Journal of World Business: Scopus, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; journal platform: ScienceDirect.
• Scopus Source ID supplied for the journal: 29400.
• ISSNs listed by Elsevier: 1090-9516 (print) and 1878-5573 (online).
• International orientation is central: multinational, cross-border, or international comparative relevance is expected.
• Elsevier currently displays CiteScore 19.2 and Impact Factor 8.8; values should be rechecked by reporting year.
• The journal supports subscription publishing and an open-access option; the displayed APC is USD 4,850 excluding taxes.
• Editor-in-Chief currently listed by Elsevier: Ajai S. Gaur, PhD.
• Indexing or metrics alone do not make a manuscript suitable; scope, theory, readership, and contribution remain decisive.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims and international-business scope
• Scopus and SSCI indexing
• Current publisher-displayed metrics
• Subjects and likely research fit
• Article and contribution expectations
• Open access and APC information
• Submission-readiness checks
• Peer-review and editorial workflow
• Publication ethics and AI use

Methodology and Authoritative Sources

This profile prioritizes the official Journal of World Business page on ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s journal information, the official editorial-board page, and the supplied Scopus Source ID 29400 profile. Where database values such as quartile or SJR were not directly displayed on the official public page reviewed, this guide does not manufacture a number.

Journal metrics, editorial appointments, fees, submission systems, indexing status, and author instructions can change. Treat dated metric values as a snapshot and reconfirm any fact that affects university eligibility, grant reporting, publication cost, or manuscript formatting immediately before submission.

What Are the Journal of World Business Aims and Scope?

JWB focuses on international-business research that advances theory and understanding of management and organizations across borders. Elsevier states that submissions should have an explicit multinational, cross-border, or international comparative orientation. The journal welcomes theoretical development and empirical testing, and it does not restrict authors to a single methodological tradition when the chosen approach is rigorous and appropriate.

Its stated subject intersections include global political and economic environments, strategic management, organization theory, organizational behavior, cross-cultural management, leadership, human resources management, ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, information systems, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, finance and accounting, and marketing and consumer behavior.

For a researcher, the practical implication is that the subject label alone is insufficient. A paper on employee engagement, digital transformation, M&A, supply chains, consumer behavior, corporate finance, or sustainability needs a credible international-business framing. The paper should show why cross-border context, multinational activity, institutional differences, international comparison, global strategy, or another IB mechanism changes what we know.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

Elsevier currently lists the Journal of World Business as indexed in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index. The supplied source record identifies Scopus Source ID 29400, which gives researchers a precise identifier for checking the live source profile rather than relying on title-only searches.

The current ScienceDirect page displays a CiteScore of 19.2 and an Impact Factor of 8.8. Elsevier also lists SJR and SNIP among the journal’s metrics or abstracting information. Because the public page reviewed did not display numerical SJR, SNIP, or a category-specific quartile, those values are intentionally left for live database verification.

Metrics can help describe citation visibility, but they do not predict acceptance and should not be treated as a proxy for scope fit. A manuscript that fails the journal’s international-business domain test can still be unsuitable even if the author’s institution strongly values its indexing.

Publisher, History and Editorial Leadership

Elsevier publishes Journal of World Business, whose history dates to 1965. The journal was founded as the Columbia Journal of World Business and now appears under its current title on ScienceDirect. Elsevier lists the current print and online ISSNs as 1090-9516 and 1878-5573.

The official editorial-board page currently names Ajai S. Gaur, PhD of Rutgers University Newark Business School as Editor-in-Chief and shows a broad international board. The board structure also includes reviewing editors, senior editors, an editorial board, and a strategic advisory board. Authors should use that page for current leadership rather than copying names from an old PDF or a third-party directory.

Is This Journal a Good Match for Your Research?

A JWB submission should make an international-business contribution that its readership can recognize immediately. Start by testing the manuscript against five questions: Is the international dimension essential? Does the paper develop or test theory? Is management or organizations central? Does the study offer something novel or counterintuitive? Can the contribution be explained to a generalist international-business readership?

As a practical publication-readiness step, compare your paper with several recent JWB articles and special collections. Recent content includes work on multinational enterprises and climate governance, digital transformation in international business, political embeddedness, inclusive supply chains, socio-political legitimacy, and AI adoption. These examples are useful for understanding the journal’s evolving conversations, but they are not an exhaustive list of acceptable topics.

What Does the Journal Publish?

Recent issues show research articles, review articles, mini reviews, editorials, and special-issue content. The precise set of selectable submission categories can change, so authors should use the current Guide for Authors and submission system rather than assuming that every visible content label is always open for unsolicited submission.

Based on its stated aims, a strong manuscript may be conceptual or empirical. Empirical work may use qualitative, quantitative, comparative, mixed, or other rigorous methods. What matters is the alignment among the international-business question, theoretical contribution, evidence, and claims.

Representative topics that may fit the stated scope

• Multinational enterprise strategy and governance
• Cross-border acquisitions, alliances, and political embeddedness
• Global value chains, supply chains, and sustainability
• International human resource management and global work
• Cross-cultural leadership and organizational behavior
• International entrepreneurship and innovation
• Digital transformation and artificial intelligence in international business
• Global political risk, sanctions, ideology, and institutions
• International marketing and consumer behavior
• Finance, accounting, and governance with explicit IB relevance
• Corporate social responsibility, climate governance, and societal impact across borders
• Comparative institutional and organizational research

These are fit examples derived from the journal’s stated domain and recent content, not an official exhaustive keyword list.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Use the journal’s current “Guide for Authors” and “Submit your article” links on ScienceDirect as the controlling instructions. Elsevier’s submission requirements are updated over time, so an author should not prepare a final package from an old checklist saved by a colleague.

Before submission, make the international-business contribution visible in the title, abstract, introduction, theoretical framing, and discussion. A reviewer should not need to infer why the study belongs in JWB. Explain the cross-border mechanism or international comparison, identify the theoretical gap, and show how the findings change or extend existing international-business knowledge.

Submission-readiness file check

1. Confirm that the chosen article type is available in the live submission system.
2. Download or open the current Guide for Authors and follow its file, figure, table, declaration, and reference instructions.
3. Prepare author-identifying material and manuscript files exactly as required for the journal’s current review model.
4. Check that the abstract accurately states purpose, method or approach, principal findings, and contribution without overselling.
5. Ensure tables and figures are readable, cited in text, and consistent with the reported analysis.
6. Verify every in-text citation against the reference list and check DOIs or bibliographic details where available.
7. Prepare funding, competing-interest, data, ethics, authorship, and AI-use disclosures required by Elsevier and the journal.
8. Submit through the official journal link rather than an unsolicited third-party “publication” service.

Reference formatting and manuscript mechanics should follow the latest official guide. If an exact requirement is not visible in this profile, that omission is deliberate: word limits, abstract limits, file rules, and reference conventions should not be guessed.

What Happens After You Submit a Manuscript?

A submission can pass through technical checks, editorial assessment, external peer review, revision, a final editorial decision, and production. The journal’s public page provides timeline indicators, but it does not guarantee that every manuscript will follow the same schedule.

At the editorial stage, scope fit is crucial. Editors can decline a paper without external review when the international-business contribution is insufficient, the theoretical contribution is unclear, or the manuscript does not meet the journal’s standards. If sent to review, reviewers are likely to examine the logic of the contribution, positioning in the IB literature, methodological rigor, interpretation of evidence, and whether conclusions follow from the study.

Responding to reviewer comments

If revisions are invited, copy each substantive comment into a response document, answer point by point, identify exactly where the manuscript changed, and explain respectfully when a suggestion is not adopted. The revised manuscript and response letter should agree. Do not manufacture new data, citations, or analyses merely to satisfy a comment; explain the limits of what the study can support.

Open Access, Publication Fees and Timeline Indicators

JWB is a hybrid journal: Elsevier offers both an open-access option and a subscription publication route. The ScienceDirect page currently shows an open-access article publishing charge of USD 4,850 excluding taxes. It also states that the subscription route has no publication fee charged to authors and that articles are immediately available to subscribers.

Elsevier notes that the amount payable for open access may be reduced during submission if an applicable agreement or arrangement exists. Authors should therefore check funder requirements, institutional publishing agreements, taxes, and the exact charge shown in the submission workflow before making a budget decision.

The journal does not appear to publicly state an official acceptance rate on the Elsevier pages reviewed. This guide therefore does not estimate one.

Publication Ethics, Authorship and Generative AI

Authors submitting to an Elsevier journal should follow the publisher’s current publishing-ethics policies and the specific declarations required by the journal. Core responsibilities include originality, accurate reporting, appropriate authorship, disclosure of competing interests and funding, lawful use of copyrighted material, and avoidance of duplicate or concurrent submission.

Data fabrication, falsification, manipulated evidence, invented references, undisclosed conflicts, deceptive authorship, and peer-review manipulation are incompatible with responsible scholarly publishing. Where human participants, sensitive data, or regulated research are involved, the manuscript should include the approvals, consent information, and data-handling statements required for the study and journal.

Elsevier maintains publisher-level policies on generative AI use. Because these policies can evolve, authors should check the current author guidance immediately before submission and disclose AI-assisted use when required. Generative AI should not be treated as an author, and authors remain responsible for accuracy, citations, originality, confidentiality, and the final text.

Practical Journal-Fit Examples

Pre-Submission Checklist for Journal of World Business

How Contentxprtz Can Support Authors Preparing for JWB

Contentxprtz can help researchers prepare a clearer, more polished, journal-aligned manuscript while all editorial decisions remain with Journal of World Business. Support can include a journal-scope alignment review, manuscript assessment, academic editing, ESL language polishing, title and abstract refinement, reference consistency checks, journal formatting, cover-letter editing, submission-document review, and reviewer-response editing.

For JWB in particular, a useful readiness review can test whether the manuscript makes its international-business contribution explicit, whether theoretical claims are supported, whether the argument is intelligible to a generalist IB readership, and whether the submission package follows the current journal instructions. Contentxprtz does not control peer review, influence editors, or guarantee acceptance or publication.