Management Research: Scopus, Scope & Submission Guide

Management Research: The Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management is a peer-reviewed management journal published by Emerald Publishing and serving as the official journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management. Its defining editorial focus is management research with an interest in Iberoamerican issues, while its disciplinary coverage spans the major areas of management rather than a single specialist field.

For a researcher deciding whether to submit, the key question is not simply whether Management Research is indexed or has a particular metric. The stronger decision combines four checks: whether the paper genuinely engages with the journal’s Iberoamerican orientation, whether its subject and method fit recent work, whether the manuscript meets Emerald’s current author requirements, and whether the journal’s indexing satisfies the researcher’s university, funder or doctoral programme.

Key takeaways for prospective authors

• Publisher and identity: Emerald Publishing; official journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management; ISSN 1536-5433 and eISSN 1558-0946.
• Scopus: the supplied Scopus Source ID is 21100823284; Emerald lists Scopus among the journal’s ranking services.
• 2025 metrics: Emerald reports CiteScore 3.3, Journal Impact Factor 1.3 and five-year Impact Factor 1.6. A 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 3.1 was displayed when this page was researched.
• Scope: major management disciplines, especially work with an Iberoamerican issue, setting, comparison, implication or contribution.
• Manuscript length: currently 6,000–8,000 words, with a structured abstract and up to 12 keywords.
• Peer review: editorial screening followed, where suitable, by at least two independent reviewers using double-anonymous review.
• Open access: optional gold OA after acceptance or green self-archiving; Emerald states there is no submission fee.

Management Research journal information at a glance

What is Management Research, and what makes its scope distinctive?

The journal describes itself as a rigorous forum for high-quality peer-reviewed research across major management disciplines, but the phrase that most strongly shapes manuscript fit is its interest in Iberoamerican issues. That orientation distinguishes it from broad management journals that accept work solely because it addresses a mainstream topic such as leadership, strategy or human resources.

Emerald explicitly welcomes empirical, conceptual and review work, including cross-disciplinary research. The listed subject areas include human resource management, strategic management, organizational behaviour, organization theory, corporate governance, managerial economics and cross-cultural management. The list is illustrative rather than exhaustive.

What recent research themes suggest about journal fit

Emerald’s journal page highlights recent work on environmental, social and governance practices and green innovation in Brazil; digital competencies and digital transformation in Ibero-America; and senior digital entrepreneurship in Latin American contexts. It also highlights downloaded work on green innovation and competitiveness in Ecuador, generative AI and academic writing, and social entrepreneurship and individual economic well-being.

These examples should not be treated as a closed list of preferred topics. They do, however, show how the journal combines mainstream management questions—innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, digital transformation and organizational capability—with regional or institutional contexts that matter to Iberoamerican scholarship.

Indexing, visibility and 2025 journal metrics

For researchers whose institutions require Scopus-indexed outputs, the supplied source record identifies Management Research as Scopus Source ID 21100823284. Emerald’s current journal page also lists Scopus among the services that rank the title and lists the Emerging Sources Citation Index among its abstracting and indexing services.

Emerald reports a 2025 CiteScore of 3.3 and displayed a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 3.1 during preparation of this guide. Because a tracker is updated monthly, it should be treated as a moving indicator rather than a finalized annual metric. Emerald also reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 1.3 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 1.6.

A current quartile, SJR and SNIP were not displayed on the official Emerald page reviewed. Those values can differ by reporting year, subject category and database. If a doctoral programme or promotion policy requires a specific quartile, check the current applicable category directly rather than relying on an undated third-party ranking page.

Who should consider submitting?

The journal may be worth considering for scholars in management and adjacent business fields whose manuscript has a defensible Iberoamerican dimension. That can include research located in Latin America, Spain or Portugal; cross-country studies that include Iberoamerican settings; studies of institutions or managerial practices relevant to the region; or broader theoretical work whose contribution clearly speaks to Iberoamerican management scholarship.

Early-career researchers should not infer suitability from the journal’s acceptance rate or metrics alone. A better test is whether the manuscript can answer three questions convincingly: Why this management problem? Why this theoretical or empirical contribution? Why does the Iberoamerican context matter to the contribution?

Article types and manuscript categories

According to the current Emerald author guidelines, submission types include Research Paper, Young Iberoamerican Scholar, Life in Research, To, From and Beyond the Margins, Practitioner Paper and Research Note. Emerald also provides broader article-category descriptions for research papers, viewpoints, technical papers, conceptual papers, case studies, literature reviews and general reviews.

Authors should select the closest available classification in ScholarOne and ensure the manuscript behaves like that article type. A conceptual paper, for example, needs a clear theoretical contribution rather than an empirical structure with no data; a literature review should do more than summarize prior studies and should show an analytical or critical organizing logic.

Core manuscript requirements before submission

The complete official Management Research author guidelines should be treated as the controlling source because file, disclosure and submission requirements can change.

Submission workflow and peer review

1. Final scope check: compare the manuscript with the journal’s aims, scope and recent papers.
2. Prepare an anonymous manuscript: remove author names and clues that could compromise double-anonymous review.
3. Submit through the Emerald-linked editorial system: Emerald states that submission should be made directly by the corresponding author through the journal’s ScholarOne route, not by email or a third-party proxy.
4. Editorial screening: the journal office may decline or return papers that do not fit policy, scope or minimum manuscript-quality expectations.
5. External review: suitable papers are sent to at least two independent referees for double-anonymous peer review.
6. Decision and revision: the editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the paper.

Emerald reports a 40-day average to first decision for submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The journal’s older aims-and-scope text mentions a 32-day initial-decision average from 2016; the newer 40-day metric is the more useful current reference. Neither figure is a promise for an individual manuscript.

Acceptance rate and publication timeline: how to interpret them

Emerald currently displays an 18.4% acceptance rate based on submissions from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. It also reports an average of 38 days from acceptance to publication for the previous 12 months, last updated April 2025.

These numbers are helpful for understanding recent journal operations, but they cannot estimate an individual paper’s acceptance probability. Editorial fit, originality, methodological credibility, theoretical contribution, writing quality and reviewer assessment all matter. A paper that is outside scope can be rejected quickly even if it is otherwise well executed.

Open access, submission fees and APCs

Management Research is not presented as a fully open-access-only journal. Emerald offers authors a choice of gold and green open-access routes. Gold open access is selected after acceptance and uses a CC BY 4.0 licence. Green open access allows the author accepted manuscript to be made openly available under Emerald’s self-archiving policy.

Emerald explicitly states that there is no submission fee; authors are asked to pay only if they choose the gold open-access route after acceptance. Emerald’s publisher-wide page currently lists a hybrid-journal APC of £3,222 / US$4,351 / €3,710 plus VAT where applicable. Because APC pricing, agreements, waivers and institutional vouchers can change, authors should confirm the current Emerald open-access price and eligibility at the point of submission or acceptance.

Research ethics, authorship and AI-use requirements

Emerald states that submitted work must be original, must not be under consideration elsewhere, and must disclose conflicts of interest. Human-participant research should address ethical approval and informed consent where required, and authors may need permission when identifiable organizations or individuals are discussed using non-public information. The publisher follows COPE guidance and may use Crossref Similarity Check.

Emerald’s current AI policy is especially important for authors using generative tools. The publisher does not permit generative AI to create or draft new manuscript material, while it allows AI-assisted copy-editing of an author’s own original work subject to its transparency and accountability principles. Large language models cannot be credited as authors. Authors should read Emerald’s current publishing-ethics guidance before submission because AI policies are evolving.

A practical journal-fit checklist

• Does the paper make a clear management contribution rather than merely using management vocabulary?
• Is the Iberoamerican relevance substantive and visible in the research question, setting, theory, comparison or implications?
• Can you identify recent Management Research papers that show your topic or method belongs in the conversation?
• Does the manuscript type match one of the journal’s current classifications?
• Is the contribution stated precisely enough to distinguish the paper from a descriptive regional study?
• Does the manuscript fit the 6,000–8,000-word requirement and structured-abstract format?
• Have you confirmed your university’s current rules on Scopus, Web of Science, quartile or Impact Factor requirements?

How to strengthen a manuscript for Management Research

As a publication-readiness step, align the manuscript at three levels. First, make the problem-scope fit explicit: explain why the management problem matters to an Iberoamerican scholarly audience. Second, strengthen the contribution fit: show what the study changes, extends, challenges or explains in the relevant management literature. Third, check the presentation fit: use the required structured abstract, Harvard references, anonymous-review conventions and file preparation rules.

Recent papers can be useful calibration points. Compare not only topics but also article architecture, theoretical positioning, level of contextual detail, methods and the way managerial implications are developed. This is general publication guidance rather than a guarantee that imitating recent formats will lead to acceptance.

Common reasons a manuscript may be unsuitable

A manuscript may be vulnerable to desk rejection if the Iberoamerican connection is superficial, if the work sits outside management and its surrounding fields, if the contribution is mainly descriptive, if the paper does not meet the journal’s formatting or anonymisation requirements, or if language and structure make the scholarly contribution difficult to evaluate. Ethical or originality problems can also prevent a manuscript from proceeding.

Where authors remain genuinely unsure after reading the aims and scope, Emerald’s FAQ advises contacting the journal editor with the paper title and structured abstract for a suitability query.

How Contentxprtz can support publication readiness

Contentxprtz can support authors with ethical manuscript preparation activities such as academic editing, language polishing, structure and clarity review, journal-format checking, reference consistency, cover-letter editing and reviewer-response editing. The goal is to help the author present their own research clearly and in line with stated journal requirements.

Professional support cannot guarantee acceptance, alter peer-review outcomes or substitute for the researcher’s responsibility for methods, data, analysis, citations and conclusions. Authors considering support can explore journal publication and manuscript-readiness services after first confirming that Management Research is an appropriate scholarly fit.

Methodology and authoritative sources used

This guide was prepared from the supplied Scopus source record and current authoritative publishing information, with priority given to Emerald’s official journal page and author instructions. Key identifiers were cross-checked against the ISSN record. Because metrics, APCs, editorial teams, indexing and submission systems can change, authors should reconfirm time-sensitive details immediately before submission.

• Emerald: Management Research journal page and author guidelines
• Scopus source profile: Source ID 21100823284
• ISSN Portal record for eISSN 1558-0946
• Emerald open-access and APC information

Final assessment

Management Research: The Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management is most relevant to authors whose work makes a credible management contribution and has a meaningful Iberoamerican dimension. Its Scopus presence, 2025 CiteScore and Impact Factor may matter for institutional visibility, but journal selection should still begin with scope and readership. Before submitting, confirm the current author guidelines, verify any database or quartile requirement imposed by your institution, anonymise the manuscript carefully and make the paper’s regional and theoretical contribution unmistakable.

Dr. Aanya Mehta

Research Writer & Professional Business Communicator

Dr. Aanya Mehta is a research-oriented writer and professional communicator focused on accuracy, clarity and evidence-aware scholarly guidance.