International Journal of Industrial Organization: Scopus, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is the International Journal of Industrial Organization?

The International Journal of Industrial Organization is an international peer-reviewed journal in industrial organization and applied microeconomics. It is published by Elsevier and is the official journal of EARIE. The journal is designed for work that explains firm conduct, competition and market outcomes using industrial-organization theory, empirical evidence or carefully developed case-based analysis.

Its scope is broad within the field but not generic across economics. A manuscript is more likely to be relevant when its central contribution concerns market structure, strategic interaction, competition policy, innovation, regulation, productivity, firm organization, entry, pricing, mergers, platforms, networks or related mechanisms that industrial-organization researchers study.

IJIO is currently listed by Elsevier as indexed in Scopus and SSCI. Researchers considering it for a PhD or institutional publication requirement should verify the live Scopus source profile and their institution’s recognition rules before submission.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; official journal of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE).
• Scopus: Indexed; supplied Scopus Source ID 19990.
• ISSNs: 0167-7187 (print) and 1873-7986 (online).
• Core scope: theoretical and empirical industrial organization, including market structure, strategic behaviour, technology, firm organization, regulation, antitrust and productivity.
• Current Elsevier metrics: CiteScore 2.6 and Impact Factor 1.4; values should be reconfirmed before submission.
• Publishing model: hybrid; Elsevier currently lists an open-access APC of USD 3,340 excluding taxes, while the subscription route has no publication fee charged to authors.
• Editorial timelines: Elsevier currently reports 14 days to first decision, 87 days to decision after review, 404 days to acceptance and 6 days from acceptance to online publication.
• Best fit: papers with a clear industrial-organization research question and contribution, not simply any business, management or firm-level study.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• The journal’s identity, publisher, EARIE affiliation and subject position
• Aims, scope and realistic manuscript-fit questions
• Scopus, SSCI and journal metrics that can be verified
• Article types and research approaches represented in the journal
• Hybrid open-access arrangements and publication charges
• Submission preparation, ethical policies and peer-review expectations
• How to decide whether IJIO fits a PhD, postgraduate or faculty manuscript
• How Contentxprtz can support ethical manuscript and submission readiness

Methodology and Sources

This profile prioritizes the official Elsevier/ScienceDirect journal pages, the official EARIE journal page, the supplied Scopus source record and official indexing information. Elsevier is used for the journal’s current aims and scope, ISSNs, editors, metrics, publishing options and journal-level timeline indicators. EARIE is used for the journal’s association status and history, including the first issue in March 1983.

Journal data are time-sensitive. A metric reported in one year may change in the next reporting cycle, an APC can be revised, and editorial or indexing status can change. For that reason, this page distinguishes verified facts from practical publication guidance and marks values that should be reconfirmed before a researcher makes a submission or institutional-compliance decision.

What Does IJIO Publish? Aims, Scope and Research Themes

IJIO describes its mission as providing broad coverage of theoretical and empirical questions in industrial organization. In practical terms, the journal is interested in research that explains the behaviour of firms and industries, the structure of markets and the effects of competitive or regulatory environments. The core is not “industry” in the general business sense; it is the economics field of industrial organization.

Core subject areas

The official scope specifically identifies strategic behaviour and market structure as classic concerns. It also names technological change, the internal organization of firms, regulation, antitrust and productivity analysis. These areas connect naturally with questions about pricing, market entry, product differentiation, innovation, vertical relationships, mergers, collusion, platform competition, information, contracting, competition policy and the economic consequences of market power.

Theoretical, empirical and case-based work

The journal explicitly encourages diversity of perspectives and research styles. That is important for authors because IJIO is not limited to one methodology. A theoretical model can fit when it advances understanding of an industrial-organization mechanism. An empirical paper can fit when identification, measurement and interpretation produce a meaningful IO contribution. Case studies may also be considered when they illuminate questions relevant to the field rather than merely describe one organization or industry.

What may be outside the journal’s center of gravity

A paper can analyse firms and still be a weak fit. Purely descriptive company studies, general management surveys, accounting topics, macroeconomic sector analysis, engineering optimization without an economic market mechanism, or policy commentary without a developed IO contribution may sit outside the journal’s main editorial purpose. Interdisciplinary work can still fit, but the manuscript should make clear why industrial-organization scholars need the result.

How Established and Visible Is the Journal?

IJIO has been part of the industrial-organization research community since 1983. EARIE describes it as its flagship journal and notes its longstanding affiliation with Elsevier. That history matters because authors are submitting into an established scholarly conversation rather than a new or broadly defined outlet.

Scopus and Web of Science visibility

Elsevier lists Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index among the journal’s abstracting and indexing services. The supplied source record identifies Scopus Source ID 19990. For authors whose university requires “Scopus indexed” or “Web of Science indexed” publication, the safest practice is to check the live database record close to the submission date and confirm that the institution recognizes the relevant index and publication year.

Metrics: how to interpret the numbers

Elsevier currently displays a CiteScore of 2.6 and an Impact Factor of 1.4. These indicators summarize different citation windows and databases; they are not interchangeable measures of manuscript quality. Elsevier also identifies SJR and SNIP among its journal information, but the current value and quartile should be verified in the latest applicable source rather than copied from an undated third-party ranking page.

For journal selection, metrics are best treated as context. They may matter for institutional policies, but scope match, readership and the likelihood that editors will see the paper as an industrial-organization contribution are more directly relevant to editorial fit.

Is the International Journal of Industrial Organization a Good Match for Your Research?

A useful test is to write the manuscript’s contribution in one sentence without naming the dataset or country. If the sentence explains a mechanism involving market structure, strategic firm behaviour, competition, regulation, innovation, productivity or firm organization, the paper may be in IJIO territory. If the contribution becomes only “we studied companies in sector X,” the industrial-organization contribution may need to be developed more clearly.

As a practical publication-readiness step, compare the manuscript with several recent IJIO papers using a similar method or topic. Look at how those papers frame the contribution, define the market, connect theory and evidence, and explain why the result matters to industrial-organization scholarship. This comparison is not an official journal requirement, but it is one of the best ways to test fit before submission.

Article Types and the Kind of Work Readers See in IJIO

The official aims and scope explicitly mention theoretical work, empirical work and case studies, with occasional symposia on topical issues. Recent journal pages also label standard contributions as research articles and publish special issues or article collections linked to industrial-organization conferences and focused themes.

Authors should avoid assuming that a familiar article label used by another Elsevier journal is automatically accepted here. Before final submission, use the current IJIO Guide for Authors and submission system to confirm the available manuscript type that best matches the work.

Recent themes indicate the journal’s range

Recent and in-press content has included research on information disclosure, credit markets, consumer information, generic entry and pharmaceutical competition, hospital markets, personalized pricing, lobbying, patents and firms’ responses to price shocks. These examples show how the journal combines classic IO mechanisms with contemporary markets and policy questions.

Open Access, APCs and Publication Timing

IJIO supports both open-access and subscription publication. Elsevier currently lists an open-access article publishing charge of USD 3,340 excluding taxes, noting that the amount may be reduced during submission when an author qualifies for an agreement or other reduction. Under the subscription option, Elsevier states that no publication fee is charged to authors and the article is available to subscribers.

Authors should confirm the final charge in the submission workflow because institutional agreements, country-based arrangements, taxes and publisher pricing can change. A funding plan should therefore be made before selecting the open-access route rather than assuming the listed APC is the amount every author will pay.

Journal-level timeline indicators

These figures describe journal-level publishing performance and should not be read as a promise. The path of an individual paper depends on editorial screening, reviewer availability, revision rounds, author response time and the complexity of the manuscript.

What Should Authors Prepare Before Submission?

The current journal page directs authors to its Guide for Authors and online submission route. Because detailed formatting instructions can be revised, the live guide should be treated as the final authority immediately before submission. A strong preparation process should cover both technical compliance and scientific fit.

Manuscript content

• State the industrial-organization question and contribution early in the introduction.
• Explain how the paper differs from the closest theoretical or empirical literature.
• Define the economic setting, market and key strategic mechanism precisely.
• For empirical work, make identification, robustness and data limitations transparent.
• For theoretical work, connect assumptions and propositions to an economically meaningful IO problem.
• Use tables and figures to clarify evidence rather than duplicate the same result in multiple forms.
• Check references against original sources and ensure that recent relevant IJIO literature has not been overlooked.

Submission-system readiness

Authors should expect to provide complete author and affiliation information, manuscript files, declarations, figures/tables where applicable and any other items requested by the current Elsevier submission system. Requirements related to conflicts of interest, funding, authorship, research data or AI-assisted manuscript preparation should be handled according to the live Elsevier and journal policies at the time of submission.

Do not rely on a cached checklist if the journal’s Guide for Authors says something different. The official guide and submission portal control the actual submission.

What Happens After Submission?

The first stage is editorial assessment. Editors determine whether the manuscript is suitable for the journal before external review. For IJIO, this makes scope clarity especially important: a technically competent economics paper can still be unsuitable if its contribution is not sufficiently connected to industrial organization.

Where a paper proceeds to external review, expert reviewers assess the scholarly contribution and the editor makes the publication decision. The journal’s articles-in-press page describes those papers as accepted, peer-reviewed articles awaiting assignment to an issue, confirming peer review as part of the publication process.

The official sources reviewed for this guide do not provide a public acceptance rate, so no estimate is supplied here. Likewise, the journal-level time indicators above should not be converted into a guaranteed review date for a particular manuscript.

Publication Ethics and Responsible Manuscript Preparation

IJIO is an Elsevier journal, so authors should follow Elsevier’s current publishing-ethics policies together with any journal-specific requirements in the Guide for Authors. Core responsibilities include original work, appropriate authorship, accurate citation, disclosure of relevant competing interests and funding, and avoidance of duplicate or simultaneous publication where prohibited.

Researchers using generative AI or AI-assisted tools should check the current Elsevier disclosure policy before submission. The author remains responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the manuscript. AI-generated references, quotations, data or factual statements require verification because automated tools can produce plausible but incorrect material.

Ethical editing is different from ghost authorship or manipulation. Language editors may improve clarity, grammar, organization, consistency and presentation while preserving the researcher’s intellectual contribution. They should not fabricate results, invent references, conceal authorship, create false reviewer suggestions or claim influence over editorial decisions.

Publication-Readiness Checklist for IJIO Authors

How Contentxprtz Can Support an IJIO Submission Ethically

Contentxprtz can support researchers after they have selected a journal or while they are comparing suitable outlets. For an IJIO manuscript, useful support may include academic editing, language polishing, manuscript assessment, journal formatting, reference and citation consistency, cover-letter editing, response-to-reviewer editing and publication-readiness review.

The most valuable intervention depends on the manuscript. A theoretically strong paper may need help making assumptions and contribution statements easier to follow. An empirical paper may need editing that clarifies identification, robustness and the distinction between results and interpretation. An international or ESL author may need sentence-level language support without altering technical meaning.

Contentxprtz does not guarantee acceptance, publication, peer-review success, indexing or citation outcomes. Editorial decisions remain with the journal. The purpose of professional support is to help authors present legitimate research clearly, accurately and in line with the journal’s current requirements.

Preparing a manuscript for the International Journal of Industrial Organization? Explore journal publication and manuscript-readiness support.

Final Journal-Selection Perspective

IJIO is most relevant to researchers whose work genuinely belongs to industrial organization and can speak to an international economics readership. Its Elsevier publication platform, EARIE affiliation, Scopus and SSCI visibility, and long publication history make it a recognizable journal in the field, but those features do not replace manuscript fit.

Before submitting, read recent IJIO articles close to your topic, confirm the live Guide for Authors, verify the current Scopus and journal metrics needed by your institution, and decide whether the paper’s central contribution is strong enough for the journal’s audience. Careful alignment at this stage is more useful than treating indexing or a single citation metric as the main reason to submit.

Conclusion: Evaluate IJIO by Fit, Evidence and Current Requirements

The International Journal of Industrial Organization is a specialist Elsevier journal and the official journal of EARIE, focused on theoretical and empirical industrial-organization research. It is currently visible in Scopus and SSCI, with Elsevier displaying a CiteScore of 2.6 and an Impact Factor of 1.4. Its hybrid publishing model gives authors both open-access and subscription routes.

For a researcher, the practical decision is whether the manuscript contributes to the industrial-organization conversation the journal serves. Verify current metrics and author instructions, compare the paper with recent IJIO work, prepare the manuscript carefully, and treat professional editing as optional support for clarity and compliance—not as a route to guaranteed acceptance.

At Contentxprtz, we don’t just edit; we help ideas reach their fullest potential.