Journal of Facilities Management: Scopus, Metrics, Scope & Submission Guide

Key Takeaways for Researchers

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Guide Covers

This page is designed to help researchers answer the questions that matter before investing time in a submission: what JFM publishes, whether the journal is visible in major indexing systems, which metrics are currently verifiable, what the manuscript must contain, how peer review works, what open-access choices cost, and how to judge whether a paper is genuinely aligned with the journal.

• Aims, scope and subject coverage
• Scopus and Clarivate visibility
• CiteScore, Impact Factor and operational metrics
• Article types and manuscript requirements
• Submission and peer-review workflow
• Open-access routes and fees
• Publication ethics and AI-use rules
• A practical journal-fit and publication-readiness checklist

Methodology and Sources Used

The journal-specific facts in this profile were checked primarily against the official Emerald journal page and author guidelines, the supplied Scopus Source Record ID, the ISSN Portal record, and Emerald's current open-access/APC information. Metrics, editorial teams, fees and indexing can change. Authors should recheck the official sources immediately before submission.

What Is the Journal of Facilities Management?

JFM is positioned by Emerald as a strategic-level journal for heads of facilities and corporate real estate. That positioning matters. The journal is not simply a home for any study involving a building, construction site or property asset. Its core interest is how facilities and real-estate decisions support organisational strategy and performance.

Emerald describes a mix of theoretical and practical articles, case studies, analysis and briefings. This creates a useful bridge between academic research and facilities-management practice. For a researcher, the practical implication is that a technically sound paper is stronger when it explains what the findings mean for facilities managers, corporate-real-estate leaders, asset managers, service providers or organisations responsible for workplaces and built assets.

The current editor listed by Emerald is Professor Michael R. Pitt of University College London. The journal also lists associate and regional editors and an international advisory board spanning universities and industry, reinforcing the journal's academic-practitioner orientation.

Journal Aims and Scope: Where Does Your Research Fit?

The official scope emphasises how facilities can contribute to corporate strategy. Subject coverage includes strategic planning, performance measurement, disaster recovery and business continuity, life-cycle management, contracting and procurement, project management, workplace design and strategy, and space planning. Emerald also highlights emerging FM trends, management techniques and best practice, outsourcing, cost reduction, process improvement, benchmarking and case evidence from companies and public bodies.

These last distinctions are editorial interpretation rather than an official exclusion list. A manuscript on construction, energy, BIM, AI or sustainability may fit very well when the research question is tied to facilities-management decisions or operational outcomes. The safest test is to compare your topic, method and contribution with recent JFM papers and the current aims-and-scope statement.

Understanding Scopus, Indexing and Journal Metrics

Scopus visibility and Source ID

The supplied journal record identifies Scopus Source ID 21100814509. Emerald's journal page currently displays Scopus-branded CiteScore metrics, supporting the journal's active Scopus visibility. Because universities sometimes apply very specific rules about coverage years, active status, subject categories or quartiles, researchers should open the live Scopus profile before relying on a metric for PhD, promotion or funding requirements.

Current official citation metrics

Emerald displays a 2025 CiteScore of 8.4. It also shows a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 7.2, described as a monthly-updated current-year indicator. A tracker should not be treated as a final annual CiteScore.

For Clarivate metrics, Emerald displays a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 2.7 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 2.6. The journal is also listed by Emerald as abstracted/indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), along with services including ABI Inform, EBSCO, INSPEC and ProQuest.

What Does the Journal Publish?

In the submission system, the author guidelines list Research Paper and Practice Briefing as paper types. The same guidelines describe article categories including research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper, case study, literature review and general review. This is useful for authors whose contribution is not a conventional empirical article.

A research paper can report model development or testing, action research, surveys, market research, data analysis or other empirical work. A conceptual paper develops arguments or hypotheses. A technical paper describes and evaluates a technical product, process or service. Case studies focus on actual interventions or experiences. Literature reviews should make the literature itself the main object of analysis rather than using it only as background.

For journal selection, the important question is not simply “Does JFM accept my article type?” but “Does my article type deliver a contribution that JFM readers can use?” A case study, for example, becomes more publishable when it moves beyond a descriptive organisational story and explains the transferable facilities-management lesson.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

JFM may be worth considering for facilities-management researchers, corporate-real-estate scholars, built-environment academics, workplace researchers, asset and maintenance-management researchers, postgraduate and doctoral candidates, and professionals who can convert practice-based evidence into a rigorous manuscript.

It may be especially relevant when the research links facilities decisions to corporate strategy, performance, resilience, workplace outcomes, sustainability, procurement, outsourcing, service quality or asset life-cycle decisions. For PhD scholars, indexing and metrics can be important, but scope alignment should come first. A high metric does not compensate for a manuscript that addresses the wrong scholarly conversation.

Preparing a Manuscript for JFM

Length, file format and title

The current guidelines require articles of 6,000–8,000 words, including the structured abstract, references, text in tables and figures, and appendices. Authors are told to allow 250 words for each figure or table. Microsoft Word is the standard article-file format. A PDF may accompany the Word file but cannot be the only file. LaTeX can be used if accompanied by a PDF.

Structured abstract and keywords

The structured abstract should not exceed 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification. Required headings are Purpose, Design/methodology/approach, Findings and Originality. Research limitations/implications, Practical implications and Social implications are optional where relevant. Authors may provide up to 12 concise keywords.

References, figures and tables

References should use a recognised Harvard style; Emerald's Harvard format is accepted. Figures must be supplied electronically at suitable quality and numbered consecutively. The official guidance says tables should be submitted separately from the main article, numbered with Roman numerals and clearly positioned in the manuscript using labels. Authors should review the live guidelines because production requirements can change.

Submission Workflow: From Final Check to ScholarOne

All manuscripts should be submitted by the corresponding author through the journal's ScholarOne system accessed from Emerald. Emerald specifically warns that submission should not be made by email or through a third-party agent, representative or proxy.

Before upload, the manuscript should be anonymised for double-anonymous review. Emerald advises authors to remove names from the manuscript and from figures or captions, keep acknowledgements and biographies in separate files, and phrase self-citations in a way that does not reveal identity unnecessarily. Each contributing author should have the appropriate ScholarOne record, and ORCID can be added during submission.

What Happens After Submission?

The journal office screens each submission for compliance, scope and manuscript quality. A paper may be declined or returned before external review if it is unsuitable. Manuscripts considered potentially appropriate are sent to at least two independent referees under a double-anonymous process.

Emerald currently displays 117 days to first decision, based on submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The same journal page reports a 35.8% acceptance rate for that period. It also displays 28 days from acceptance to publication, last updated April 2025. These data are useful planning indicators, but they do not predict how long a particular paper will take or whether it will be accepted.

Emerald's generic guidance on the page also notes a goal of informing authors of a first decision within 60 days. Because the displayed journal-specific historical average is 117 days, researchers should plan around the reported journal metric rather than treating the goal as a guaranteed turnaround.

Open Access, APCs and Publication Fees

JFM is a hybrid journal: authors can publish through the subscription route or choose gold open access after acceptance. Emerald's 2026 rate for publishing gold OA in a hybrid journal is £3,222 / $4,351 / €3,710 plus VAT where applicable. The publisher states that authors choosing gold OA are invoiced for the APC and receive a CC BY 4.0 licence.

Emerald also offers green open access. Its current policy states that authors may make the author accepted manuscript openly available after official publication without an embargo period. Funding agreements, institutional arrangements and publisher policies can change, so authors should check the current OA page before making a financial commitment.

Research and Publication Ethics

Emerald requires original work that is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere. Authors must declare relevant conflicts of interest, respect copyright and permissions, disclose prior publication where necessary, and obtain informed consent and ethics approval for research involving human participants when applicable. The journal may use Crossref Similarity Check to assess originality.

Emerald's current AI policy is particularly important. Large language models cannot be credited as authors, and authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality and integrity. Emerald permits generative AI for copy-editing an author's own existing work under its stated conditions, but says that using generative AI to create or draft new submission content is not permitted. Authors should read the live policy before using any AI-assisted workflow because publisher policies evolve.

Professional editing should therefore focus on clarity, organisation, language, formatting and reference consistency while preserving the researcher's own scholarly contribution and responsibility.

Common Reasons a Manuscript May Be a Poor Fit

• The paper is about construction or building technology but does not identify a facilities-management, corporate-real-estate or organisational-management contribution.
• The manuscript is technically descriptive and does not explain strategic or practical implications for FM decision-makers.
• The paper's research question is too local or operational to produce a transferable insight, and the authors do not explain broader relevance.
• The article does not engage adequately with facilities-management literature or with the type of research recently published by JFM.
• The manuscript exceeds or falls substantially below the journal's requirements without a clear reason.
• The structured abstract, anonymisation, files, references or declarations do not follow the author guidelines.
• Language and presentation problems prevent editors or reviewers from evaluating the research efficiently.

These are practical publication-readiness risks, not a prediction of editorial outcomes. Only the editors and reviewers can decide whether a particular manuscript is suitable.

A Practical Journal-Fit Checklist

How to Strengthen a JFM-Aligned Manuscript

As a publication-readiness step, make the facilities-management contribution explicit in the title, abstract, introduction and discussion. Reviewers should not have to infer why the study matters to FM. If the study concerns BIM, sustainability, workplace technology, AI, health and safety, procurement or construction, state exactly how the finding changes a facilities-management decision or organisational outcome.

Build the literature review around a focused scholarly gap, not around a catalogue of prior studies. In the methods, explain the research design, sample or cases, measures, analytical choices and limitations with enough transparency for readers to evaluate the evidence. In the discussion, distinguish what your data show from what you infer, compare the findings with relevant literature, and include practical implications that follow logically from the evidence.

Finally, run a technical pre-submission check against the latest Emerald instructions. Small preventable issues—an incorrect abstract structure, missing declarations, inconsistent Harvard references, poor anonymisation or improperly prepared tables—can weaken an otherwise strong submission.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can support researchers with ethical manuscript editing, proofreading, language polishing, journal-format checks, reference and citation consistency, structured-abstract refinement, cover-letter editing and reviewer-response editing. Support can also help authors compare their manuscript with a journal's stated scope and current author instructions.

That support does not include guaranteeing acceptance, manipulating peer review, fabricating citations or data, or submitting through ScholarOne as a proxy for the author. Editorial decisions remain entirely with Emerald and the journal's editors and reviewers.

Researcher Summary

Journal of Facilities Management is an Emerald Publishing journal focused on the strategic and applied role of facilities management and corporate real estate. The official publisher page displays a 2025 CiteScore of 8.4, a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 2.7, double-anonymous peer review, an article-length range of 6,000–8,000 words, and current operational metrics including a 35.8% acceptance rate for the stated reporting period. The journal offers optional gold open access and a green OA route. Researchers should verify live Scopus coverage, current category-specific quartiles and any institutional publication requirements immediately before submission.

Dr. Isha Verma

Researcher & Professional Business Writer

Dr. Isha Verma is a researcher and professional writer focused on producing insightful, accurate, and accessible content. Her work combines careful research with clear communication, helping readers engage with business topics through informed and trustworthy perspectives.

Conclusion

JFM may be a strong target for researchers whose work makes a clear contribution to facilities management, corporate real estate, workplace strategy, asset/service management or related organisational practice. The best submission decision combines scope alignment, recent-article comparison, methodological strength and careful compliance with the latest author guidelines. Verify current metrics and policies before submission, prepare the manuscript thoroughly, and use professional support only where it helps improve ethical scholarly communication.

Last verified: 10 August 2026. Journal metrics, indexing, APCs, editorial roles and submission policies may change. Always reconfirm the latest information on the official Emerald and Scopus pages before making a publication decision.