International Journal of Event and Festival Management: Scopus, Scope, Metrics and Submission Guide

Key takeaways for prospective authors

• Published by Emerald Publishing; ISSN 1758-2954 and eISSN 1758-2962.
• Scopus Source ID supplied for the journal: 21100299412; Emerald also lists Scopus among its ranking services.
• 2025 CiteScore: 4.6; 2026 CiteScore Tracker shown by Emerald: 4.1 and updated monthly.
• 2025 Journal Impact Factor: 1.9; 2025 five-year Impact Factor: 2.4.
• Current scope ranges from small festivals to business events, special events and mega-events.
• Articles are normally 6,000–9,000 words with a structured abstract and Harvard references.
• Double-anonymous review uses at least two independent referees after editorial screening.
• Literature Reviews and General Reviews are currently not being accepted, according to the journal landing page.

How this guide was researched

This profile prioritises the official Emerald journal page and author guidelines, the journal’s Scopus source record, the ISSN record, Emerald’s open-access policies and COPE-aligned ethics guidance. Metrics and policy details are dated where possible. Before submitting, reconfirm them on the official pages.

What does the International Journal of Event and Festival Management publish?

IJEFM sits at the intersection of event studies, tourism and hospitality, business management and the social sciences. Emerald says the journal advances knowledge in events management and encourages research from all disciplinary perspectives. This is important for authors whose work crosses conventional boundaries—for example, a festival study combining consumer behaviour, place identity, sustainability and destination management.

The official scope specifically names marketing; planning and design; event education; logistics; evaluation; strategic management and creative leadership; sponsorship and fundraising; volunteer and human-resource management; professionalism and innovation; programming; risk management; financial management; clients and concepts; business relations; conferences; public relations; festivals; and conventions.

Recent themes show the scope in practice

Recent 2026 content demonstrates the breadth of the journal. Published papers have examined gamification and festival re-attendance, technology-enabled customer experience in running events, sensory design, cultural reinvolvement, event brand equity, music-festival attendance, sentiment analysis around the Paris Olympics and festival governance for sustainability and crisis management. A 2026 special issue also explores the value of festivals in Latin America. These examples suggest that the journal is open to quantitative, qualitative, mixed, technological and place-based work when the event-management contribution is clear.

Indexing, CiteScore and journal metrics

For researchers whose university or doctoral programme specifies indexed journals, IJEFM has identifiable Scopus coverage through Source ID 21100299412. Emerald lists the journal as ranked by Scopus and abstracted/indexed in services including ABI/INFORM Complete, ABI/INFORM Global, the British Library, Cabells, Emerging Sources Citation Index and ProQuest Central.

Is IJEFM a good match for your manuscript?

A good candidate manuscript should make the event or festival dimension intellectually necessary rather than incidental. Ask whether an editor can identify, from the title and abstract alone, what the study contributes to event-management knowledge or practice.

• Events are central to the research question
• The contribution speaks to event/festival literature
• The method is suitable and transparently reported
• Findings have theoretical and/or practical value
• The paper engages with current international scholarship
• The manuscript falls within current article-type policy

Interdisciplinary work can fit well because Emerald explicitly encourages multidisciplinary approaches. That does not mean every tourism or business manuscript will fit. Compare your paper with several recent IJEFM articles that use similar constructs, methods or event contexts. If the discussion could be moved unchanged into a generic marketing or tourism journal, the event-specific contribution may need strengthening.

What manuscript types are currently accepted?

Emerald’s author-guideline classification framework includes research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper and case study categories. The generic framework also describes literature review and general review categories; however, the IJEFM landing page currently carries a journal-specific notice that Literature Reviews and General Reviews are not being accepted. Authors should follow that more specific current notice.

Research papers can include model or framework testing, action research, surveys and other empirical designs, as well as work with a practical focus. Conceptual papers may develop hypotheses or engage in philosophical and comparative discussion. Case studies describe interventions or experiences in organisations, while viewpoints rely more heavily on interpretation and argument.

Preparing a manuscript for IJEFM

Length, files and title

Articles should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words. Emerald counts the structured abstract, references, table text, figure equivalents and appendices within this total and asks authors to allow 250 words for each figure or table. Microsoft Word is the standard submission format. A PDF may accompany the Word file but cannot replace it; LaTeX is also accepted when accompanied by a PDF.

Structured abstract and keywords

Every submission must contain a structured abstract. Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality are mandatory headings. Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications may be added where relevant. The total abstract limit is 250 words, including keywords and article classification. Up to 12 short, appropriate keywords may be supplied.

References, tables and figures

References must follow a recognised Harvard style, with consistency and complete bibliographic information. Emerald accepts its own Harvard variant but also permits another recognised Harvard style. Tables should be supplied separately from the main article file, numbered with Roman numerals and clearly located in the manuscript. Figures need high-resolution, legible source files with captions and, where relevant, rights or credit information.

Submission and double-anonymous peer review

The only official submission route is the journal’s ScholarOne site reached through Emerald. Emerald explicitly warns authors not to submit by email, through a third-party agent, or through an imitation journal website. Each author’s details are captured in ScholarOne, while the manuscript itself must be anonymised for review.

1. Confirm scope, article type and current author guidelines.
2. Prepare the anonymised manuscript and separate author/biography or acknowledgement material as required.
3. Submit directly through the IJEFM ScholarOne system and add author details, funding information and ORCID where applicable.
4. The editorial office screens the paper for policy, scope, language and manuscript quality.
5. Potentially suitable papers are sent to at least two independent referees for double-anonymous peer review.
6. The editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline; a transfer to another Emerald journal may sometimes be offered.

Emerald’s publisher page currently reports 61 days to first decision based on submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. It also reports 28 days from acceptance to publication, based on the prior 12 months and last updated April 2025. These statistics describe past journal performance and are not guaranteed turnaround times.

Acceptance rate: useful context, not a prediction

Unlike many journals that do not publish this figure, Emerald reports an IJEFM acceptance rate of 25% for submissions between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. The number should be interpreted carefully. It does not mean a well-prepared paper has a one-in-four fixed probability of acceptance; topic fit, originality, research design, execution, clarity and reviewer/editorial judgment all influence outcomes.

For journal selection, the figure is most useful as a signal that editorial screening and peer review are selective. The practical response is not to optimise around an acceptance percentage but to reduce avoidable reasons for rejection: weak fit, an unclear contribution, poor methodological reporting, unsupported claims, failure to anonymise, or non-compliance with the author instructions.

Open access, APCs and the standard publication route

IJEFM is a hybrid journal. Authors can publish through the standard subscription route without a submission or publication fee, or choose gold open access after acceptance. Emerald states that payment is requested only after acceptance when gold OA has been selected.

For 2026, Emerald’s hybrid-journal APC is £3,222 / US$4,351 / €3,710 plus VAT where applicable. Gold OA articles use a CC BY 4.0 licence. Funding agreements or institutional arrangements may affect what an author actually pays, so confirm eligibility before making a funding decision.

Emerald also provides a green OA/self-archiving route: the author accepted manuscript may be made openly available after official publication without an embargo. Authors with funder mandates should compare those requirements with Emerald’s current open-research policy.

Research ethics, authorship and responsible AI use

Emerald states that its research and publishing ethics approach follows COPE guidance. Manuscripts must be original, not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere and free of undisclosed conflicts of interest. Authors are responsible for obtaining third-party permissions and, where human participants are involved, for appropriate ethics approval, informed consent and transparent reporting.

The current author guidelines also set specific boundaries around generative AI. Large language models cannot be credited as authors. Emerald requires responsible and transparent AI use and says generative AI may not be used to create or draft new submission content, while copy-editing an author’s own original existing work may be permissible under its policy. Because policies can evolve, authors using AI-assisted tools should read Emerald’s live publishing ethics guidance before submission.

Common reasons a paper may be unsuitable

Emerald explains that submissions are screened before peer review and may be declined or returned if they do not fit the policies, aims and scope, or if manuscript/language quality is too low. For IJEFM specifically, current rejection risk can also arise from submitting an article type the journal has temporarily stopped accepting.

• The event or festival is only background rather than the scholarly focus.
• The contribution is too generic for an event-management readership.
• The paper is a Literature Review or General Review during the current restriction.
• The manuscript exceeds or falls substantially outside the 6,000–9,000-word expectation without justification.
• The abstract does not follow the structured format or clearly state originality.
• Author identity remains in the blinded manuscript.
• Ethics, consent, funding, conflicts or permissions are incomplete.
• References, tables, figures or files do not meet the author-guideline requirements.

A practical journal-fit test before you submit

If one of these answers is weak, improve that aspect before concentrating on cosmetic formatting. A journal-aligned manuscript is easier for editors and reviewers to evaluate because the research question, contribution and readership are immediately visible.

What happens after acceptance?

After acceptance, Emerald sends the licence process to the authors and moves the article into production. The publisher carries out editorial checks, copyediting and typesetting, then sends page proofs to the corresponding author for correction of production errors. Substantive rewriting is not expected at proof stage.

The fully typeset version of record is then published online as an EarlyCite article. It receives a DOI and is citable before assignment to a specific volume and issue. Issue placement follows the journal’s production schedule.

How Contentxprtz can support publication readiness

Professional editing is most useful when it strengthens the author’s own research rather than trying to manufacture an acceptance outcome. For an IJEFM submission, ethical support can include scope and manuscript-fit review, academic language editing, structured-abstract refinement, consistency checking, Harvard-reference formatting, table and figure presentation, cover-letter editing and reviewer-response editing after peer review.

Contentxprtz does not guarantee acceptance, peer-review success, indexing or publication. Authors remain responsible for the research design, data, analysis, interpretation, citations, authorship, ethical declarations and final submission. This is especially important under Emerald’s current AI and authorship rules: editing should improve the communication of the researcher’s original work, not replace the researcher’s scholarly contribution.