International Journal of Conflict Management: Scopus, Metrics, Scope & Submission Guide

Methodology and Sources

This guide prioritizes the journal’s official Emerald page for aims and scope, author instructions, editorial leadership, peer-review process, indexing, publisher-reported metrics, timelines and acceptance statistics. The Scopus Source ID supplied with the task is used to identify the correct source record. For SJR, SNIP and category quartiles not displayed on Emerald’s current page, the guide uses the Wageningen University & Research journal browser’s 2024 Scopus metrics and labels the reporting year explicitly.

Journal metrics, editorial teams, calls for papers, open-access charges and policies change. Authors should therefore reconfirm time-sensitive facts on the official journal page immediately before submission or when using the information for institutional evaluation.

Aims, Scope and Research Fit

Emerald describes IJCMA as a journal publishing research on negotiation and conflict management across the substantive domains served by the journal. This is the central editorial lens. A manuscript may use psychology, communication, organizational behavior, industrial relations, strategy or technology as its disciplinary base, but the contribution should still illuminate conflict, negotiation, dispute processes or conflict-management outcomes.

What may be a weaker fit?

As an editorial interpretation, papers are likely to be weaker candidates when conflict is only a background variable, when negotiation is mentioned but not theorized, or when the main contribution belongs to another field without a clear conflict-management implication. A general HR, leadership, technology-adoption or marketing paper does not automatically become an IJCMA paper because it contains a conflict measure.

For a practical fit check, compare the manuscript’s research question, theoretical contribution and dependent variables with recent IJCMA articles. The current Emerald page highlights work on negotiators’ reference points, forgiveness and threat appraisal, and the evolution of team task and relationship conflict—examples that show the journal accommodates qualitative, behavioral and meta-analytic work when the conflict contribution is explicit.

Scopus Indexing, CiteScore, Impact Factor and Quartiles

The official Emerald page currently lists IJCMA as ranked by Scopus (CiteScore) and Clarivate Analytics (SSCI). It reports a 2025 CiteScore of 5.5. The page also displays a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 5.4; because the tracker updates monthly, it should not be presented as the final 2026 CiteScore.

For Clarivate metrics, Emerald reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 2.6 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 2.8. These are separate metrics from CiteScore and should not be mixed when reporting journal performance.

Other indexing and ranking visibility

Emerald lists the journal as abstracted or indexed in services including Social Sciences Citation Index, Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, PsycINFO, ProQuest ABI/INFORM, INSPEC, EBSCO business and psychology collections, Sociological Abstracts and others. It also lists journal-ranking systems such as ABDC, CABS, Scopus and Clarivate.

Article Types and the Kind of Work IJCMA Publishes

During submission, Emerald asks authors to select a paper type. The journal page lists Research Paper, Practitioner Comment, Teaching Notes, Case Study and Book Review. The author guidance also describes broader classification categories such as research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper, case study, literature review and general review. Authors should use the choices actually presented in ScholarOne and align the manuscript with the closest available type.

Recent and current research signals

The publisher’s recent-article list includes work on negotiators’ reference points, forgiveness and proactive helping behavior, and the temporal relationship between team task and relationship conflict. Its top-downloaded and top-cited lists also feature interpersonal conflict at work, competitive climate, workplace bullying, cyber incivility and online abuse. These examples suggest an editorial interest in theoretically grounded conflict phenomena with organizational, interpersonal or societal relevance.

As of 11 August 2026, Emerald also lists a call for papers titled “Conflict Management in Indian sub-continent” with a closing date of 30 November 2026. Authors considering a special-issue submission should read the live call in full because deadlines and themes can change.

Manuscript Requirements: What Authors Need to Prepare

Emerald’s current IJCMA author guidelines are detailed enough that a technically strong manuscript can still be returned or delayed if the files are not prepared correctly. The core requirements include:

• Length: 8,000–12,000 words, including the structured abstract, references, text in tables, figures and appendices; Emerald asks authors to allow 250 words for each figure or table.
• Main file: Microsoft Word is required; a PDF may accompany it but PDF alone is not acceptable. LaTeX may be used with an accompanying PDF.
• Structured abstract: Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality are mandatory. Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications are optional where applicable.
• Abstract limit: maximum 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification according to the publisher guidance.
• Keywords: up to 12 short, relevant keywords.
• References: a recognised Harvard style; completeness, accuracy and consistency matter.
• Author information: all authors are entered in ScholarOne, in publication order, with email and affiliation. A brief biography, if supplied, should not exceed 100 words.
• Funding: external funding must be acknowledged, including the funder’s role.
• Tables: submitted separately, numbered consecutively in Roman numerals and clearly positioned in the manuscript.
• Figures: high-resolution electronic files with clear numbering, captions and necessary credit lines.

Before uploading, remove author names and other identifying information from the review manuscript. Emerald specifically warns that acknowledgements and biographies should be uploaded separately and that author names should not remain in figures or captions.

Submission, Screening and Double-Anonymous Peer Review

1. Complete a journal-fit check. Re-read the aims and scope and confirm that conflict or negotiation is central to the contribution.
2. Prepare anonymized files. Check the manuscript, figures, captions and self-references for identifying information.
3. Submit through ScholarOne. Emerald states that the corresponding author must submit through the official editorial system accessed from the journal page—not by email or a third-party proxy.
4. Editorial screening. The editorial office may decline or un-submit papers that do not meet policies, scope or minimum manuscript/language quality.
5. External review. Suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two independent referees for double-anonymous peer review.
6. Decision and revision. The editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the paper after considering reviewer feedback.

Emerald currently reports 22 days to first decision based on submissions from 1 April 2024 through 31 March 2025. It also reports 29 days from acceptance to publication, with that measure last updated April 2025. The general author guidance says the editorial goal is to communicate a first decision within 60 days. These figures describe past or target performance; individual manuscripts can take longer.

Open Access, APCs and Publication Fees

IJCMA offers both gold open access and green open access/self-archiving routes under Emerald’s current policy. If an author chooses gold OA after acceptance, Emerald states that an article processing charge is payable and the published article uses a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence. The journal page does not expose a stable journal-specific APC amount in the information verified for this guide, so authors should check Emerald’s current APC price list or the editorial system at the point of submission/acceptance.

Emerald also states that there is no submission fee; payment is requested only when gold open access is selected after acceptance, subject to applicable waivers or agreements. For green OA, Emerald states that the author accepted manuscript may be made openly available without an embargo once the final version of record has been officially published.

Research Ethics, Originality and Emerald’s AI Policy

Emerald’s journal guidance emphasizes originality, authorship accountability, conflicts of interest, copyright permissions, informed consent and ethics approval where research involves human participants. Submissions should not be under consideration elsewhere. The journal editor may use Crossref Similarity Check, and substantial previously published material must be declared.

For human-participant research, the publisher expects authors to address informed consent and, where required, provide an ethical statement containing details such as the reviewing committee, approval number, date and relevant guidelines. Permissions must also be secured for third-party copyrighted material before submission.

AI use requires particular care

Emerald’s current AI policy distinguishes between generating new submission content and editing an author’s own existing work. The publisher states that generative-AI copywriting of new submission material is not permitted, while copy-editing an author’s own original text for structure, clarity, language and grammar may be permitted subject to Emerald’s policy and transparency requirements. Large language models cannot be credited as authors. Researchers using AI tools should read the live Emerald policy before submission because publisher rules can evolve.

Is IJCMA a Good Fit for Your Manuscript?

Potential mismatch signals

A manuscript may need a different journal when conflict is incidental, when the main contribution is unrelated to negotiation/conflict management, when the paper cannot be positioned for IJCMA’s interdisciplinary conflict audience, or when the work falls outside the journal’s substantive domains. A useful test is to remove the word “conflict” from the title and abstract: if the paper’s central contribution remains unchanged, conflict may not be sufficiently central for this journal.

How to Prepare a Stronger, Journal-Aligned Manuscript

The following steps are practical publication-readiness guidance rather than additional official IJCMA requirements.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can support authors ethically by improving the clarity, consistency and submission readiness of work that the researchers themselves have designed and written. Useful support may include manuscript assessment, academic editing, proofreading, journal-format alignment, reference and citation checks, structured-abstract refinement, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and a pre-submission review against the journal’s public requirements.

Support should never cross into fabricated data, invented citations, deceptive authorship, manipulated peer review or promises of acceptance. Editorial decisions belong solely to the journal. Professional editing can improve communication and compliance, but it cannot guarantee that IJCMA—or any journal—will accept or publish a manuscript.

Primary Sources and Verification Links

• Emerald Publishing: International Journal of Conflict Management — aims and scope, author guidelines, peer review, editorial team, metrics, indexing, open access and timelines.
• Scopus Source ID 19951 — source identifier supplied with this task.
• Wageningen University & Research journal browser — 2024 Scopus-derived SJR, SNIP and category quartiles used with explicit year labeling.

Metrics and policies are time-sensitive. This page was prepared on 11 August 2026 and should be rechecked before a consequential submission or institutional evaluation.