Industrial and Commercial Training: Scopus Indexing, Journal Metrics, Scope and Submission Guide

Key Takeaways for Prospective Authors

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing; ISSN 0019-7858 and eISSN 1758-5767.
• Scopus Source ID supplied for the journal: 145250; Emerald currently lists Scopus among its rankings.
• 2025 CiteScore: 5.5; 2025 Journal Impact Factor: 2.1; 5-year Impact Factor for 2025: 2.3.
• Scope centres on training and development in organisational settings, with strong practical implications expected.
• Articles are generally expected to be 3,500–5,500 words, including the structured abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices.
• Review is double-anonymous and suitable papers are sent to at least two independent referees.
• Gold open access is optional for this hybrid journal; Emerald’s 2026 standard hybrid APC is £3,222 / $4,351 / €3,710 plus VAT where applicable.
• Professional editing or formatting can improve readiness, but no service can guarantee editorial acceptance or publication.

Industrial and Commercial Training at a Glance

Metric caution: CiteScore, CiteScore Tracker, Impact Factor, acceptance rate and processing-time statistics refer to specific reporting periods. Do not reuse them in a thesis, promotion file or institutional assessment without checking the live journal and database records.

What This Guide Covers

• Aims and scope
• Indexing and metrics
• Topic fit
• Article types
• Manuscript format
• Peer review
• Open access and fees
• Ethics and AI policy
• Submission workflow

Methodology and Sources

This guide was prepared from the supplied Scopus source record and the current official Emerald journal page and author instructions. The publisher page was used for the journal’s aims and scope, manuscript requirements, editorial process, metrics, acceptance-rate and timeline data, indexing statements, editorial leadership and open-access information. The supplied source record was used for Scopus Source ID 145250 and its direct Scopus source profile.

Emerald’s 2026 open-access pricing page was used for the standard hybrid APC. The journal’s ethics framework links to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Because indexing, metrics, fees, editorial teams and policies change, authors should reconfirm all decision-critical information immediately before submission.

Aims and Scope: What Research Does ICT Want?

ICT wants evidence-based work in which training or development is central to the research problem and the practical contribution is explicit. Emerald describes the journal as a bridge between theory and practice: theory should inform practice-based approaches, and contributions are expected to explain their relevance and implications for people involved in training.

The published scope is broad within that core. It includes action learning, career and leadership development, coaching, competency-based development, cross-cultural training, diversity, e-learning and blended learning, employability, engagement, evaluation of training, high-performance work systems, human and social capital, knowledge management, learning organisations, mentoring, organisational development and learning, performance improvement, talent and team development, public- and third-sector training, sustainability-related training and vocational education and training.

That breadth should not be mistaken for a general business-and-management remit. Emerald explicitly notes that studies of industrial or commercial enterprises are out of scope when they do not primarily focus on training or development. A study of leadership, burnout, AI adoption or employee performance may be relevant only when its research question, theory and implications are meaningfully connected to learning, development, training practice or capability-building.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

The journal may suit academics in human resource development, workplace learning, organisation development, management education and related fields; practitioners who can present rigorous evidence from organisational interventions; and interdisciplinary researchers studying how people and organisations build capability. It can also be relevant for PhD-derived papers when the article is shaped around a focused training/development contribution rather than presenting an entire thesis chapter unchanged.

For researchers evaluating fit, compare the manuscript with several recent ICT papers. Look for alignment in the problem being solved, the type of evidence used, the balance of theory and practice, and the explicitness of practical implications. This is general publication guidance, not an additional Emerald requirement.

Article Types and Manuscript Categories

Emerald’s submission workflow lists article classifications including Article, Book Review and News, and asks authors to select a paper category such as research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper or case study. For most academic researchers, the practical choice will be the category that best reflects what the manuscript actually does.

Scopus Indexing, Impact Factor and Journal Metrics

Industrial and Commercial Training is presented by Emerald as a Scopus-ranked journal. The supplied source record gives Scopus Source ID 145250, and the publisher reports a 2025 CiteScore of 5.5. At the time of this guide, Emerald also displays a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 5.6, which is a live, monthly updated indicator rather than the final annual CiteScore.

Emerald reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 2.1 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 2.3. It also lists the journal in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) among its abstracting and indexing services. The current Emerald page reviewed here does not display SJR, SNIP or a Scopus quartile, so those values are deliberately not invented. Authors whose university requires a specific quartile should verify the current category and reporting year directly in the applicable database.

Do not use one metric as a proxy for journal fit. Indexing can matter for institutional requirements, but editors still screen for scope, contribution, evidence quality, clarity and compliance with journal instructions.

Manuscript Requirements Before Submission

The official author instructions set a 3,500–5,500 word range. That count includes the structured abstract, references, text in tables and figures, and appendices; Emerald asks authors to allow 520 words for each figure or table. Article files should be supplied in Microsoft Word. A PDF may accompany a Word file, but PDF alone is not accepted; LaTeX can be used with an accompanying PDF.

Every submission needs a concise title and a structured abstract of no more than 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification. Required abstract headings are Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality; Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications are optional where applicable. Authors may supply up to 12 concise keywords.

References must use a recognised Harvard style. Emerald accepts its own Harvard variant and indicates that another recognised Harvard style is acceptable, provided references are complete, accurate and consistent. Tables should be submitted separately, numbered consecutively in Roman numerals, and their intended positions clearly marked in the main manuscript.

Peer Review and Editorial Decision Process

ICT uses double-anonymous peer review. Each submission is first screened by the editorial office for compliance, scope and manuscript quality. If the paper is considered potentially suitable, Emerald states that it is sent to at least two independent referees. The editor may then accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the paper.

The publisher’s metrics panel reports an average time to first decision of 80 days for submissions between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. Elsewhere in the author instructions, Emerald says its goal is to inform authors of the first decision within 60 days. These are not guarantees; the difference is a useful reminder that operational averages and editorial targets can coexist. The page also reports 43 days from acceptance to publication based on the previous 12 months, updated April 2025.

Emerald reports a 31.1% acceptance rate for the same April 2024–March 2025 submissions window. This is historical publisher data, not an estimate of any individual manuscript’s probability of acceptance.

Open Access, APCs and Author Charges

Industrial and Commercial Training is a hybrid journal: authors can publish through the usual subscription route or choose gold open access after acceptance. Emerald’s 2026 standard APC for hybrid journals is £3,222 / $4,351 / €3,710 plus VAT where applicable. The publisher also maintains institutional agreements and funding arrangements, so the amount payable by an individual author may differ.

Emerald also offers a green open-access route. Its policy states that the author accepted manuscript can be made openly available upon official publication without an embargo period. Authors should check their funder, institutional repository and licence requirements before deciding which route to use.

There is no normal submission or peer-review fee for the non-gold route; Emerald states that payment is requested only when an author chooses gold open access, and only after acceptance. Confirm the current APC on the publisher page at the point of submission.

Research Ethics, Originality and AI Use

Emerald states that submitted manuscripts should be original, not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere, and compliant with its research and publishing ethics guidance. Conflicts of interest must be declared, third-party permissions secured, and relevant ethical approval considered for studies involving human participants. The publisher follows COPE guidance and may use Crossref Similarity Check.

Authors should pay particular attention to Emerald’s current AI policy. The publisher states that generative AI must not be credited as an author, requires transparency around permissible AI use, and distinguishes between generating new submission content and using AI-assisted copy-editing on the author’s own original work. Because AI policies are evolving, authors should read the live policy rather than rely on old summaries.

Contentxprtz support should remain within these boundaries: language editing, proofreading, formatting, citation consistency, manuscript assessment and publication-readiness guidance can assist an author, but the author must retain responsibility for the research, arguments, evidence, authorship and final submission.

How to Submit to Industrial and Commercial Training

1. Read the live aims and scope and compare your paper with recent ICT articles.
2. Prepare the anonymised manuscript and separate author/biographical material according to the author instructions.
3. Confirm structured abstract, keywords, word count, tables, references, funding, ethics and permissions.
4. Open the official Emerald journal page and enter the journal’s ScholarOne submission system.
5. The corresponding author submits the manuscript directly. Emerald explicitly states that submission must not be made by email, third-party agents or proxy services.
6. Save the manuscript number and use ScholarOne to track status and respond to editorial requests.

Emerald also recommends adding an ORCID iD during submission. If you are unsure about fit after reading the scope, the journal FAQ says you may contact the editor with the paper title and structured abstract for suitability guidance.

A Practical Journal-Fit Test

Before investing time in formatting, test the manuscript against four questions. First, is training, development or workplace learning the primary scholarly problem? Second, does the paper offer evidence rather than only broad commentary? Third, are the practical implications for trainers, HRD professionals, managers or organisational-development practitioners specific? Fourth, does the manuscript resemble the type of work the journal is currently publishing?

How to Prepare a Stronger, Journal-Aligned Manuscript

As a practical publication-readiness step, write the contribution around the journal’s central bridge between evidence, theory and practice. A strong paper should make it easy for an editor to see what problem in training or development is being addressed, why existing knowledge is insufficient, how the study answers that gap, and what practitioners can do differently because of the findings.

Check the abstract against the full paper: Purpose should state the problem and objective, Design/methodology/approach should accurately describe the evidence, Findings should report the main result rather than generic conclusions, and Originality should identify the distinctive contribution without overclaiming novelty. Then audit the discussion to ensure practical implications are evidence-based rather than added as a final paragraph.

For thesis-derived papers, reduce background material and reshape the work around one publishable question. For ESL authors, language polishing can help reviewers engage with the research, but editing should not introduce new claims, data or citations that the author has not verified.

After Submission: What Authors Can Expect

After ScholarOne submission, the corresponding author receives confirmation and a manuscript number. The editorial office screens the paper before peer review. If revisions are requested, respond point-by-point to reviewer comments, indicate where changes were made and explain respectfully when a suggestion is not adopted. This is good scholarly practice and does not guarantee acceptance.

Once accepted and licensing is completed, Emerald carries out production checks, copyediting and typesetting. The corresponding author receives proofs for correction of production or factual errors; the proof stage is not intended for major rewriting. Emerald then publishes the fully typeset version online as EarlyCite before later issue assignment.

How Contentxprtz Can Ethically Support ICT Submission Readiness

Contentxprtz can support researchers by reviewing whether a manuscript clearly communicates its contribution, editing language and structure, checking consistency with journal formatting, reviewing citations and references, polishing the cover letter and helping authors organise responses to reviewers. Related support may include academic editing, proofreading and publication-readiness review.

Such support should improve communication—not manufacture research. Contentxprtz cannot guarantee acceptance, publication, indexing, review outcomes or citation performance, and it should not submit a paper in an author’s place where the publisher requires direct author submission.