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

Quick Answer: What Is the International Journal of Logistics Management?

The International Journal of Logistics Management is an international scholarly journal published by Emerald Publishing. It provides a forum for research on logistics and supply chain management, especially work that develops or applies theory, generates credible empirical knowledge, and helps explain how logistics processes are framed, managed and implemented across supply chains.

Its official identifiers are ISSN 0957-4093 and eISSN 1758-6550. The supplied Scopus record identifies it as Scopus Source ID 19700201449. Emerald’s current journal page displays a 2025 CiteScore of 19.7, a 2025 Impact Factor of 8.2, and states that the journal is indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and represented in Scopus metrics.

Researchers in logistics, transportation management, supply chain strategy, digital supply chains, sustainability, resilience, collaboration, inventory, retail logistics and related management areas may consider IJLM when the manuscript has a strong scholarly contribution and clear relevance to logistics or supply chain management. Before submission, authors should recheck the current aims and scope, author guidelines, metrics, fee information and submission portal because journal policies and values can change.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing.
• Identifiers: ISSN 0957-4093; eISSN 1758-6550; Scopus Source ID 19700201449.
• Focus: logistics and supply chain management theory and practice, with interest in managerial applications and empirical research.
• 2025 metrics shown by Emerald: CiteScore 19.7; Journal Impact Factor 8.2; 5-year Impact Factor 8.9.
• Peer review: double-anonymous review, normally involving at least two independent referees after editorial screening.
• Manuscript length: up to 10,000 words, including the structured abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices, with Emerald asking authors to allow 250 words per figure or table.
• Submission route: direct author submission through ScholarOne; Emerald states that submissions should not be made through third-party agents.
• Open access: hybrid options are available; gold OA is optional after acceptance and carries the applicable APC, while green self-archiving is also available under Emerald’s policy.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• IJLM aims, scope and subject fit
• Scopus identity and current publisher-displayed metrics
• Article categories and manuscript requirements
• Structured abstract, keywords and reference style
• Editorial screening and double-anonymous peer review
• Open-access options, APC timing and publication charges
• Publication ethics and responsible AI use
• A practical journal-fit and submission-readiness checklist

Methodology and Sources

This profile was prepared from the supplied journal record and the current official Emerald journal page, including its aims and scope, editorial team, author guidelines, indexing and metrics information, submission workflow, open-access explanation and publishing-ethics guidance. The supplied record was used to confirm the Scopus Source ID and requested article identity.

Journal metrics, editorial teams, fee schedules, indexing records and policies can change. Values on this page are therefore labelled by reporting year where available. Researchers should reconfirm critical requirements immediately before submission, especially if a university, funder or promotion policy depends on a particular index, quartile or metric.

What Does the International Journal of Logistics Management Publish?

IJLM’s stated purpose is broader than operational logistics alone. Emerald describes the journal as a platform for developing and examining management theory and practice related to logistics and supply chains. Manuscripts may address established logistics problems, emerging practices, new techniques and the management implications of supply-chain change.

The journal explicitly welcomes work across logistics and supply chain management and highlights research that generates new knowledge or useful guidance for framing, interpreting or implementing logistics processes. It is particularly interested in management applications of theory and techniques. Emerald also states that empirical research is important to the journal and notes a special preference for qualitative research.

Topics that clearly align with the published scope

• Internal and external supply-chain integration and collaboration
• Inventory management
• Global logistics and supply-chain change
• Logistics and supply-chain innovation
• Technology and digital transformation in logistics and SCM
• Performance measurement and management
• Retail logistics
• Supply-chain costing and finance
• Supply-chain strategy
• Transportation and logistics business and management
• Urban freight, last-mile logistics and related management challenges

Recent calls and published work also show interest in resilience, sustainability, digital transformation, geopolitical disruption and theory-building in contemporary logistics and SCM. These examples are useful indicators of editorial conversation, but authors should not treat them as a closed list of acceptable topics.

What may be a weaker fit?

A technically sophisticated paper can still be out of scope if it lacks a meaningful logistics or supply-chain management contribution. Likewise, a manuscript focused only on algorithmic performance, engineering design or a narrow transport calculation may need a stronger management framing to fit IJLM. The safest test is to compare the manuscript’s problem, theory, method and contribution with recent IJLM articles rather than relying only on keywords.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

IJLM can be relevant to academics, doctoral researchers and experienced practitioners whose work contributes to logistics or supply-chain management knowledge. It may be especially suitable for research that connects rigorous theory with managerial relevance, examines contemporary supply-chain problems empirically, or develops new conceptual insights with clear implications for how logistics systems are managed.

For PhD scholars, the journal’s visibility may be attractive, but institutional publication requirements should be checked independently. A journal being indexed in Scopus does not automatically mean it satisfies every university’s rules for thesis submission, promotion or graduation. Institutions may specify a particular quartile, subject category, index date or authorship condition.

What Article Types and Categories Are Accepted?

Emerald’s current IJLM author guidelines ask authors to classify the paper as an Original Article and then choose the most suitable category. Categories listed include research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper, case study, literature review and general review.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

The supplied journal record identifies IJLM as Scopus Source ID 19700201449, and Emerald displays Scopus-derived citation metrics on the journal page. As of the current publisher display, the 2025 CiteScore is 19.7, while the 2026 CiteScore Tracker is 17.2. Because the tracker is updated monthly, it should not be treated as a final annual CiteScore.

Emerald also displays a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 8.2 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 8.9. The journal page lists the Social Sciences Citation Index among its abstracting and indexing services and labels the journal SCImago Q1. Quartiles are category- and year-dependent, so researchers should verify the precise quartile in the database required by their institution instead of quoting “Q1” without context.

Metrics can help a researcher understand visibility and citation performance, but they do not measure whether a particular manuscript is a good fit. A paper is more likely to survive editorial screening when its question, contribution, evidence and framing clearly match IJLM’s scholarly conversation.

Manuscript Requirements You Should Check Before Submission

Emerald’s author guidelines provide detailed preparation requirements. The most important items for a first submission are listed below.

• File format: Microsoft Word is accepted; PDF can accompany the Word file but is not accepted alone. LaTeX can be used with an accompanying PDF.
• Length: maximum 10,000 words, including the structured abstract, references, text in tables and figures, and appendices. Emerald asks authors to allow 250 words for each table or figure.
• Title: concise and informative.
• Author details: entered in ScholarOne, with all contributing authors in publication order; institutional email is preferred.
• Biographies: if used, provide a brief professional biography of no more than 100 words per author in a separate Word file.
• Funding: disclose external research funding and explain the funder’s role.
• Keywords: up to 12 short, relevant keywords.
• Headings: concise and hierarchically clear.
• Figures: electronic, legible and high quality, with consecutive numbering and captions.
• References: use a recognised Harvard style; Emerald accepts its own Harvard convention and may normalise another recognised Harvard variant after acceptance.

The structured abstract

All submissions require a structured abstract. The mandatory headings are Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality. Optional headings are Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications. Emerald states a maximum of 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification.

What Happens After You Submit a Manuscript?

IJLM uses a double-anonymous peer-review process. Emerald states that each submission is first screened and checked by the journal office. A manuscript may be declined or returned at this stage if it does not fit the journal’s submission policies, aims and scope, or if its language or manuscript quality is considered insufficient.

Suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two independent referees. After reviewer reports are returned, the editor may accept the manuscript, request minor or major revision, or decline it. Because review is double anonymous, authors are instructed to remove identifying information from the manuscript and handle self-citation carefully.

The publisher currently displays an average 45 days to first decision for the stated reporting period and 35 days from acceptance to publication for its published reporting window. These are historical averages, not promises for an individual paper.

Acceptance Rate: What Does 10.2% Mean for Authors?

Emerald currently displays an acceptance rate of 10.2%, based on submissions received between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. That figure indicates selectivity, but it should not be interpreted as an individual manuscript’s probability of acceptance. Topic fit, novelty, theoretical contribution, methodological quality, reporting clarity and reviewer evaluation vary considerably across submissions.

For authors, the more useful response to a selective acceptance rate is to strengthen fit before submission: read recent IJLM papers, articulate a precise contribution, make the logistics/SCM relevance unmistakable, follow the structured-abstract and formatting requirements, and remove avoidable weaknesses that could trigger desk rejection.

Open Access, APCs and Publication Charges

IJLM operates under Emerald’s hybrid open-access model. Authors can publish through the conventional subscription route or choose gold open access after acceptance. If gold OA is selected, Emerald charges the applicable article processing charge and publishes the article under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence.

The journal page does not present a fixed APC value in the visible author-guideline text used for this profile; it directs authors to Emerald’s APC price list or the editorial system. The safest guidance is therefore to verify the current IJLM APC immediately before submission or when choosing gold OA. Emerald also describes a green OA/self-archiving route for the author accepted manuscript.

Emerald states that it does not charge a submission fee and that authors should not be asked for publication payment unless they have chosen the applicable gold open-access route (or another clearly stated OA arrangement).

Publication Ethics and Responsible AI Use

Emerald states that its journals follow publication-ethics guidance informed by COPE. For IJLM authors, important obligations include original submission, no simultaneous consideration elsewhere, accurate authorship, conflict-of-interest disclosure, permission for third-party material, and appropriate ethics approval and informed consent when research involves human participants.

The publisher’s current AI policy distinguishes between generating new submission content and editing an author’s own work. Emerald states that generative AI must not be credited as an author, that authors remain accountable for accuracy and integrity, and that AI use must be responsible and transparent. Its journal guidance permits AI-assisted copy-editing of the author’s original work under the publisher’s stated conditions but does not permit generative-AI copywriting of new submission material. Authors should read the current policy directly because publisher AI rules are evolving quickly.

Is This Journal a Good Match for Your Research?

A strong IJLM candidate usually has three things at the same time: a recognisable logistics or supply-chain problem, a defensible scholarly contribution, and a clear link to management theory or practice. A manuscript can be methodologically strong yet still be unsuitable if its central contribution belongs more naturally to operations research, computer science, industrial engineering or transport engineering without enough logistics-management relevance.

A practical fit test

1. Can you explain the manuscript’s logistics or SCM problem in one sentence?
2. Does the paper make a theoretical, empirical, conceptual or practice-relevant contribution rather than merely applying a technique?
3. Can you identify several recent IJLM articles that address adjacent questions, theories or methods?
4. Does your literature review position the work within logistics/SCM scholarship, not only a neighbouring discipline?
5. Is the managerial significance clear and evidence-based?
6. Does the method generate evidence strong enough for the claims being made?
7. Can the paper meet the journal’s 10,000-word ceiling and structured-abstract requirements without losing essential content?

If several answers are “no,” revising the manuscript or considering a different journal may be more productive than submitting prematurely.

How to Prepare a Stronger, Journal-Aligned Manuscript

As a publication-readiness step, begin by reading a focused sample of recent IJLM papers that are close to your topic. Compare how they frame the research problem, introduce theory, justify methods, report evidence and describe contributions. This is not a journal requirement in itself; it is a practical way to test whether your paper is speaking to the same scholarly audience.

Strengthen the contribution statement

Avoid describing novelty only as “few studies have examined this topic.” Explain what the paper changes: a relationship it clarifies, a theory it extends, a mechanism it reveals, a context that changes prior assumptions, a method that produces new insight, or a managerial decision that can be understood differently.

Make the logistics-management relevance visible

The title, abstract, introduction, discussion and conclusion should all make it easy for an editor to understand why the work belongs in a logistics and supply-chain management journal.

Prepare for anonymous review

Remove author names, affiliations, identifying acknowledgements and other signals from the review manuscript. Check figures, file properties, self-citations and repository links that might reveal identity.

Audit references before submission

Check that citations are complete, accurate and consistently formatted in a recognised Harvard style. Verify DOIs where available and make sure every in-text citation has a corresponding reference entry.

Submission Checklist for IJLM

• Scope and contribution clearly align with logistics and supply chain management.
• Manuscript is within the 10,000-word limit, including required counted elements.
• Structured abstract uses the mandatory Emerald headings and stays within the stated limit.
• No more than 12 relevant keywords are supplied.
• Author details and acknowledgements are separated appropriately for anonymous review.
• Figures are legible, correctly numbered and appropriately credited.
• References use a recognised Harvard style and have been checked for accuracy.
• Funding, conflicts, ethics approval, consent and permissions are disclosed where required.
• The submission is original and not under consideration elsewhere.
• The corresponding author submits directly through the journal’s ScholarOne link.
• Current APC/open-access information has been checked if gold OA is being considered.
• Current Scopus/WoS status and metrics have been reconfirmed if needed for institutional rules.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can support authors with ethical manuscript preparation, including academic editing, language polishing, journal formatting, reference and citation consistency, structured-abstract refinement, manuscript assessment, cover-letter editing and reviewer-response editing. The purpose of this support is to improve clarity, consistency and compliance while preserving the researcher’s ownership of the ideas, data, analysis and conclusions.

Professional editing cannot guarantee acceptance, peer-review success or publication. Editorial decisions remain with the journal, and authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, ethics and final submission of their work. For help preparing a manuscript for a target journal, see Contentxprtz journal publication services.

Final Guidance for Prospective Authors

The International Journal of Logistics Management may be a strong target for research that clearly advances logistics and supply-chain management knowledge and is framed for an international management readership. Its current publisher-displayed citation metrics and selective acceptance rate indicate a visible and competitive venue, but journal choice should still begin with scope and contribution rather than metrics alone.

Before submitting, compare your manuscript with recent IJLM papers, follow the current Emerald author guidelines, check anonymous-review requirements, confirm the latest metrics and fees, and make sure the manuscript’s theoretical and managerial contribution is explicit. Contentxprtz can assist with ethical editing and publication readiness, but no editing or support service can guarantee acceptance or publication.