Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance: Scopus, Scope, Metrics and Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; the journal is hosted on ScienceDirect.
• Scopus: Elsevier lists Scopus under abstracting and indexing; supplied Source ID 21100316071.
• Current publisher-displayed metrics: CiteScore 8.6 and Impact Factor 4.7; verify the current reporting year before formal use.
• Peer review: double anonymized, normally with at least two independent reviewers after editorial screening.
• Article types: regular articles, short articles, software-for-research papers, Registered Reports, plus review/survey and replication work described in the scope.
• Fees: non-refundable submission fee EUR 132 / USD 140; current displayed open-access APC USD 4,080.
• Submission preparation: separate title page and anonymized manuscript, editable source files, abstract up to 250 words, and 1–7 keywords.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims and scope
• Scopus and metrics
• Article types
• Manuscript rules
• Peer review
• Fees and open access
• Journal-fit checks
• Publication readiness
• Ethical author support

Methodology and Sources

This profile was prepared from the journal's official ScienceDirect pages, Elsevier's author instructions and Journal Insights, the supplied Scopus Source ID, and the journal's official editorial information. Those sources were used for journal identity, scope, article types, peer review, fees, timelines, indexing, and displayed metrics.

Journal data is time-sensitive. Metrics, APCs, editorial teams, submission links, indexing status, and policies can change. Researchers should reconfirm these items on the official journal page, Journal Insights, and the live Scopus profile before making a formal journal-selection decision.

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance Aims and Scope

The journal's central purpose is to publish high-quality finance research in which behavioral perspectives, experimental methods, or both are essential to the contribution. That means the manuscript should not merely contain a finance topic with a small behavioral reference. The research question, theory, empirical design, experimental setup, or interpretation should meaningfully illuminate how people, markets, institutions, or organizational settings make financial decisions.

Official scope examples include cognitive and behavioral biases; neurological markers associated with financial decision-making; national and organizational culture; sentiment and asset pricing; the design and implementation of experiments on financial choices and trading; methodological experiments; and natural experiments. The journal welcomes both empirical and theoretical work when it contributes to behavioral or experimental finance.

The scope also supports replication studies of influential experimental-finance research, review and survey articles that synthesize a field, and software tools that automate experimental or behavioral tests. The availability of Registered Reports is especially relevant for researchers who want the study question, hypotheses, method, and pre-analysis plan reviewed before results are known.

Subjects and Research Topics That May Fit

As a practical fit check, a manuscript centered on conventional finance econometrics without a meaningful behavioral mechanism or experimental contribution may be better suited elsewhere. Similarly, a psychology paper with no substantive finance question may fall outside the journal's core identity even if it studies decision-making.

Indexing, Scopus Status and Journal Metrics

Elsevier's official Journal Insights page lists Scopus under abstracting and indexing. The source record supplied with this task identifies the journal as Scopus Source ID 21100316071. For researchers whose PhD, promotion, or funding rules require Scopus coverage, the safest practice is to open the live source profile immediately before submission and record the current status.

The Elsevier journal pages currently display 8.6 CiteScore and 4.7 Impact Factor. These are useful indicators of journal visibility, but neither should be treated as a guarantee of manuscript quality, acceptance, citation performance, or institutional eligibility. The applicable metric year matters.

Elsevier also lists SJR and SNIP among the journal's metric/indexing resources. A current authoritative SJR, SNIP, and quartile value was not directly exposed in the official pages reviewed for this article, so this guide intentionally does not reproduce third-party values. Authors should verify those live values in Scopus when they matter to a university requirement.

Article Types and Length Expectations

Regular articles are full-length papers, commonly around 5,000–12,000 words according to the guide. The journal accepts longer work, but it emphasizes concise and focused presentation. Short articles have a maximum length of 2,500 words.

Software for research articles present stand-alone software, apps, packages, or templates that support behavioral and experimental studies. The journal asks prospective authors to contact the editors before proposing this article type. Registered Reports allow authors to submit a Stage 1 proposal containing the introduction, literature review and hypotheses, method, and pre-analysis plan before collecting the data. Following in-principle acceptance, the Stage 2 article is evaluated in relation to the approved plan rather than on whether the results are statistically significant.

The scope also welcomes review and survey articles and replication experimental-finance studies. Advanced graduate students are specifically encouraged to contact the editor with survey proposals for initial feedback.

Manuscript and Formatting Requirements

The journal uses double-anonymized review. Authors therefore submit a separate title page containing identifying information and an anonymized manuscript that excludes author names and affiliations. The title page should contain the article title, author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, declaration of interest, and corresponding-author contact information.

The abstract must be concise and factual and must not exceed 250 words. Authors should provide 1 to 7 keywords in English. Highlights are encouraged: 3 to 5 bullets, each no more than 85 characters including spaces. A graphical abstract is also encouraged rather than mandatory.

Editable source files are required. Word submissions should use a single-column layout, while double-column formatting is permitted for LaTeX. Tables should be editable text rather than images. Equations should remain editable, and figures should meet the publisher's technical requirements.

The journal does not impose a strict reference format at initial submission as long as references are complete and consistent. DOIs are encouraged. The journal's final reference style is applied after acceptance, with any missing or incorrect details corrected during production.

Peer-Review Process and Publication Timelines

JBEF follows double-anonymized peer review. Editors first assess whether a manuscript is suitable for the journal. A manuscript that passes this initial assessment is typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers. The editor remains responsible for the final decision.

Elsevier currently displays journal-level historical timeline indicators of 13 days to first decision, 85 days to decision after review, 226 days from submission to acceptance, and 6 days from acceptance to online publication. These figures describe recent journal performance and should not be interpreted as a promise for any individual paper. Complexity, reviewer availability, revision rounds, and special-issue handling can change the timeline substantially.

The journal does not publicly state an acceptance rate on the authoritative pages reviewed for this guide. Authors should not rely on unofficial estimates.

Open Access, APC and Submission Fee

Authors should distinguish between the submission fee and the open-access article publishing charge. The official author guide states that each submission requires a non-refundable fee of EUR 132 or USD 140. A paper can still be rejected editorially without external review, and the fee is not refunded in that case.

Elsevier's Journal Insights comparison currently displays an open-access APC of USD 4,080. That amount applies when an author chooses open-access publication and may be affected by institutional agreements, funder arrangements, waivers, or other personalized pricing. Authors should check the price shown to them at the point of publication rather than budgeting solely from a static article.

Publication Ethics and Research Transparency

The author guide incorporates Elsevier's publishing ethics requirements. Submissions should be original, not under consideration elsewhere, approved by all authors, and compliant with authorship and competing-interest policies. Funding sources must be disclosed, and authors must follow the publisher's rules for changes in authorship.

If generative AI or AI-assisted technologies are used in manuscript preparation beyond basic grammar, spelling, or reference tools, Elsevier requires an appropriate declaration. Authors remain responsible for the submitted content. The journal also encourages research-data deposition, citation, and linking under Elsevier's Option B data guidance, or a statement explaining why data cannot be shared.

For double-anonymized review, acknowledgements belong on the title page rather than in the anonymized manuscript. Researchers should also ensure that self-citations, repository links, filenames, metadata, and supplementary materials do not inadvertently reveal identity where anonymity is required.

How to Decide Whether Your Manuscript Fits JBEF

1. Start with the research question. Is the core contribution unmistakably about finance and grounded in behavioral insight or experimental evidence?
2. Compare your method with recent papers. Look for studies using a similar experimental, empirical, theoretical, replication, or survey approach.
3. Choose the correct article type. A short replication letter, Registered Report, review, or software article has different expectations from a regular article.
4. Assess contribution, not only topic. A familiar behavioral-finance topic still needs a clear theoretical, empirical, methodological, or practical advance.
5. Check institutional requirements. If Scopus status, quartile, or JCR indexing matters for a PhD or promotion policy, verify the live records before submission.

Publication-Readiness Checklist

Planning to Submit Your Research to JBEF?

Preparing for journal submission involves more than correcting grammar. A manuscript needs to fit the journal's scope, communicate its contribution clearly, follow the author guidelines, present methods and results transparently, and meet ethical and reference requirements.

Contentxprtz supports researchers, PhD scholars, academics, and professionals with journal publication services that may include academic editing, manuscript proofreading, journal formatting, reference checking, manuscript assessment, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response support, and publication-readiness review.

Important: Contentxprtz does not control editorial decisions and does not guarantee journal acceptance or publication. Professional support is intended to help authors present their own research clearly, accurately, ethically, and in accordance with applicable journal requirements.