International Journal of Production Economics: Scopus, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is the International Journal of Production Economics?

The International Journal of Production Economics is a peer-reviewed Elsevier journal covering production and operations questions where engineering, technology, management and economics intersect. Its scope spans manufacturing and process industries as well as production systems more broadly, with attention to full activity cycles such as product life cycles and material flows from supply through production to distribution.

Elsevier lists the journal in Scopus and SCIE. The official journal page currently displays a CiteScore of 20.2 and an Impact Factor of 10.0. Elsevier also identifies a hybrid publishing model: authors can publish through the subscription route without a publication fee, or choose open access with an APC currently shown as USD 4,290 excluding taxes, subject to agreements or reductions.

Researchers considering IJPE should verify three things before submitting: whether the manuscript genuinely matches the journal's engineering–management–economics focus, whether the contribution is novel and theoretically rigorous, and whether every current formatting, disclosure and submission requirement in the journal's Guide for Authors has been followed.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; Editor-in-Chief currently listed as Stefan Minner, Technical University of Munich.
• Scopus: indexed; supplied Scopus Source Record ID 19165.
• ISSNs: 0925-5273 (print) and 1873-7579 (online).
• Scope: production economics at the interface of engineering and management, with explicit economic/financial relevance.
• Metrics: Elsevier currently displays CiteScore 20.2 and Impact Factor 10.0; metrics should always be read with reporting year.
• Access model: hybrid; Elsevier currently lists a USD 4,290 open-access APC excluding taxes, while the subscription route has no publication fee.
• Review papers: considered, but the journal states a high threshold and expects strong critique and genuinely new insight rather than descriptive bibliometric summaries.
• Acceptance: no official acceptance rate was found; do not rely on unofficial estimates.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims, scope and subject fit
• Scopus, Web of Science and metric interpretation
• Article types and review-paper expectations
• Open access, APCs and publishing timelines
• Peer review and editorial screening
• Manuscript and submission readiness
• Ethics, originality, authorship and AI-use disclosures
• A practical journal-fit checklist and ethical Contentxprtz support options

Methodology and Sources

This profile prioritises the official Elsevier/ScienceDirect journal page, Elsevier's journal insights and publishing information, the supplied Scopus Source Record ID, and institutional database reporting where a metric was not exposed in the accessible official page. The ISSN Portal was also used to corroborate the online ISSN record and preservation status.

Journal metrics, fees, editorial roles, indexing coverage and submission policies can change. Values in this guide are therefore presented with their source context and, where possible, reporting year. Researchers should reconfirm the live journal page, Scopus source profile, Clarivate Master Journal List/JCR and the current Guide for Authors immediately before submission.

Journal Aims and Scope

IJPE's official scope centers on the interface between engineering and management. It covers manufacturing and process industries as well as production in general, and it treats production as a system of interconnected activities rather than as an isolated shop-floor problem. Elsevier's description highlights complete cycles such as research, design, development, testing, launch and disposal, alongside material flows through supply, production and distribution.

The journal's objective is both scholarly and practical: to strengthen the theoretical foundations used for sound decision-making and to disseminate knowledge that can improve industrial practice. This makes IJPE particularly relevant to research that links analytical rigor with managerial consequences.

Topics that commonly align with the journal

• production planning, inventory and capacity decisions with economic implications;
• supply-chain design, resilience, coordination, risk and sustainability;
• operations strategy and manufacturing-system economics;
• digital manufacturing, analytics, AI, digital twins and Industry 4.0 when linked to production decisions;
• closed-loop supply chains, remanufacturing and circular-economy operations;
• retail, logistics and distribution operations;
• maintenance, quality, scheduling and process decisions when the contribution extends beyond a narrow technical application;
• empirical, optimization, analytical, simulation and data-driven methods that advance production-economics knowledge.

What may be a weak fit?

A paper may be less suitable when it is primarily a technical engineering contribution without meaningful managerial or economic interpretation, a minor variant of a known model without a substantial scientific contribution, or a review that only counts publications and trends. IJPE explicitly says survey and review papers face a high threshold: they should demonstrate a strong need, be well executed, position themselves against previous reviews, critique the field and generate new insight.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

IJPE can be relevant to academics, PhD researchers and professional research teams working in operations management, industrial engineering, supply-chain management, production systems, economics of operations and related decision sciences. Suitability depends more on the manuscript than on the author's career stage.

A strong candidate paper typically does four things: it defines an important production or operations problem; connects that problem to a rigorous theoretical or empirical framework; demonstrates an essential novel contribution; and explains economic, financial or managerial consequences. Researchers should also compare their topic and method with several recent IJPE papers, because a broad scope does not mean every operations paper is equally well aligned.

Indexing, CiteScore and Journal Metrics

Scopus and Web of Science

Elsevier lists Scopus and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) among the journal's abstracting and indexing services. The source record supplied for this article is Scopus Source ID 19165. For university or PhD requirements, authors should confirm that the journal remains active in the exact database and coverage year required by their institution.

CiteScore and Impact Factor

The Elsevier journal page currently displays a CiteScore of 20.2 and an Impact Factor of 10.0. These values are useful indicators of citation performance, but they are not measures of whether a specific paper will be accepted or whether the journal is the best scholarly home for a manuscript.

SJR, SNIP and quartile

A Wageningen University journal-information page reports 2024 Scopus metrics of SJR 2.833 and SNIP 2.668, with Q1 positioning and very high percentiles in Management Science and Operations Research, Economics and Econometrics, and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Because SJR, SNIP and quartiles are year- and category-dependent, quote them with the relevant year and category rather than saying simply “the journal is Q1.”

Article Types and Editorial Expectations

Recent ScienceDirect content identifies standard research articles, and the official scope explicitly welcomes high-quality survey and review papers under demanding conditions. The accessible journal information does not provide a complete journal-specific list of every submission category, so authors should use the live Guide for Authors as the controlling source for article-type selection.

For original research, the core editorial expectation is unusually explicit: sound rigorous theory and an essential novel scientific contribution. For reviews, a descriptive overview of publication patterns is unlikely to be sufficient. Authors should explain why the review is needed, how it differs from existing reviews, what critical synthesis it adds and what new research or practice insight follows.

Peer Review and Editorial Process

ScienceDirect describes IJPE articles in press as accepted, peer-reviewed articles. The journal also publishes journal-level timeline indicators. However, an accessible journal-specific source reviewed for this guide did not expose the precise anonymization model, reviewer count or a guaranteed number of review rounds. Authors should therefore verify those details in the current Guide for Authors rather than relying on a generic Elsevier workflow.

As a practical interpretation, the very short reported time to first decision can include editorial screening decisions. A manuscript that does not fit the scope, lacks a sufficiently novel contribution or does not follow basic requirements may be rejected before external review.

Publication Timelines

These are journal-level indicators, not service-level commitments. Individual manuscripts can take more or less time depending on editorial screening, reviewer availability, number of revisions and the complexity of author responses.

Open Access, Subscription Publishing and Fees

IJPE follows a hybrid publishing model. Elsevier currently lists two publication routes:

• Open access: APC of USD 4,290 excluding taxes. Elsevier notes that the amount may be reduced during submission where agreements or other conditions apply.
• Subscription: no publication fee charged to authors; access is provided to subscribers.

Authors should not assume that the displayed APC will be their final payable amount. Institutional agreements, funder arrangements, country-based policies and taxes can affect the total. Confirm the fee within the submission workflow before making a funding decision.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

The official journal page directs authors to its Guide for Authors and submission system. Because detailed formatting instructions can change, the most reliable preparation approach is to use the live guide immediately before submission rather than an old saved checklist.

Journal-alignment checklist before formatting

1. State the production/operations problem and why it matters economically or managerially.
2. Show exactly what is scientifically new compared with the closest literature.
3. Explain why IJPE's readership is the right audience.
4. Test whether the method is rigorous enough to support the claimed contribution.
5. Discuss economic, financial, managerial or industrial consequences rather than presenting results in isolation.

Submission-readiness checklist

• Download and review the current Guide for Authors.
• Select the correct article type in the submission system.
• Ensure title, abstract and keywords clearly express the production-economics contribution.
• Check that every table and figure is cited, legible and necessary.
• Verify references against original sources and the journal's current reference requirements.
• Prepare funding, competing-interest, authorship and data-related declarations where applicable.
• Confirm permissions for third-party copyrighted material.
• Check the journal's current policy on generative AI and AI-assisted technologies.
• Proofread the final manuscript and all metadata before submission.

Publication Ethics and Responsible Research

IJPE is published by Elsevier, so authors should follow both journal-specific instructions and Elsevier's publishing ethics policies. At publisher level, common requirements include truthful authorship, disclosure of competing interests and funding, originality, appropriate permissions, responsible use of data and transparent disclosure where generative AI tools have been used in manuscript preparation under the applicable policy.

Elsevier's current policies also make an important distinction between language-support tools and substantive generative-AI use. Researchers remain responsible for accuracy, citations, confidentiality and intellectual-property protection. AI tools should not be listed as authors, and authors should check the exact disclosure wording required at the time of submission.

Similarity checking should be approached as a research-integrity issue, not as an exercise in “beating” a detector. Rewriting copied or unsupported material to lower a similarity percentage does not make it ethical. The correct approach is original writing, accurate attribution, quotation where appropriate and careful source verification.

How to Decide Whether IJPE Fits Your Manuscript

If several warning signs apply, revising the manuscript may not be enough; another journal may simply be a better scholarly fit.

How to Strengthen a Journal-Aligned Manuscript

As a practical publication-readiness step, authors can compare the manuscript with five to ten recent IJPE papers that are close in topic or method. Look beyond keywords: examine how those papers frame the production problem, position theory, express novelty, report robustness, discuss managerial implications and connect decisions to economic outcomes.

For quantitative papers, do not let the model dominate the contribution statement. Explain what the model allows managers or decision-makers to understand that was previously unclear. For empirical papers, connect findings to production-economics theory and operational decisions. For sustainability or digitalization research, avoid treating the technology or ESG topic as sufficient novelty; explain how it changes production decisions, costs, incentives, risks or performance.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can provide optional professional support with manuscript editing, proofreading, journal formatting, reference consistency, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and publication-readiness review. For IJPE-targeted work, support can focus on whether the manuscript communicates its production-economics contribution clearly and whether the paper follows the current journal instructions.

This support is editorial and preparatory. Contentxprtz cannot guarantee acceptance, peer-review success or publication. The authors remain responsible for the research, data, analysis, originality, citations, declarations and final submission decisions.

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Final Journal-Fit Checklist

• My manuscript addresses a production or operations question central to IJPE's scope.
• The engineering/technology aspect is linked to management and economics.
• The study contains a clearly articulated essential novel scientific contribution.
• Economic or financial consequences are discussed where relevant.
• The paper is positioned against recent IJPE and closely related literature.
• Review papers provide critical synthesis and new insight, not only bibliometric description.
• The latest author guidelines, article type and submission requirements have been checked.
• All ethics, funding, competing-interest, permissions and AI-use disclosures are complete.
• Any metric or quartile quoted in institutional forms includes the correct reporting year/category.

Conclusion

The International Journal of Production Economics may be a strong target for research that combines rigorous production or operations analysis with meaningful managerial and economic implications. Its Scopus and SCIE visibility, strong citation indicators and international Elsevier platform make it attractive, but those features do not substitute for manuscript fit.

Before submitting, confirm the live Guide for Authors, indexing status, metrics and fees; compare your paper with recent IJPE articles; and make the novel scientific contribution unmistakable. Professional editing or publication-readiness support can help improve clarity and compliance, but the editorial and peer-review decision always remains with the journal.