International Journal of Organizational Analysis: Scopus, Metrics & Submission Guide

Key takeaways for prospective authors

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing; print ISSN 1934-8835 and online ISSN 1758-8561.
• Scopus: listed by Emerald; supplied Source ID 10400153306.
• 2025 metrics on Emerald: CiteScore 9.1, Journal Impact Factor 2.9, five-year Impact Factor 3.5.
• Journal-reported acceptance rate: 27.9% for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
• Peer review: editorial screening followed by double-anonymous review by at least two independent referees when suitable.
• Typical article length: 4,000–6,000 words; structured abstract required.
• Open access: hybrid gold OA is optional; green self-archiving is also available under Emerald policy.
• Submission: corresponding authors must submit directly through the journal's ScholarOne system, not through a third-party proxy.

Journal information at a glance

How this guide was researched

This profile prioritizes the official Emerald journal page and its author guidelines, editorial team, indexing and metric panels. Scopus identity is anchored to Source ID 10400153306 supplied with the journal record. Emerald's current open-access and APC page is used for the 2026 hybrid OA price. Where SJR, SNIP and category quartiles are discussed, the guide distinguishes 2024 Scopus-derived values from SCImago's separate SJR quartile so the two systems are not conflated. Metrics, editorial appointments, fees and indexing can change, so they should be reconfirmed before a final submission decision.

Aims, scope and subject coverage

IJOA's central purpose is to provide a substantial forum for studying and analysing organizations. Emerald describes a journal interested in historical, current and visionary discussions of organization, including conventional settings and alternative or emerging organizational forms. It explicitly invites disciplinary and interdisciplinary work and welcomes normative, critical, methodological, epistemological and ontological diversity.

The most useful scope test is not simply whether your paper contains words such as “organization,” “leadership” or “HRM.” A stronger fit usually shows how the manuscript changes understanding of an organizational phenomenon and why that change matters in practice or society. The journal's scope repeatedly emphasizes the translation of theoretical reflection into practical impacts and implications.

What recent IJOA research suggests about topical fit

Recent material highlighted by Emerald shows the journal's breadth in practice. The publisher has featured work on green HRM and sustainable performance, dynamic capabilities in retail banking, corporate sustainability, AI in talent acquisition, employee retention and AI-assisted hiring. 2026 issues also include research on digital transformation and environmental sustainability, leadership and commitment, organizational identity, strategic digitization, social inclusion and ethicality of AI in the workplace. These examples do not define the limits of scope, but they show that the journal welcomes contemporary organizational problems when they are grounded in organizational analysis.

For manuscript selection, use recent issues as a calibration set. Look for papers that share your theoretical lens, research setting, methodology or type of contribution. A topic can be nominally “in scope” yet still feel peripheral if recent IJOA work approaches the problem very differently. Conversely, a cross-disciplinary study may fit well if the organizational contribution is explicit.

Scopus indexing, Impact Factor and journal metrics

Emerald lists IJOA among journals abstracted and indexed in Scopus and in Clarivate's Emerging Sources Citation Index. On the journal's current metrics panel, the completed 2025 CiteScore is 9.1; the page also shows a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 7.6, which is updated monthly and should not be presented as a final annual CiteScore. Emerald reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 2.9 and 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 3.5.

For 2024 Scopus-derived metrics, university journal guides report SJR 0.869 and SNIP 1.474 and place the source in Q1 for the Scopus categories Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management and Strategy and Management. SCImago, using its SJR-based ranking framework, reports a 2024 SJR quartile of Q2. There is no contradiction once the metric system and category are specified: “quartile” is not a single permanent property of a journal.

Who should consider submitting — and who should reconsider?

IJOA may be a strong candidate for researchers whose main question concerns how organizations function, change, influence people or interact with society. Empirical papers can fit, but the scope is not limited to conventional quantitative designs. Conceptual, critical, historical, qualitative, case-based and interdisciplinary contributions may also be credible when they advance organizational understanding and connect theory to implications.

Article types and research approaches

The live author guidelines identify Research Paper as the article type selected during submission and then provide classification descriptions covering research papers, viewpoints, technical papers, conceptual papers, case studies, literature reviews and general reviews. Because ScholarOne options can be updated, authors should choose the closest category available in the system rather than relying on an old screenshot or third-party list.

The journal's scope is methodologically open. Survey and modelling work can fit alongside qualitative, critical, conceptual, historical or mixed-method research. Methodology should therefore be chosen for the organizational question, not because the journal appears to prefer a single design. A useful pre-submission test is whether the paper makes its theoretical contribution and practical organizational implications visible by the end of the introduction and discussion.

Manuscript and formatting requirements

According to Emerald's official author instructions, IJOA articles should normally be 4,000–6,000 words. The count includes the structured abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices, and authors are asked to allow 280 words for each figure or table. Manuscripts should be supplied in Microsoft Word; a PDF may accompany the Word file but is not sufficient on its own. LaTeX may be used only with an accompanying PDF.

• Structured abstract: Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality are mandatory headings; three implications headings are optional where relevant.
• Abstract length: maximum 250 words in total including keywords and article classification.
• Keywords: up to 12 concise keywords.
• References: a recognised Harvard style is required; Emerald provides its own Harvard guide.
• Author details: all authors need ScholarOne accounts and correct names, emails and affiliations.
• Biographies: when included, upload separately; each biography should be no more than 100 words.
• Tables: submit separately from the main article, number consecutively in Roman numerals and mark positions in the manuscript.
• Figures: number consecutively in Arabic numerals, provide clear captions and high-quality electronic files.
• Funding: disclose external research funding and the funder's role.

Submission process: from final check to ScholarOne

The corresponding author must submit directly through IJOA's ScholarOne site as accessed from Emerald. The publisher explicitly states that submission should not be made by email, through a third-party agent, or through a proxy acting on the author's behalf. This is an important integrity and security point for authors using any external manuscript support service.

1. Re-read the official aims and scope and compare the manuscript with recent IJOA papers.
2. Confirm the 4,000–6,000-word limit, structured abstract, keywords, Harvard references and file requirements.
3. Remove identifying information from the anonymized manuscript; keep author biographies and acknowledgements separate.
4. Check authorship order, affiliations, funding, conflicts, permissions, ethics approval and informed consent where relevant.
5. Use the journal link to open ScholarOne, create or sign into the corresponding-author account and add ORCID details.
6. Upload the manuscript and separate files, complete classifications and declarations, review the generated submission PDF and submit.
7. Keep the manuscript number from the automatic confirmation email and use it in later correspondence.

Peer review, acceptance rate and publication timeline

IJOA uses double-anonymous peer review. The editorial office first screens the submission for policy, scope and manuscript quality. If the paper appears suitable, Emerald says it is sent to at least two independent referees. After reviewer reports, the editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the manuscript.

The publisher currently reports 40 days to first decision based on submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, while its author-guideline text states a broader goal of informing authors of a first decision within 60 days. It reports 42 days from acceptance to publication, based on the previous 12 months and last updated April 2025. The acceptance rate is 27.9% for the same April 2024–March 2025 submission window. These are historical averages, not promises for a particular paper.

After acceptance, Emerald handles licensing, editorial checks, copyediting and typesetting, then sends proofs to the corresponding author. The final typeset version is first published online as EarlyCite with a DOI and can be cited before assignment to a numbered issue.

Open access, publication charges and self-archiving

IJOA is a hybrid journal: authors can publish through the conventional subscription route or choose gold open access after acceptance. Emerald states that the only time it asks authors to pay for publication in a standard Emerald journal is when they choose gold OA. There is no ordinary submission, processing or peer-review fee for the non-OA route.

Emerald's 2026 hybrid-journal APC is £3,222 / US$4,351 / €3,710, plus VAT where applicable. The publisher may have institutional agreements, vouchers or funding arrangements that change what an individual author pays. Gold OA articles use a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence. Green OA is also available: Emerald allows the author accepted manuscript to be made openly available after the article is officially published, without an embargo under its current policy.

Research ethics, originality, authorship and AI use

Emerald's journal guidance incorporates the publisher's research and publishing ethics policies and follows COPE guidance. Manuscripts should be original, not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere, and conflicts of interest must be declared. The publisher may use Crossref Similarity Check. If research involves human participants, authors must address ethics approval and informed consent as required and include appropriate statements without compromising anonymity.

Authorship should reflect substantial and meaningful contribution. People who did not contribute should not be added as authors, and contributors who do not meet authorship criteria can be acknowledged. Third-party material must have the necessary publication permissions before acceptance.

Emerald's current AI policy is particularly relevant for manuscript preparation. The publisher states that generative AI must not be used to create or draft new submission material. Copy-editing an author's own original text for structure, clarity, language and grammar may be permitted under the policy, with authors remaining fully accountable for accuracy, integrity and any required disclosure. Large language models cannot be credited as authors.

A journal-aligned publication-readiness checklist

Common reasons an otherwise good paper may be unsuitable

A technically competent manuscript can still be desk-declined if its connection to IJOA is weak. Common fit risks include an organizational topic that is only superficial, a contribution that belongs mainly to another discipline, a discussion that does not connect theory to practice, weak explanation of why the chosen organizational context matters, or failure to follow author and anonymity requirements. Language and presentation quality can also matter at initial screening because the editorial office may un-submit or decline manuscripts whose quality is too low for review.

For researchers uncertain about fit, Emerald gives a practical route: after reading the aims and scope, authors may email the editor with the paper title and structured abstract to ask about suitability. That does not pre-approve a paper, but it is more reliable than inferring fit from journal metrics alone.

How Contentxprtz can support publication readiness ethically

Contentxprtz can assist with the parts of preparation that remain under the author's control: academic editing of the author's original manuscript, language polishing, consistency checks, journal-format alignment, reference and citation formatting, structured-abstract review, figure/table presentation, cover-letter editing and publication-readiness assessment. For a journal such as IJOA, support can also focus on whether the organizational contribution is communicated clearly and whether the manuscript reflects the live author instructions.

That support does not include submitting on the author's behalf when the publisher requires direct author submission, creating fabricated data or citations, inventing authorship, manipulating peer review, or promising a publication outcome. Editorial screening, reviewer selection and acceptance decisions belong entirely to the journal.

Official sources worth checking before submission

• IJOA official journal page, aims, author guidelines, editorial team and metrics
• Scopus source profile — Source ID 10400153306
• Official ScholarOne submission portal
• Emerald open-access routes and 2026 APCs
• Emerald research and publishing ethics
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

About the author

Dr. Arjun Menon

Research-Driven Business Analyst & Writer

Dr. Arjun Menon is a research-driven writer and professional analyst with a focus on accuracy, relevance, and practical interpretation. His content combines structured research with clear explanation, helping readers engage with business topics through dependable and well-informed insights.