgements and author biographies are uploaded separately; Emerald says biographies, if supplied, should not exceed 100 words.

References, files and declarations

The journal uses Harvard referencing. Emerald accepts a recognised Harvard variant at submission and may standardize accepted manuscripts during production. A DOI should be included at the end of a reference when one is available. Authors should also prepare appropriate funding disclosure, conflict-of-interest information, permissions and research-ethics documentation where applicable.

Where to submit

The corresponding author must submit directly through the journal’s ScholarOne system reached from the Emerald journal page. Emerald explicitly states that manuscripts should not be submitted by email, through a third-party agent, or by a proxy acting on the authors’ behalf.

What Happens After You Submit a Manuscript?

The process begins with editorial-office screening. A paper can be declined or returned before external review if it does not meet journal policy, falls outside scope or has language or manuscript-quality problems that prevent effective evaluation. Manuscripts that proceed are sent to at least two independent referees under a double-anonymous model.

Emerald currently reports a 28-day time to first decision. Its author guidance also states a general aim to communicate a first decision within 60 days. These figures are not contradictory: one is a current publisher-reported observed metric and the other is an editorial service goal. Neither guarantees how long a particular submission will take, because reviewer availability, revision rounds and manuscript complexity vary.

The journal page reports an acceptance rate of 15.5% for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and 33 days from acceptance to publication for the previous 12 months, last updated in April 2025. These statistics are useful context, but authors should not convert them into an individual “chance of acceptance.” Editorial decisions depend on the submitted study, scope fit, evidence, reporting quality and peer review.

After acceptance and proofing, Emerald publishes the version of record online as EarlyCite before it is assigned to a volume or issue. The EarlyCite article has a DOI and is fully citable.

Open Access, APCs and Author Rights

BPMJ offers an optional gold open-access route rather than requiring every article to be open access. Emerald says authors choose gold OA after acceptance and that an article processing charge applies according to the journal’s current price list, institutional arrangements and applicable agreements. Because APC schedules can change, this profile does not freeze a fee amount into the page; authors should confirm the current charge in Emerald’s open-access information immediately before making the choice.

Emerald also supports green open access for the accepted manuscript under its policy. Its public guidance states that the accepted manuscript can be made openly available without payment and without an embargo once the article is published, subject to the policy conditions. Gold OA articles are published under a Creative Commons licence; Emerald’s current guidance describes CC BY 4.0 as the standard gold-OA licence.

Authors who have a funder mandate should check whether their required licence, repository route and timing are covered by an institutional or national agreement. Choosing open access is separate from the editorial decision: Emerald states that payment is requested only when an author chooses gold OA and only after acceptance.

Publication Ethics and Generative-AI Policy

Emerald’s publishing policies are aligned with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For authors, that translates into familiar but consequential responsibilities: submit original work, avoid simultaneous submission, represent authorship accurately, disclose conflicts and funding, obtain permissions, report research involving people ethically and avoid fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation and plagiarism. Emerald uses Crossref Similarity Check as part of its publishing controls.

The publisher’s current generative-AI policy is particularly relevant. Large language models cannot be credited as authors. Authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, citations and the integrity of the submission. Emerald requires disclosure of generative-AI use that creates or modifies content, including the tool and version, while routine spelling and grammar tools are excluded from that disclosure expectation.

Emerald distinguishes between copy-editing an author’s existing original work and using generative AI to write new submission text. Its current policy permits responsible AI-assisted refinement of existing author-written material with transparency, but does not permit generative-AI copywriting that creates new text for the submission. Researchers should re-check the policy immediately before submission because publisher rules in this area continue to evolve.

Recent Research Directions and Current Call for Papers

The journal’s recent material shows a BPM conversation that extends into digital transformation, AI, sustainability, supply-chain risk and green innovation. Emerald’s featured and popular content has included work on AI business value through BPM capabilities, ESG-related innovation, digital transformation and risk-oriented process questions. These themes do not replace the formal aims and scope, but they help researchers understand how the journal is applying process-management thinking to contemporary organizational problems.

As of 11 August 2026, Emerald lists a current special-issue call titled “Algorithmic and behavioral biases in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in work processes: organizational, ethical, and socio-technical implications”, with a closing date of 31 July 2027. A separate VUCA-world call shown on the page closed in June 2025 and should not be treated as current. Authors considering a special issue should read the live call because thematic requirements and deadlines can change.

Practical Journal-Fit Examples

Strong process-centered fit

A study examines how process-mining insights change exception handling and continuous-improvement decisions across a multinational service process. The BPM contribution is explicit, the unit of analysis is process-related and the implications extend beyond the software itself. This looks plausibly aligned, subject to method and novelty.

Digital topic but weak process fit

A paper predicts consumer adoption of a mobile app using a standard technology-acceptance model but does not study a business process, process capability or organizational workflow. Even if the paper is well executed, BPMJ may not be the natural audience unless the research question is genuinely reframed around process management for substantive reasons.

Case study with transferable learning

An organization documents a multi-year transition from business process re-engineering to continuous improvement. A descriptive chronology alone may be insufficient; a stronger BPMJ case would explain the mechanism, evidence and transferable process-management insight.

ESL manuscript with strong research

A researcher has robust data on supply-chain process resilience but the abstract, contribution statement and discussion are difficult to follow. Academic editing can help readers see the actual argument, but it should preserve the researcher’s meaning and must not manufacture a contribution the study does not support.

Major revision

If reviewers request clearer theoretical positioning and additional robustness analysis, the response should address every comment point by point, identify where changes were made, provide evidence for any respectful disagreement and ensure the revised manuscript and response letter tell the same story.

Pre-Submission Checklist for BPMJ

• Confirm the current Emerald aims and scope and compare the manuscript with recent BPMJ papers.
• Verify the current Scopus/JCR status if your institution has a formal indexing requirement.
• Select the correct official article category.
• Keep the article within the current 8,000–10,000-word requirement.
• Use a structured abstract no longer than 250 words and include mandatory headings.
• Use no more than 12 keywords.
• Remove names and identifying information from the peer-review manuscript.
• Enter all legitimate authors accurately in ScholarOne and confirm author order.
• Place acknowledgements and biographies in separate files; keep any biography within the stated 100-word limit.
• Check Harvard citations and the alphabetical reference list; add DOI information where available.
• Review tables and figures for legibility, permissions and identifying metadata.
• Include appropriate funding, conflict-of-interest, data and ethics information where relevant.
• Check originality and citation accuracy; do not submit the manuscript simultaneously elsewhere.
• Review Emerald’s current generative-AI policy and disclose permitted use where required.
• Understand the gold/green open-access choices and verify any current APC before selecting gold OA.
• Submit directly through BPMJ ScholarOne as the corresponding author.
• Make sure every co-author has approved the final manuscript and submission.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Authors Preparing for BPMJ

Preparing for Business Process Management Journal involves more than correcting grammar. The manuscript needs a visible BPM contribution, a structured abstract that reflects the study accurately, disciplined use of the 8,000–10,000-word allowance, consistent Harvard references, clear tables and figures, and a review-ready anonymous file.

Contentxprtz can support authors with journal-scope alignment review, manuscript assessment, academic editing, proofreading, ESL language polishing, abstract refinement, structure improvement, formatting, reference checks, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and publication-readiness review. Support should strengthen the communication of the author’s own research rather than fabricate data, citations, results or authorship.

Contentxprtz does not control editorial decisions and does not guarantee acceptance or publication. The purpose of professional support is to help authors present their own research clearly, accurately, ethically and in line with the journal’s current requirements.

Explore manuscript and journal-publication readiness support.

Summary: Business Process Management Journal

Business Process Management Journal is an Emerald journal for research in which business processes and their management are central to organizational performance, transformation and improvement. Its scope spans classic BPM methods and continuous improvement as well as process-related digital systems, knowledge management, performance, change and contemporary technology questions.

Emerald currently lists the journal in Scopus and the Social Science Citation Index and displays a 2025 CiteScore of 9.8 and a 2025 Impact Factor of 5.8. The journal uses double-anonymous review, accepts several Original Article categories, and requires 8,000–10,000-word manuscripts with a structured abstract and Harvard references. Optional gold and green open-access routes are available under Emerald policy.

The best reason to submit is not a metric alone. A prospective author should be able to show that the manuscript addresses a process-management question that matters to BPMJ’s readership and can meet the journal’s reporting, ethics and submission requirements. Reconfirm the live Emerald author guidelines, Scopus record and any relevant open-access charge before submission.

Final Journal-Selection Note

BPMJ may be a strong option for researchers whose manuscript makes a substantive contribution to business process management and can speak to the journal’s interdisciplinary management audience. Researchers should verify the newest author instructions and database status immediately before submission, particularly when publication is tied to doctoral, funding or promotion requirements. Scope alignment, methodological credibility, ethical reporting and clear scholarly communication remain more important than attempting to optimize for a metric label.