Journal of Historical Research in Marketing: Scopus, Metrics, Scope and Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Journal of Historical Research in Marketing?

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing is a specialist scholarly journal published by Emerald Publishing. Emerald describes it as the only quarterly peer-reviewed journal focused entirely on marketing history and the history of marketing thought. The journal carries print ISSN 1755-750X and online ISSN 1755-7518.

The journal is indexed in Scopus and is also listed by Emerald as covered by the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) from Clarivate. The supplied Scopus Source ID is 21100403907. Emerald currently displays a 2025 CiteScore of 1.3 and a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 0.6, alongside a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 0.7.

It may suit historians of business and marketing, marketing scholars using historical methods, and interdisciplinary researchers whose manuscript makes a clear contribution to marketing history or the history of marketing thought. Before submitting, authors should compare their topic and historical approach with the journal's aims, recent articles, and author guidelines rather than choosing it solely because it is Scopus-indexed.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing.
• Core field: marketing history and history of marketing thought, including historiographic and historically grounded work.
• Scopus: Emerald lists JHRM as indexed in Scopus; supplied Source ID 21100403907.
• 2025 metrics shown by Emerald: CiteScore 1.3; Journal Impact Factor 0.6; five-year Impact Factor 0.7.
• Peer review: double-anonymous; suitable submissions are normally sent to at least two independent referees.
• Article length: 6,000–12,500 words for articles under the current author guidelines, including specified manuscript elements; shorter invited/section material may follow different expectations.
• Open access: hybrid options are available; gold OA carries an APC after acceptance, while green self-archiving is also supported. Authors should check the current APC rather than relying on an old figure.
• Acceptance data: Emerald reports a 14.3% acceptance rate for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• the journal's verified identity, publisher, ISSNs, frequency and scholarly focus;
• aims, scope and subjects that appear aligned with JHRM;
• Scopus, ESCI and current publisher-displayed citation metrics;
• article classifications and specialist sections;
• manuscript format, length, abstract, keywords, figures, tables and references;
• double-anonymous peer review, acceptance rate and publication timeline data;
• open-access choices, fees and ethics policies;
• a practical journal-fit and pre-submission checklist; and
• ways Contentxprtz can support ethical publication readiness without promising acceptance.

Methodology and Sources

This profile was prepared primarily from the official Emerald journal page and author guidelines, the supplied Scopus source record, and authoritative indexing information exposed by the publisher. Where an official source did not display a current value—such as SJR, SNIP, or a current Scopus category quartile—this page does not manufacture or silently substitute a third-party estimate.

Metrics, fees, editorial appointments, indexing status, and submission policies can change. Researchers using journal metrics for PhD, promotion, funding, or institutional compliance should reconfirm the latest data in the applicable Scopus and Clarivate records immediately before making a formal decision.

What Is Journal of Historical Research in Marketing?

JHRM sits at the intersection of marketing scholarship and historical inquiry. Its academic role is not simply to publish old examples of marketing practice; the journal expects historically grounded work that explains change, continuity, context, ideas, institutions, practices, or actors over time. That distinction matters because a manuscript can contain historical data without making a genuinely historical contribution.

Emerald's scope positions the journal for researchers working on the development of advertising, retail systems, channels of distribution, branding and product design, pricing strategy, market research, consumption behaviour, marketing institutions, marketing concepts and theories, and the lives and influence of marketing thinkers. This makes JHRM a specialist outlet with a relatively clear intellectual identity.

For a prospective author, the practical implication is that fit should be assessed on two dimensions at once: marketing relevance and historical reasoning. A paper that is historically interesting but only marginally connected to marketing may be a weak fit; so may a conventional marketing study that adds a brief historical background but does not analyse historical change or context.

Journal Aims and Scope

Emerald explains an historical perspective as involving a thorough, systematic and critical awareness of change or continuity over time and of the context in which that change or continuity occurs. JHRM's central subject is therefore not merely chronology. Strong submissions should explain why historical developments matter and how the evidence supports a defensible interpretation.

The journal's coverage includes marketing history broadly defined: advertising and promotion, retailing, channels of distribution, product design and branding, pricing strategies, market research and consumption behaviour. It also covers the history of marketing thought, including the development of marketing ideas, concepts, theories, schools of thought, academic and practitioner thinkers, institutions and associations.

Historical research can be theoretical, empirical, archival, biographical, historiographic or interdisciplinary, provided the contribution remains clearly relevant to marketing and history. Older editorials from the journal have also stressed methodological transparency: authors should make the nature and selection of sources intelligible, and when formal analytical methods such as content analysis are used, explain them appropriately.

Topics likely to fit

• histories of advertising agencies, campaigns, media systems and promotional practices;
• development of brands, packaging, product design and category meanings over time;
• retailing, distribution channels, marketplaces and commercial institutions in historical context;
• pricing, market research and consumer research practices across periods;
• historical studies of consumption, consumer identities and market formation;
• biographical or institutional research on influential marketing scholars and practitioners;
• evolution of marketing concepts, theories, schools of thought and professional associations;
• historiographic or methodological discussions grounded in historical research in marketing;
• archival-resource essays and historically important marketing books where aligned with the journal's specialist sections.

Work that may be a weaker fit

As a practical interpretation of the journal's scope, manuscripts are likely to be less suitable when history is only decorative background, when the research question is mainly contemporary with no meaningful temporal analysis, when the primary contribution belongs to another discipline with little marketing connection, or when historical claims rely on thin secondary summaries rather than a credible evidence base.

Is Journal of Historical Research in Marketing Scopus Indexed?

Yes. Emerald currently lists Journal of Historical Research in Marketing as abstracted and indexed in Scopus. The source record supplied for this task identifies Scopus Source ID 21100403907. Emerald also lists the journal in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and notes inclusion in other recognised journal lists such as the Australian Business Deans Council Journal Quality List and the Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide.

Researchers should distinguish indexing from ranking. Being indexed in Scopus answers whether the journal is included in the database; a quartile is a category- and year-dependent ranking result. Because quartiles can change and may differ by category, authors should verify the latest quartile directly in Scopus rather than carrying forward a value from an older SEO page or screenshot.

Current Journal Metrics and Publication Data

Emerald currently displays a 2025 CiteScore of 1.3. It also shows a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 1.0, which is a live tracker rather than a completed-year metric and therefore may change as Scopus updates the calculation. For Clarivate metrics, Emerald displays a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 0.6 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 0.7.

Operational data on the publisher page report a 36-day time to first decision for submissions between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, a 28-day acceptance-to-publication interval last updated in April 2025, and an acceptance rate of 14.3% for submissions during the same April 2024–March 2025 period. These are historical publisher-reported averages, not promises for an individual manuscript.

Emerald separately states a goal of informing authors of a first decision within 60 days. An author should therefore treat the 36-day figure as recent observed data and the 60-day statement as a workflow target, neither of which guarantees how long a particular submission will take.

What Types of Articles Does JHRM Publish?

During submission, Emerald lists classifications including Research Paper, General Review, Viewpoint, Explorations and Insights, and a staff-only Teaching and Learning classification. The author guidelines also describe category labels such as research paper, viewpoint, technical paper, conceptual paper, case study, literature review and general review for matching the character of a manuscript.

Beyond regular full-length research articles, the journal's aims page identifies several distinctive sections. Explorations & Insights includes invited commentaries on marketing history and the history of marketing thought and tends to be shorter than full articles. Sources of Historical Research in Marketing introduces unexplored archives and primary historical resources. Forgotten Classics provides historical review essays on important marketing books.

Authors should not assume that every specialist section is open in the same way as a standard research-paper submission. Where a section is described as invited or has a distinct editorial purpose, checking the current author guidelines or contacting the editor is prudent.

Manuscript and Formatting Requirements

Because this is a historical journal, the reference list may include archival and unpublished sources. Emerald's reference guidance explicitly gives a format for archival or other unpublished material, which is useful for scholars working with collections, manuscripts, institutional records or historical documents.

Peer-Review and Editorial Process

JHRM uses double-anonymous peer review. Emerald says submissions first undergo editorial screening; a manuscript may be declined or returned if it does not meet submission policies, the aims and scope, or expected language/manuscript quality. Manuscripts considered potentially suitable are sent to at least two independent referees.

After review, the editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the paper. To protect anonymity, authors are instructed to remove identifying material from the manuscript, place acknowledgements and biographies in separate files, and avoid phrasing that reveals self-authorship when referring to prior work.

For a historical manuscript, peer reviewers are likely to focus not only on prose quality but also on the credibility of sources, the logic connecting evidence to interpretation, historiographic awareness, contribution to marketing history, and transparency about how evidence was selected and analysed. That is practical interpretation based on the journal's stated scope and editorial commentary, not a formal scoring rubric published by the journal.

Open Access, Publication Fees and Author Rights

Emerald currently offers two open-access routes across its journals: gold open access and green open access/self-archiving. For gold OA, an APC is requested after the paper has been accepted, not as a submission fee. Emerald states that the APC varies by journal and should be checked on its current APC price list or in the editorial system. Gold OA articles are published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence.

For green OA, Emerald states that the author accepted manuscript can be made openly available without a payment and without an embargo after the version of record is published. Authors should still check funder, institutional and country-specific requirements.

There is no reason to invent an APC for this guide. Fees are among the most changeable publication details, and the publisher explicitly directs authors to its current price list. Verify the current charge, waivers and any institutional agreement before making a budget decision.

Research Ethics, Originality and AI Policy

Emerald states that submissions should be original, should not be simultaneously under consideration elsewhere, and should disclose conflicts of interest. The publisher follows COPE guidance and may use Crossref Similarity Check to assess originality. Authors are also responsible for third-party permissions, copyright compliance, informed consent and ethical approval where relevant.

For researchers using interviews, organisational archives, private correspondence or non-public company information, permissions and consent can be particularly important. The current guidance says work involving human participants should address informed consent and, where required, provide an ethical statement with relevant review-board or committee information.

Emerald's current generative-AI rule

The author guidance makes an important distinction: generative AI is not permitted to copywrite or generate new material for a submission, while copy-editing an author's own original existing work to improve structure, clarity, language and grammar is permitted subject to Emerald's responsible-use and transparency principles. Large language models cannot be listed as authors.

Authors should therefore check the latest Emerald AI policy before using any automated tool in manuscript preparation. Publication-readiness support should preserve human authorship, originality, accountability and verifiable sourcing.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

JHRM may be a strong candidate for historians, business historians, marketing scholars, doctoral researchers and interdisciplinary academics whose central research question is historical and whose contribution is recognisably to marketing history or marketing thought. The journal can also be relevant to archival professionals introducing primary resources under the appropriate section.

A practical journal-fit test

1. Historical question: Does the paper analyse change, continuity or context over time rather than simply use old data?
2. Marketing connection: Is marketing practice, marketing thought, consumption, commercial exchange or a marketing institution central to the contribution?
3. Evidence: Are primary and secondary historical sources sufficiently credible, transparent and appropriate to the claim?
4. Contribution: Does the manuscript explain what it changes, extends or clarifies in marketing-history scholarship?
5. Recent fit: Do several recent JHRM papers show that the journal publishes work with a comparable historical orientation, source base or intellectual conversation?
6. Format fit: Can the paper satisfy the 6,000–12,500 word range and structured abstract, Harvard references and anonymous-review requirements?

If several answers are no, the manuscript may need reframing or a different journal. If the topic appears aligned but uncertainty remains, Emerald's FAQ advises authors to contact the editor with the paper title and structured abstract for a suitability view.

Common Reasons a Manuscript Could Be Unsuitable

• The manuscript is primarily contemporary marketing research with only a brief historical introduction.
• The historical period is described but not analysed in relation to change, continuity or context.
• The paper's main contribution belongs to political, social, cultural or business history without a sufficiently developed marketing contribution.
• Primary sources are used selectively without explaining selection, provenance or evidential limits.
• The manuscript does not engage with relevant marketing-history literature or historiographic debates.
• The structured abstract, word count, anonymisation, reference style or submission files do not follow the author guidelines.
• The paper has substantial previously published material that has not been declared, is under review elsewhere, or raises unresolved permissions/ethics issues.
• The language or organisation makes the argument difficult to assess during editorial screening.

How to Submit to Journal of Historical Research in Marketing

1. Read the aims and scope again. Compare the manuscript's core question and evidence with the journal's actual historical focus.
2. Prepare the article to the current author guidelines. Check length, structured abstract, keywords, references, figures and tables.
3. Anonymise the review manuscript. Remove names and other identifying details; upload acknowledgements and biographies separately where applicable.
4. Confirm authorship and order before submission. Emerald notes a right-first-time approach to the author list.
5. Check ethics, permissions and originality. Resolve third-party copyright and human-participant obligations before submission.
6. Submit through ScholarOne. Emerald says manuscripts must be submitted by the corresponding author through the journal's ScholarOne system accessed from the Emerald website, not by email or through a third-party proxy.
7. Add ORCID information and complete metadata carefully. Ensure title, abstract, author details and keywords match the uploaded manuscript.
8. Retain the manuscript number. The editorial system sends a confirmation and manuscript number for future correspondence.

Publication-Readiness Checklist for JHRM

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can ethically support authors with manuscript editing, academic proofreading, language polishing, journal formatting, reference and citation consistency, structured-abstract refinement, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing, journal-fit assessment and publication-readiness review. For JHRM, support should be particularly attentive to clarity of historical argument, source transparency, Harvard referencing, anonymisation and the exact Emerald submission checklist.

Because Emerald's current AI policy does not permit generative AI to create new manuscript copy, support must preserve the researcher's authorship and comply with the publisher's current rules. Ethical assistance can improve an author's existing text and presentation; it should not invent archival evidence, fabricate citations, manufacture findings, conceal authorship, or submit a paper through ScholarOne on the author's behalf.

Contentxprtz does not guarantee journal acceptance, peer-review success, publication, indexing outcomes, citations or academic approval. Editorial decisions remain entirely with the journal and its reviewers.

Conclusion: Is JHRM the Right Journal for Your Manuscript?

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing is a clearly specialised outlet for research that treats marketing historically rather than merely adding historical background to a contemporary topic. Its Scopus and ESCI coverage, defined focus, double-anonymous review process, and detailed Emerald author guidelines make it possible for researchers to evaluate fit systematically.

A strong submission decision should rest on topic fit, historical reasoning, evidence quality, contribution, compliance with manuscript requirements and current institutional needs—not on a metric or quartile alone. Review the latest articles, verify live Scopus and Clarivate data where those metrics matter, and use the official Emerald submission system and guidelines as the final authority.