Long Range Planning: Scopus Indexing, Metrics, Scope & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Long Range Planning?

Long Range Planning is an international journal of strategic management published by Elsevier. Its official aims and scope describe LRP as a leading journal in strategic management, publishing original empirical and theoretical research and work that reviews or assesses important areas of strategy. The journal welcomes research from scholars worldwide, including emerging and transitional economies.

Yes, the journal is indexed in Scopus. The supplied source record identifies Scopus Source ID 21203, while Elsevier’s official insights page lists Scopus among its abstracting and indexing services. The journal’s print ISSN is 0024-6301 and online ISSN is 1873-1872.

LRP may be relevant when the paper makes a clear contribution to strategic-management theory or evidence and speaks to the journal’s readership. Before submitting, verify the latest author guide, current metrics and fees, and compare your manuscript against several recently published LRP papers rather than relying on indexing status alone.

Key Takeaways for Researchers

• Publisher: Elsevier; the journal is listed under the Pergamon imprint on Elsevier’s journal insights page.
• Field: strategic management, with coverage spanning corporate, business, international, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology-related strategy.
• Scopus: indexed; supplied Scopus Source ID 21203.
• Current publisher-displayed metrics: CiteScore 13.3 and Impact Factor 6.3 at the time of preparation (10 August 2026).
• Peer review: double anonymized; suitable papers are typically sent to at least two independent reviewers.
• Publishing model: hybrid; Elsevier currently lists a USD 3,710 open-access APC excluding taxes, while the subscription route has no publication fee for authors.
• Manuscript preparation: the guide specifies a 40-page maximum, double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman, an abstract up to 250 words and 1–7 keywords.

Long Range Planning Journal Information at a Glance

The table below distinguishes verified values from items that should be reconfirmed in the latest database interface.

What This Long Range Planning Guide Covers

• the journal’s aims, scope and strategic-management focus
• Scopus indexing, ISSN identifiers and publisher-displayed metrics
• topics and methodologies that appear compatible with the journal
• the article types and special-issue route described by Elsevier
• manuscript length, abstract, keyword, anonymization and submission requirements
• double-anonymized peer review and publisher-reported timelines
• subscription versus open-access publication and current APC information
• ethics, authorship, competing-interest, funding and AI-use declarations
• a manuscript-fit and publication-readiness checklist

Methodology and Sources Used for This Profile

This page was prepared from the supplied Scopus source record and the journal’s authoritative publisher materials, especially the official Long Range Planning journal page, Elsevier Journal Insights, the official Guide for Authors, the editorial board page, and the supplied Scopus source profile.

Journal metrics, editorial teams, fees, timelines and database coverage can change. Values on this page are therefore dated to the preparation date and should be reconfirmed before a researcher uses them for a doctoral, promotion, funding or institutional publication requirement.

What Does Long Range Planning Aim to Publish?

LRP’s central editorial territory is strategic management. The journal says it welcomes empirical research and theoretical articles, including studies that review and assess the current state of knowledge in important areas of strategy. It also emphasizes originality and quality through rigorous peer review.

The official scope identifies a broad but coherent set of strategy themes: corporate strategy and governance; business strategy and new business models; international dimensions of strategy; strategies for emerging markets; entrepreneurship; innovation; organizational structure and design; corporate social responsibility; management of technology; methods for strategy research; and business processes. LRP also publishes topically themed special issues.

Methodologically, the journal explicitly describes an inclusive approach to empirical research, mentioning primary survey data, archival data and case studies along with other recognized data-collection approaches. That breadth does not mean any management paper is automatically suitable. A manuscript still needs to show why its research question, theory, evidence and implications matter for strategic management rather than only for a neighboring discipline.

Research Topics That May Fit — and Topics That Need Careful Positioning

As a practical publication-readiness step, compare the manuscript with several recent LRP articles that use a similar theory, method or setting. Recent special-issue themes also show that the journal engages with contemporary strategy questions, including digital-age diversification and sustainable business-model innovation. Those calls indicate editorial interest but do not guarantee that an unrelated paper will fit a regular issue.

Understanding Its Scopus Indexing and Journal Metrics

For researchers whose institutions ask for Scopus coverage, Long Range Planning is relevant because Elsevier lists Scopus among the journal’s indexing services and the supplied source record identifies Source ID 21203. Elsevier also lists the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), SNIP and the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) among its abstracting/indexing or journal-recognition information.

At the time this article was prepared, Elsevier displayed CiteScore 13.3 and Impact Factor 6.3. These figures describe citation performance using different systems and should not be treated as interchangeable. The latest SJR, SNIP and subject-category quartile were not reliably verifiable from the authoritative sources reviewed here, so this page does not guess them.

Metrics are useful context, but they should not be the first reason to submit. A manuscript that falls outside the strategy scope can be rejected before external review regardless of citation metrics. Conversely, researchers evaluating journal fit should consider audience, theory, article type, methodology and institutional recognition alongside any ranking indicator.

What Types of Papers Does Long Range Planning Publish?

The journal’s core output includes original empirical and theoretical strategic-management research, including work that reviews and evaluates important areas of strategy. Elsevier’s author guide also describes shorter Perspective or Opinion-style articles that address important contemporary issues and questions in strategic management, particularly emerging or contested topics that can stimulate debate or introduce new concepts and frontiers.

For Perspective pieces, the guide describes a typical total length of roughly 2,000–4,000 words, an abstract of 50 words or less, no more than 35 references, and one or two figures or tables. These shorter contributions are not simply abbreviated research papers; the guidance emphasizes a distinctive viewpoint, a new hypothesis or implications of an idea or innovation.

The journal also publishes themed special issues. Authors responding to a special-issue call should follow both the standard journal requirements and the call-specific topic and deadline.

Who Should Consider Submitting to Long Range Planning?

LRP may be worth considering for strategy scholars, PhD researchers, faculty members and interdisciplinary teams whose manuscript makes a clear contribution to strategic management. The journal’s own description says its users are largely academic and that it serves both research communication and the transmission of ideas useful in the classroom; some articles may also be relevant to practicing managers and professional-program students.

A first-time or early-career author is not excluded by status. What matters is whether the manuscript meets the journal’s standards for originality, quality and strategic relevance. For doctoral publication planning, a researcher should also check whether their university recognizes the specific indexing or ranking system required for the degree. Being Scopus indexed does not automatically satisfy every institution’s rules.

Is Long Range Planning a Good Match for Your Manuscript?

A good fit is usually visible at three levels: topic fit, contribution fit and readership fit. Your topic should sit inside or convincingly connect to the journal’s strategy scope. Your contribution should matter to strategic-management scholarship rather than merely using strategy terminology. Your framing should also make sense to an international academic readership.

A manuscript may be unsuitable if its contribution is primarily outside strategic management, if it is descriptive without a strong theoretical or analytical contribution, or if it does not meet the journal’s quality and originality threshold. Those are fit risks rather than predictions about editorial outcomes.

Preparing a Manuscript for Long Range Planning

The official Guide for Authors contains concrete requirements that should shape the submission package. LRP asks for manuscripts of up to 40 double-spaced pages in 12-point Times New Roman, including figures and tables but excluding the cover page; references are single spaced. The abstract should be concise and factual and must not exceed 250 words. Authors should supply 1–7 keywords in English.

Double-anonymized files

Because LRP uses double-anonymized peer review, the title page and anonymized manuscript are submitted separately. The title page should include the article title, author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, declaration of interest, and corresponding-author address and email. The anonymized manuscript should contain the body, references, figures and tables without author names, affiliations or other identifying information.

Structure, glossary and author information

The guide asks authors to divide the manuscript into clearly defined sections. It also asks for a glossary of field-specific terms in a separate list and a short biography of each author, up to 100 words, in an editable format. Acknowledgements belong on the title page because of anonymization.

References and data accuracy

Every reference cited in the text should appear in the reference list and vice versa. Elsevier emphasizes accurate bibliographic data and encourages DOI links. As a practical check, verify author names, years, journal titles, volume/issue information, pages and DOIs against the original publication rather than relying only on reference-manager imports.

Ethics, Authorship, Competing Interests and AI Disclosure

LRP follows Elsevier’s publishing-ethics framework. The journal’s author guide covers ethics in publishing, submission declarations, authorship, authorship changes, competing interests, funding, generative-AI declarations, preprints, inclusive language, sex- and gender-based analyses, jurisdictional claims and related policies.

The authorship guidance requires substantial contribution to the study, participation in drafting or critical revision, final approval and accountability for the work. The corresponding author manages communication with the journal. Because authorship changes are generally not considered after submission, the author list and order should be settled before the manuscript enters the system.

Authors using generative AI should follow the current Elsevier declaration policy rather than hiding material use. AI tools must not be used to fabricate references, data, results or reviewer identities. Research integrity remains the responsibility of the human authors.

What Happens After You Submit a Manuscript?

LRP uses double-anonymized peer review. The editors first assess whether the submission is suitable for the journal. If it proceeds, Elsevier states that it will typically be sent to a minimum of two reviewers for independent expert assessment of scientific quality. Editors make the final accept/reject decision.

Elsevier’s journal insights page currently displays indicative timeline statistics of 7 days to first decision, 110 days to a decision after review, 438 days from submission to acceptance, and 3 days from acceptance to online publication. These are journal-level publisher metrics, not promised turnaround times for a specific manuscript; complexity, revisions, reviewer availability and editorial decisions can make an individual pathway shorter or longer.

The journal also allows a formal appeal request when it satisfies Elsevier’s appeal-policy requirements. Only one appeal per submission is considered, and the appeal decision is final.

Open Access, APCs and the Subscription Route

Long Range Planning is a hybrid journal. Elsevier currently lists an open-access Article Publishing Charge of USD 3,710 excluding taxes. The amount may be reduced during submission where an author qualifies through country, institution, agreement or other applicable arrangements.

The subscription option is listed as charging no publication fee to authors, with published articles immediately available to subscribers. Authors who choose open access are responsible for the applicable APC if the manuscript is accepted. Always confirm the fee in the live submission context because publisher charges and institutional agreements can change.

Publication-Readiness Checklist Before Submission

How Contentxprtz Can Support Ethical Publication Readiness

Professional support is most useful after the researcher has made the intellectual decisions: research question, data, analysis, interpretation and target-journal rationale. Contentxprtz can help with academic editing, language polishing, journal formatting, reference consistency, manuscript assessment, cover-letter editing and reviewer-response editing.

For a Long Range Planning submission, that may include checking whether the abstract is concise, whether strategy terminology is used consistently, whether the discussion communicates the contribution clearly, whether anonymization is complete, and whether the submission package follows the publisher’s visible requirements. This is preparation support, not influence over editors or reviewers.

Summary: Should You Submit to Long Range Planning?

Long Range Planning is a well-established Elsevier journal centered on strategic management, indexed in Scopus and currently displaying strong publisher-reported citation metrics. It offers a broad strategy scope across corporate and business strategy, international strategy, business models, innovation, entrepreneurship, governance, CSR, technology management and strategy methods, while maintaining a clear expectation that submissions contribute to the strategy field.

The most useful decision test is therefore not “Is LRP indexed?” but “Does my manuscript genuinely belong in the strategic-management conversation that LRP publishes?” If the answer is yes, follow the journal’s current formatting and anonymization requirements carefully, verify any fee or metric that matters to your institution, and prepare the manuscript for rigorous editorial screening and double-anonymized peer review.

Authoritative Journal Links

• Long Range Planning official journal homepage
• Elsevier Journal Insights: metrics, ISSN, fees and timelines
• Long Range Planning Guide for Authors
• Long Range Planning editorial board
• Long Range Planning calls for papers
• Scopus Source ID 21203