International Journal of Accounting and Information Management: Scopus, Scope & Submission Guide

What this page covers

• Aims and scope
• Scopus and indexing
• Current metrics
• Topic and article fit
• Author requirements
• Peer-review process
• Open access and fees
• Publication ethics
• Submission workflow

Methodology and source approach

This profile prioritises the official Emerald journal page, including its author guidelines, editorial information, metrics, review process and scope. It also uses the Scopus Source ID supplied with the task and links directly to the Scopus source profile. Where a metric such as SJR, SNIP or category-specific quartile could not be verified from a directly accessible official record during preparation, the guide deliberately avoids importing a value from an SEO directory.

Journal metrics, editorial teams, fees, indexing coverage and policies can change. A researcher using these details for PhD, promotion, funding or institutional compliance should therefore reconfirm the live database record and author instructions immediately before submission.

International Journal of Accounting and Information Management aims and scope

IJAIM's scope is best understood as an intersectional one. Emerald states that it publishes research in accounting, finance and information management, with particular emphasis on how these areas interact internationally and across private and public sectors. The journal also describes its role as bridging a knowledge gap between researchers and practitioners, so work with implications for financial-information users, preparers and decision-makers can be especially relevant when it retains clear scholarly rigour.

Recent papers highlighted by Emerald reinforce this breadth: integrated reporting disclosures in Indian listed companies, managerial overconfidence and corporate corruption risk, board gender diversity, emerging technologies in accounting, ESG-related disclosure, and audit-report lag all appear on the publisher's featured lists. For a potential author, the pattern suggests that the journal welcomes quantitative and governance-oriented work as well as technology and reporting studies, provided the question speaks clearly to its accounting-and-information-management readership.

Who should consider submitting?

The strongest candidate manuscript is one whose research question, literature base and contribution can be explained convincingly to readers interested in accounting or finance and the management, systems or decision use of information. A paper does not need to mention every part of the journal's title, but a generic management study with only superficial accounting terminology may struggle to show editorial fit.

PhD scholars and early-career researchers can consider IJAIM if the study is mature enough for a selective international journal. The publisher-reported 10.4% acceptance rate signals that scope fit and execution matter. It should not be interpreted as a fixed probability for any individual author.

Indexing, CiteScore and Impact Factor

Emerald explicitly lists Scopus among the databases indexing IJAIM. It also lists Accounting & Tax Periodicals, EBSCO Academic Search and Business Source products, ProQuest Central, ReadCube Discover, Summon and Zetoc. Researchers whose university requires Scopus should use the live source record rather than a screenshot or old journal list because database coverage can change.

For citation metrics, Emerald currently displays CiteScore 2025: 9.9, along with a CiteScore Tracker for 2026 that is updated monthly. A tracker is provisional by nature and should not be presented as the completed annual CiteScore. The same journal page reports a 2025 Impact Factor of 4.9 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 5.5.

Article types and manuscript classification

During submission, Emerald asks authors to select an article type such as Research Paper, Practitioner Paper, Educational Paper, Theoretical Paper or Book Review. The guidelines also describe content categories including research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper, case study, literature review and general review. Authors should choose the closest classification available in ScholarOne rather than forcing the manuscript into a label that does not reflect what it actually does.

For example, an empirical study testing a model of technology adoption in accounting would naturally fall under a research-paper classification. A paper developing propositions around accounting information governance could be conceptual. A review should genuinely synthesise or critique literature rather than simply place a long literature section around a narrow empirical study.

Manuscript requirements authors should prepare for

The current IJAIM author guidelines are detailed enough that formatting can be checked before submission rather than after a desk return. The most consequential requirements are below.

1. Length: prepare an article of 5,000–8,000 words. Emerald says this count includes the structured abstract, references, text in tables and figures, and appendices, with 250 words allowed for each figure or table.
2. File format: submit the article in Microsoft Word. A PDF may accompany it but is not acceptable by itself. LaTeX can be used with an accompanying PDF.
3. Structured abstract: include Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality. Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications are optional when applicable.
4. Abstract limit: the abstract, keywords and article classification together should not exceed 250 words.
5. Keywords: provide up to 12 concise terms describing the main topics.
6. References: use a recognised Harvard style consistently and include DOIs where available.
7. Tables and figures: follow Emerald's separate submission and caption requirements, ensure high-quality figures and remove author-identifying information where it could compromise anonymous review.
8. Funding and authorship: disclose external research funding and list only genuine contributors as authors; acknowledgements and biographies should be uploaded separately where required.

How submission and peer review work

The corresponding author submits through the journal's ScholarOne editorial system. Emerald states that this is the only submission route and that authors should submit directly rather than by email or through a third-party proxy. Authors are also encouraged to add an ORCID during the submission process.

After submission, the editorial office screens the manuscript. A paper may be declined or returned if it does not meet the journal's policies, aims and scope, or if the language/manuscript quality is considered too low. Suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two independent referees under a double-anonymous process. Review outcomes can include acceptance, minor revision, major revision or rejection.

Emerald's operational data reports 52 days to first decision for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and the author guidelines state a goal of a first decision within 60 days. The publisher also reports 29 days from acceptance to publication based on the previous 12 months as last updated in April 2025. These are averages or goals, not guaranteed timelines for a specific paper.

Open access, APCs and author rights

IJAIM offers both gold and green open-access pathways through Emerald. Gold open access makes the version of record openly available and uses a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence; an article processing charge is payable after acceptance. Emerald states that the APC varies by journal and directs authors to its APC price list or editorial system. Because the exact journal-specific amount can change, this guide does not reproduce an unverified fee.

The green route allows authors to self-archive the author accepted manuscript. Emerald's current guidance says the accepted manuscript can be made openly available without an embargo once the published version is available, subject to the publisher's terms and any institutional requirements. Authors working under funder or national mandates should still check the exact licence and repository conditions that apply to them.

Publication ethics and responsible AI use

IJAIM follows Emerald's research and publishing ethics framework, which is aligned with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The Emerald publishing ethics policy requires original work, no simultaneous submission, appropriate authorship, conflicts-of-interest disclosure, third-party permissions where needed, and ethical approval/informed consent for relevant human-participant research.

Authors should pay close attention to Emerald's current AI policy. The publisher permits generative-AI-supported copy-editing of an author's own existing text under stated accountability and transparency conditions, but its policy does not permit using generative AI to copywrite new manuscript sections such as an abstract, introduction or literature review. AI tools cannot be credited as authors. Because policies evolve quickly, researchers using AI in any part of manuscript preparation should read Emerald's live policy before submission and document permitted use appropriately.

How to decide whether your manuscript really fits

A useful journal-fit decision goes beyond checking whether the keywords “accounting” or “information” appear in the title. Read several recent IJAIM papers and ask whether your manuscript is in conversation with the problems, theories, datasets and audiences that recur in the journal. The publisher's recent examples—integrated reporting, accounting secrecy and corruption risk, gender diversity, emerging technologies, ESG disclosure and audit-report lag—show that the journal can span governance, technology, disclosure and market-facing questions when accounting information remains central.

If several answers are weak, journal selection may need to happen before formatting. A polished manuscript that is structurally outside scope can still be desk-rejected.

Publication-readiness checklist for IJAIM

Common reasons a manuscript may be unsuitable

Emerald explicitly notes that manuscripts can be declined at screening when they fail to fit the journal's aims and scope or submission policies. For IJAIM, likely risk areas include a purely technical information-systems paper with no accounting or financial-information contribution; a general finance paper that does not engage information management; a descriptive country study without a clear theoretical or practical contribution; or a manuscript that treats the originality statement as a marketing sentence rather than evidence of contribution.

Presentation problems also matter. A 10,000-word manuscript, an unstructured abstract, incomplete references, identifying author details in an anonymous file or weak academic English can create avoidable friction before reviewers even evaluate the research question.

How Contentxprtz can support publication readiness

Preparing for IJAIM involves more than grammar correction. Authors may need to test journal fit, sharpen the contribution, edit an existing manuscript for academic clarity, align the structured abstract with the study, check tables and figures, standardise Harvard references, and ensure the submission files follow Emerald's instructions.

Contentxprtz can provide ethical academic editing, reference and citation support, manuscript assessment and publication-readiness review. Support should preserve the author's intellectual ownership and comply with the target journal's policies, including Emerald's restrictions on generative-AI copywriting. Contentxprtz does not submit as a proxy where the journal requires author-direct submission and does not guarantee acceptance, peer-review success or publication.