Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization: Scopus, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Elsevier publishes the journal on ScienceDirect; the journal page presents it under the North-Holland imprint.
• The verified identifiers are print ISSN 0167-2681, online ISSN 1879-1751 and supplied Scopus Source ID 23865.
• The scope centers on economic decision-making, organization, behavior, institutions and economic change, with broad interdisciplinary connections.
• Elsevier lists Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index among the journal’s indexing services.
• The official guide states that JEBO uses single-anonymized peer review and normally sends suitable manuscripts to at least two reviewers.
• New unsolicited manuscripts carry a non-refundable US$125 submission fee; this is separate from the optional open-access APC.
• Elsevier lists an optional open-access APC of US$3,460 excluding taxes, while the subscription route carries no publication fee to authors.
• Journal fit depends on the economic contribution and audience, not merely on Scopus status or citation metrics.

What This Page Covers

• Aims, scope and subject fit
• Scopus and major indexing
• Citation metrics and cautions
• Article and research approaches
• Manuscript preparation rules
• Submission fee and open access
• Peer review and timelines
• Publication ethics
• Journal-fit checklist

Methodology and Source Note

This profile was prepared from the supplied journal source record and authoritative publisher pages, principally the official ScienceDirect journal page, the Guide for Authors, Journal Insights, the editorial-board page, and the supplied Scopus Source ID 23865. Journal metrics, editorial teams, indexing, fees, special issues and policies can change, so time-sensitive values should be reconfirmed immediately before submission or institutional reporting.

Understanding JEBO’s Academic Role

JEBO sits in a part of economics where the assumptions, institutions and behavioral mechanisms behind economic outcomes are themselves objects of study. The journal’s stated mission is broader than narrowly defined behavioral economics: it examines decision-making and organization, but also how structural features of economies generate microeconomic and macroeconomic behavior, changing development patterns and institutional evolution.

The practical implication is that a manuscript does not need to be a laboratory experiment to fit. The official scope explicitly accepts systematic observation and careful description, simulation modeling, mathematical analysis and empirical work, including controlled laboratory experimentation. What matters is whether the method is used to answer a question that belongs to the journal’s economic-behavior-and-organization agenda.

Its interdisciplinary language is also meaningful. The scope welcomes work connecting economics with psychology, biology, law, anthropology, sociology, finance, marketing, political science and mathematics. That can make JEBO attractive for research that would feel too institutionally or behaviorally oriented for a conventional field journal—but the economic mechanism and contribution still need to be clear.

What Research Topics Are Likely to Fit?

Recent and special-issue material on the official site also illustrates the range: inequality perceptions, sociality and norms, neuroeconomics, discrimination and diversity, labor and household decisions, gender preferences, fertility, wealth and consumption, and sports-betting behavior. These examples should not be treated as a closed list. They are better used to understand the journal’s willingness to publish economic work that connects behavioral mechanisms with institutions and policy-relevant outcomes.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

The journal’s Scopus identity is unusually straightforward: the supplied record gives Source ID 23865 and the Elsevier Insights page lists Scopus among the journal’s indexing services. The same Elsevier page lists the Social Sciences Citation Index, supporting visibility in both major citation-database ecosystems.

For citation metrics, the accessible Elsevier pages display 4.4 CiteScore and 2.3 Impact Factor. These figures are useful for broad context, but the accessible extract does not provide the reporting year. Because CiteScore and Journal Impact Factor are annual metrics and can change each year, this page does not relabel them as “2025” or “2026” without an authoritative year-specific record.

The page also references SJR and SNIP, but does not expose current numeric values in the extract available for verification. The same caution applies to quartiles: a journal can hold different quartiles across categories or years. If your university requires “Q1,” “Q2,” or a percentile threshold, check the exact database, category and reporting year your institution accepts.

Would Your Manuscript Actually Fit?

Before treating JEBO as a target, compare the manuscript against three levels of fit: question fit, contribution fit and method/readership fit. A paper can use behavioral data yet still be a poor match if the economic contribution is unclear. Conversely, a theoretical or mathematical paper can fit well when it advances understanding of economic organization, behavior or institutional change.

What Does the Journal Publish?

The official ScienceDirect content identifies standard research articles throughout recent issues, and the journal also publishes editorials and special-issue introductory material. The accessible Guide for Authors does not provide a simple exhaustive menu of article categories, so authors should avoid assuming that every common manuscript type—such as a narrative review, short communication or methods note—is accepted as a standalone category.

If your planned submission is not a conventional original research article, verify the current submission-system options or contact the journal before investing heavily in journal-specific formatting. For a regular research paper, the guide’s requirements for abstract, keywords, highlights, editable source files and declarations provide the clearest preparation pathway.

Preparing a Manuscript for JEBO

Editable source files and layout

The official guide asks authors to submit editable source files for text, figures, tables and text graphics. Word submissions should use DOC/DOCX in a single-column layout; LaTeX submissions may use TEX, and a PDF alone is not accepted as the source file. The guide also asks authors to remove unnecessary underlining or strikethrough and to run spelling and grammar checks.

Title page, abstract and keywords

The title page should contain a concise and informative title, accurate author names, affiliations and corresponding-author contact details. The abstract must be concise and factual and must not exceed 250 words. Authors should supply 1–7 English keywords, avoiding unnecessarily long keyword phrases and using abbreviations only when they are established in the field.

Highlights and article structure

Article highlights are required at submission and should capture the paper’s novel results and any new methods. The manuscript should use clearly defined and numbered sections and subsections. This is a useful place for a pre-submission review: section numbering, tables, figure captions, appendices and cross-references should work as a coherent system rather than being fixed one item at a time during upload.

References and research data

JEBO does not impose a strict reference style at first submission, provided the references are complete and consistently formatted. The guide recommends DOI links where available. Elsevier also encourages links to underlying research data and supports related research objects through its Research Elements ecosystem. Researchers should follow the journal’s and their field’s expectations for data availability, replication materials and disclosure.

Submission Fee, Open Access and Publication Charges

JEBO has two different cost concepts that authors should not confuse. First, the official Guide for Authors states that new unsolicited manuscripts require a non-refundable US$125 submission fee. For authors from European countries, applicable VAT may be added. The fee is paid during submission and does not guarantee that the manuscript will be sent for external review.

Second, JEBO supports optional open access. Elsevier’s journal page lists an APC of US$3,460 excluding taxes, with possible reductions depending on institutional agreements, funding arrangements or other eligibility. Authors choosing the subscription route are not charged a publication fee by Elsevier. A submission fee and an open-access APC therefore serve different purposes and may apply at different stages.

What Happens After You Submit?

The journal uses single-anonymized peer review. The editor first assesses whether the manuscript is suitable for the journal. A paper can be rejected at this stage for poor scope fit or failure to follow the journal’s requirements; the submission fee remains non-refundable. If the paper proceeds, the guide says it will typically be sent to a minimum of two reviewers for independent assessment of scientific quality.

Elsevier’s Insights page displays journal-level timing statistics of 12 days to first decision, 90 days to a decision after review, 285 days from submission to acceptance and 18 days from acceptance to online publication. These are descriptive journal statistics, not service-level promises for an individual manuscript. Substantive revisions, reviewer availability, special-issue handling and editorial complexity can all affect a specific paper.

Publication Ethics and Author Responsibilities

JEBO’s Guide for Authors points authors to Elsevier’s publishing-ethics policies. Submission represents that the work is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere and has not previously been published in the same form, subject to recognized exceptions such as preprints, abstracts, theses or registered reports. All listed authors should meet the journal’s contribution expectations, approve the submitted version and accept accountability for the integrity of the work.

The guide also addresses competing interests, funding information, authorship changes, generative-AI declarations, preprints, inclusive language and sex- and gender-based analyses. Authors should treat these declarations as substantive research-integrity requirements rather than upload formalities.

As a practical publication-readiness step, verify that data, statistical outputs, tables, figures and references are traceable to the underlying research; that citations genuinely support the claims they are attached to; and that any use of editorial or AI assistance complies with the journal’s current disclosure policy. External editing should improve communication without replacing the author’s scholarly responsibility.

Common Reasons a Manuscript May Be Unsuitable

A Publication-Readiness Checklist Before Submission

1. Read several recent JEBO papers close to your topic and at least one close to your method.
2. Rewrite the introduction so the economic question, literature gap and contribution are explicit early.
3. Check whether your evidence actually identifies or tests the behavioral, organizational or institutional mechanism you claim.
4. Bring the abstract to 250 words or fewer and prepare 1–7 English keywords.
5. Create concise submission highlights that reflect genuine novel results or methods.
6. Verify editable source files, figure quality, table notes, appendices, supplementary material and cross-references.
7. Audit references for completeness, DOI accuracy where available and one-to-one correspondence between in-text citations and the reference list.
8. Complete authorship, funding, conflict-of-interest, data and AI-use declarations as applicable.
9. Recheck the live submission fee, optional APC, journal metrics and indexing if these matter to funding or institutional requirements.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Ethical Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can support authors who have already produced the underlying research and want to present it more clearly and consistently. Relevant support may include academic editing, ESL language polishing, manuscript-format review, reference and citation checks, journal-fit assessment, cover-letter editing, figure/table presentation review, pre-submission quality checks and reviewer-response editing.

For JEBO specifically, useful preparation work often means sharpening the economic contribution, checking whether the paper’s behavioral or institutional claims are stated with appropriate precision, improving the connection between evidence and theory, and ensuring the manuscript satisfies the official submission requirements. This type of assistance cannot determine an editorial outcome and should never be represented as a route to guaranteed acceptance.

About the author

Dr. Farah Siddiqui

Researcher & Business Content Specialist

Dr. Farah Siddiqui is a researcher, writer, and professional content specialist with an analytical approach to business communication. Her work emphasizes credibility, clarity, and informed judgment, helping articles present ideas in a trustworthy and professionally structured way.