Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation: Scopus Indexing, Metrics, Scope and Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; the journal is hosted on ScienceDirect.
• Identity: print ISSN 1061-9518; online ISSN 1879-1603; supplied Scopus Source ID 29884.
• Core scope: international accounting across auditing, financial accounting, taxation, social/environmental accounting and management accounting.
• Methods: archival, experimental, survey, analytical and case-study research are explicitly welcomed.
• Indexing: Elsevier currently lists Scopus and ESCI among indexing services.
• Publisher-listed metrics: the current ScienceDirect display shows CiteScore 5.5 and Impact Factor 3.7; reporting years should be reconfirmed before use.
• Publishing model: hybrid; subscription publication has no publication fee, while optional open access currently lists a USD 3,730 APC excluding taxes.
• Fit matters: indexing and metrics do not compensate for a weak international-accounting contribution.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims, scope and subject fit
• Scopus and other indexing
• Current publisher-listed metrics
• Open access and APCs
• Article and research types
• Manuscript-fit evaluation
• Submission-readiness steps
• Editorial and peer-review context
• Ethical Contentxprtz support

Methodology and Source Note

This profile was prepared from the supplied Scopus source record and current authoritative publisher information, especially the official ScienceDirect journal page, Journal Insights, the editorial-board page, and Elsevier’s open-access information. The official Scopus record should be checked via Source ID 29884 where access is available.

Freshness note: indexing, editorial roles, journal metrics, fees, licensing options, review statistics and author instructions can change. Treat the values here as a researched snapshot dated 10 August 2026, and reconfirm time-sensitive details on the official pages before submission.

What Does JIAAT Aim to Publish?

The journal’s stated purpose is to advance understanding of international accounting while helping bridge academic research and accounting practice. Its scope is deliberately broader than one accounting subfield: auditing, financial accounting, taxation, social and environmental accounting, and management accounting can all fit when the international accounting contribution is substantial.

The phrase international accounting is the key selection test. A manuscript should explain why the cross-country, cross-regulatory, institutional, cultural, governance or international-practice dimension matters to accounting scholarship. The journal welcomes both basic and applied research. Elsevier also describes applied findings, critiques of current accounting practices and their effects on business decisions, and research-based essays on world affairs affecting accounting practice as potentially relevant.

Research approaches explicitly welcomed

Where Manuscripts Commonly Lose Fit

JIAAT’s scope statement is unusually useful because it names several reasons for editorial rejection before formal review. A paper may be considered outside scope, too narrow in interest, of unacceptable written quality or insufficiently compliant with the journal’s style expectations.

Elsevier specifically gives three examples of potentially unsuitable directions: accounting education; attitudes about implementing or using software programs; and tax papers driven primarily by economics or finance rather than accounting-related tax questions. A study based on a US sample must still demonstrate a significant international-accounting focus. For authors, this means that simply adding an international keyword or citing IFRS literature will not create fit if the research question itself is fundamentally domestic.

Understanding Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

Elsevier currently lists Scopus in the journal’s abstracting and indexing services, and the supplied source record identifies Scopus Source ID 29884. This makes the journal relevant to researchers whose universities recognize Scopus-indexed outlets, but institutional rules vary: some require an active Scopus source, a specific CiteScore quartile, a particular category, or a publication date falling within an indexed coverage period.

On the current ScienceDirect display, JIAAT shows a CiteScore of 5.5 and an Impact Factor of 3.7. Elsevier also lists SJR and SNIP as journal metrics/indexing resources, but the official page available for this review did not expose a clearly dated current SJR or SNIP value. Those numbers should therefore be checked directly in the applicable database rather than inferred from third-party sites.

Do not treat “Q1/Q2” as a permanent property. Quartiles depend on database, year and subject category. If your doctoral program requires a particular quartile, verify the latest category-specific result directly in Scopus/SCImago or JCR as required by your institution.

Recent Research Themes and What They Suggest About Fit

Recent JIAAT content illustrates both the journal’s international breadth and its accounting-centered orientation. ScienceDirect lists 2026 work on subjects such as IFRS research, audit effort and audit-fee behavior, social capital and accounting conservatism, and international or emerging-economy governance questions. Recent and 2025 content also includes tax avoidance, biodiversity disclosure, corporate governance and technology-related auditing questions.

These examples are not a checklist of preferred topics. Their practical value is showing how the journal connects contemporary business or policy issues back to accounting, audit, reporting, taxation or governance. Before submitting, read several papers from the latest two or three volumes and compare their research question, contribution framing, data strategy and discussion style with your manuscript.

Is This Journal a Good Match for Your Manuscript?

Open Access, APCs and Publication Costs

JIAAT is a hybrid journal. Elsevier offers an open-access route in which the article is immediately and permanently free to read, and a subscription route in which access is generally limited to subscribers or other authorized users.

Elsevier currently lists the open-access Article Publishing Charge at USD 3,730 excluding taxes. The publisher notes that the amount presented to an author may be affected by institutional agreements, country, funding arrangements or other applicable reductions. Under the subscription option, Elsevier states that no publication fee is charged to authors.

For subscription articles, Elsevier’s open-access page currently lists a 24-month embargo for repository access to the accepted manuscript. Licensing and sharing rules differ between open-access and subscription publication, so authors with funder mandates should check the applicable policy before selecting a route.

Editorial Leadership and Peer-Review Context

The current Elsevier editorial-board page lists Professor Stergios Leventis of International Hellenic University as Editor-in-Chief, supported by co-editors, associate editors, screening editors and an international editorial board. ScienceDirect also identifies articles in press as accepted, peer-reviewed articles, confirming external peer review as part of the journal’s publication process.

The public aims-and-scope page makes clear that some papers can be rejected without formal external review for scope, narrowness, writing quality or failure to follow style requirements. That first editorial screen is important: a technically competent study may never reach reviewers if the international accounting contribution is unclear.

Elsevier’s current Journal Insights page displays historical journal-level timings of 5 days from submission to first decision, 67 days to a decision after review, 788 days from submission to acceptance, and 4 days from acceptance to online publication. These figures describe past journal workflows and should not be read as guaranteed timelines for an individual manuscript.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

The controlling source for formatting and submission details is the journal’s current Guide for Authors. Because author instructions can change, avoid relying on an old PDF, a previous manuscript or a third-party summary as your final checklist.

1. Confirm scope before formatting. Write a one-paragraph explanation of the paper’s international accounting contribution and compare it with the journal’s aims and recent articles.
2. Audit the manuscript’s contribution claims. Make sure theory, hypotheses or research questions, methods, results and implications all support the same international-accounting problem.
3. Check journal-specific author instructions. Verify required files, declarations, reference expectations, figure/table requirements, data statements and any manuscript formatting rules on the official page.
4. Prepare transparent research declarations. Follow Elsevier’s current policies for authorship, conflicts of interest, originality, research ethics, data, generative-AI disclosure where applicable and permissions.
5. Submit through the official journal route. Use the “Submit your article” link from ScienceDirect rather than a third-party submission service.
6. Retain an exact submitted version. Keep the manuscript, cover letter, supplementary files and submission confirmations so later revisions remain traceable.

What Can Strengthen a JIAAT-Aligned Manuscript?

As a practical publication-readiness step, test whether the title, abstract and opening pages communicate the international accounting contribution without requiring the editor to infer it. A strong paper usually makes four things visible early: the accounting problem, why the international setting matters, what evidence or method answers the problem, and what the findings add to existing scholarship.

For empirical papers, the methods section should make sample construction, variable definitions, identification strategy, robustness checks and limitations easy to audit. For surveys or experiments, clarify design choices, measures, participant context and validity. For analytical or conceptual work, make assumptions and the resulting accounting implications explicit. None of these are substitutes for the journal’s own requirements; they are general scholarly preparation steps that reduce avoidable ambiguity.

Publication Ethics and Responsible Research Preparation

Authors should follow the journal’s current Elsevier publishing-ethics policies and disclose information required by the submission system. Responsible preparation includes accurate authorship, original work, honest data and analysis, complete citations, appropriate permissions, disclosure of conflicts where required, and transparent use of generative AI where publisher policy applies.

Professional editorial support must not cross into invented data, fabricated references, undisclosed ghost authorship, fake reviewer suggestions or manipulation of peer review. Contentxprtz can help improve language, structure, consistency, references and journal alignment, but the authors remain responsible for the research, scholarly claims, declarations and final submission.

Journal-Fit and Submission-Readiness Checklist