Social Responsibility Journal: Scopus, Scope & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Social Responsibility Journal?

Social Responsibility Journal is an international, interdisciplinary journal covering theoretical, methodological and substantive debates about social responsibility. Emerald describes its remit broadly, including accountability, sustainability, governance, ethics, environmental issues, stakeholder relationships, regulation, corporate behaviour, transparency, consumption and related questions.

It is published by Emerald Publishing, carries print ISSN 1747-1117 and online ISSN 1758-857X, and is the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network. Its Scopus Source ID is 19900191756. The journal publishes research papers, literature reviews and conceptual papers, while its broader classification guidance also recognises categories such as viewpoints, case studies and general reviews.

SRJ may suit authors whose work makes a direct contribution to understanding social responsibility at organisational, societal or individual level. Before submitting, compare the manuscript with the journal’s aims and recent papers, confirm the latest author guidelines, and check whether your institution requires a particular Scopus quartile, Web of Science category or other metric.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing; official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network.
• Scopus: journal record supplied under Source ID 19900191756.
• Current publisher-reported metrics: CiteScore 2025: 9.6; CiteScore Tracker 2026: 8.8; Journal Impact Factor 2025: 4.1; five-year Impact Factor 2025: 4.6.
• Scope: interdisciplinary research connecting social responsibility with sustainability, accountability, governance, ethics, regulation, stakeholders, environment, finance, consumption and organisational behaviour.
• Peer review: double-anonymous review with at least two independent referees after editorial screening.
• Manuscript length: normally 5,000–8,000 words under the current Emerald author guidelines, including specified manuscript elements.
• Open access: hybrid options are available; gold OA involves an APC after acceptance, while green self-archiving is also available under Emerald policy.
• Reported publication data: Emerald currently shows 41 days to first decision, 30 days from acceptance to publication and a 12.2% acceptance rate for the stated reporting periods.

Social Responsibility Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• the journal’s identity, publisher, ISSNs and Scopus record
• aims, scope and subject areas
• current citation metrics and how to interpret them cautiously
• article types and manuscript requirements
• double-anonymous peer review and reported editorial timelines
• open-access routes and publication-fee considerations
• ethics, authorship and AI-use requirements
• a practical journal-fit and pre-submission checklist
• ethical ways Contentxprtz can support manuscript readiness

Methodology and Sources

This guide prioritises the official Emerald journal page and author guidelines, the supplied Scopus Source ID, and current Emerald Insight publication records. Emerald is used for the journal’s aims, editorial leadership, manuscript requirements, review model, open-access routes, indexing list, acceptance rate and publication timelines. The Scopus source link is provided for researchers who need to confirm indexing and database-specific metrics directly.

Metrics, editorial teams, APCs, issue schedules, indexing and submission policies can change. Values in this article are therefore labelled with their reporting year or update period wherever available. Where the reviewed official page did not state a current value, this guide does not invent one.

Social Responsibility Journal Aims and Scope

SRJ defines itself as interdisciplinary and welcomes work from any discipline or geographic region when it addresses an element of social responsibility. Its scope covers theoretical, methodological and substantive debates, and Emerald particularly encourages contributions that connect disciplines or examine implications for societal, organisational or individual behaviour.

The breadth of the scope is important. “Social responsibility” is not limited to conventional corporate philanthropy or standalone CSR programmes. The journal explicitly connects responsibility with accountability, sustainability, economy and finance, governance, stakeholder interactions, ecology and environment, corporate activity and behaviour, ethics and morality, regulation, globalisation, citizenship, transparency, disclosure and consumption.

That breadth can support interdisciplinary manuscripts, but it also raises the bar for fit. A paper about sustainability reporting, employee behaviour, ESG reputation, green HRM, responsible consumption or public policy may be relevant only when the contribution is clearly anchored in social responsibility. A manuscript that merely contains an ESG variable without a responsibility-oriented research question may be better suited elsewhere.

Examples of research that may align well

• corporate or organisational responsibility toward employees, communities, consumers or the environment
• CSR, ESG and sustainability practices examined through accountability, legitimacy, governance or stakeholder lenses
• responsible human-resource management, employee responses to CSR and workplace social responsibility
• social and environmental disclosure, reporting quality, transparency and responsible finance
• responsible consumption, sustainable consumer behaviour and social consequences of consumption
• governmental or trans-governmental regulation affecting social responsibility
• third-sector, nonprofit, public-policy or institutional responsibility
• ethical questions connecting organisational decisions with societal outcomes

Recent 2026 SRJ publications illustrate this range, including work on the politics of social responsibility after neoliberalism, socially responsible HRM and employee green performance, business ethics and carbon-emission disclosure, destination social responsibility, and responsible consumption. Those examples are not a closed list of acceptable topics; they are useful signals of the journal’s active research conversation.

Who Should Consider Submitting?

SRJ may be a sensible candidate for researchers in business and management, sustainability, accounting, human resources, marketing, public policy, governance, ethics, development studies and related social-science fields when the manuscript has a clear social-responsibility contribution. Its international scope can also make it relevant to comparative, emerging-market and context-specific research.

For a PhD scholar or early-career researcher, the key question is not simply whether the journal is indexed. Ask whether your research question, theory, variables, evidence and implications speak to the audience that follows social responsibility as a field. A technically strong paper can still be desk-rejected if its contribution sits outside the journal’s central conversation.

Researchers whose universities require Scopus-listed or Web of Science-indexed outputs should separately check the institution’s exact policy. Some programmes require a particular quartile, category, publication date or active-indexing status, and those requirements are institutional rather than rules set by SRJ.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

The journal record supplied for this task identifies Social Responsibility Journal in Scopus under Source ID 19900191756. Emerald’s current metrics panel reports a 2025 CiteScore of 9.6 and a 2026 CiteScore Tracker of 8.8. The tracker is a current-year indicator and is updated monthly, so it should not be treated as a final annual CiteScore.

Emerald also reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 4.1 and a 2025 five-year Impact Factor of 4.6. Its journal page lists Emerging Sources Citation Index among abstracting and indexing services. It additionally displays SCImago Q1 rankings in Business, Management and Accounting and in Social Sciences.

Metrics are best used as context, not as a substitute for fit. Quartiles are category- and year-dependent; CiteScore and Impact Factor use different calculation systems; and a journal can move between quartiles over time. If a doctoral programme says “Q1 only,” confirm the exact database and category the programme recognises before submission.

Article Types and Manuscript Requirements

Emerald’s current SRJ guidelines ask authors to choose among Research Paper, Literature Review and Conceptual Paper during submission, while its classification guidance explains additional categories such as viewpoint, technical paper, case study, literature review and general review. The journal’s aims page also states that it publishes theoretical and empirical papers, speculative essays and review articles, and occasionally special themed issues.

Because SRJ uses double-anonymous review, anonymisation is not a cosmetic step. Emerald tells authors to remove names from the manuscript, avoid self-identifying wording, keep author biographies and acknowledgements in separate files, and check figures and captions for identifying information.

How to Decide Whether Your Manuscript Fits SRJ

A practical fit test has four layers. First, identify the manuscript’s central responsibility question in one sentence. If the paper’s main contribution could be described without reference to responsibility, accountability, sustainability, ethics, governance, stakeholders or societal impact, the connection may be too weak.

Second, compare the manuscript with recent SRJ papers that use similar theories, methods or contexts. The journal publishes quantitative and qualitative empirical work as well as conceptual and review papers, so methodology alone is unlikely to determine fit. The more useful question is whether the paper advances a debate SRJ readers already recognise.

Third, check contribution at the right level. SRJ explicitly welcomes implications for society, organisations and individuals. Make the level of responsibility clear: who owes responsibility to whom, through what mechanism, with what consequences and under which institutional conditions?

Fourth, test the manuscript against the author guidelines before submission. A promising paper can lose editorial momentum if the abstract structure, word count, anonymisation, references or ethics statements are incomplete.

What Happens After You Submit a Manuscript?

Emerald states that SRJ submissions are first screened by the editorial office. A manuscript may be declined or returned without external review if it does not fit submission policies or the journal’s aims and scope, or if the language/manuscript quality is considered too low.

Suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two independent referees for double-anonymous peer review. After considering reviewer reports, the editor may accept, request minor or major revisions, or decline the paper. Emerald’s general target on the SRJ guideline page is to communicate a first decision within 60 days.

The journal’s metrics panel provides more specific historical performance data: 41 days to first decision for submissions received between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. It also reports 30 days from acceptance to publication, based on the previous 12 months and last updated April 2025. These are reported averages, not guarantees for an individual manuscript.

Once accepted and processed, papers may appear online as EarlyCite versions before they are assigned to a volume and issue. EarlyCite articles have a DOI and are citable.

Acceptance Rate: What the 12.2% Figure Means

Unlike many journals that do not publicly state an acceptance rate, Emerald currently displays an SRJ acceptance rate of 12.2%, calculated from submissions between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. This is useful context, but it should not be interpreted as a personal probability of acceptance.

Editorial outcomes depend on topic fit, originality, research design, evidence quality, ethical compliance, manuscript clarity and the state of the literature at the time of submission. A narrow historical acceptance percentage does not predict the decision on a particular paper, and Contentxprtz does not claim to influence or guarantee editorial outcomes.

Open Access, APCs and Publication Charges

SRJ operates as a hybrid journal under Emerald’s open-research model. Authors may publish through the standard route or choose gold open access after acceptance. When gold OA is selected, Emerald states that an article processing charge applies and the article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence.

The journal page reviewed for this guide does not display a fixed SRJ APC amount in the visible author-guideline text; it directs authors to Emerald’s current APC price list or the editorial system. For that reason, this article does not quote an amount that may become outdated. Confirm the current charge, waiver eligibility and institutional agreements before making a funding decision.

Emerald also offers a green open-access/self-archiving route. Its guidance states that the author accepted manuscript can be made openly available without a payment or embargo period once the article is published. Authors should still follow the exact repository and version rules applicable at the time of acceptance.

Research Ethics, Authorship and AI Use

Emerald’s ethics guidance for SRJ requires original work that is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere, appropriate authorship, disclosure of conflicts of interest, necessary permissions and responsible handling of research involving people. Where ethical approval and informed consent are relevant, authors are expected to include suitable statements and supporting details.

Emerald follows COPE-informed publishing ethics. Its current AI policy also deserves careful attention: large language models cannot be credited as authors, and authors remain accountable for accuracy, integrity, originality and validity. Emerald currently permits certain forms of generative-AI-assisted copy-editing of an author’s own existing work, subject to its policy, while prohibiting generative-AI copywriting that creates new submission content. Because publisher AI rules can change, check the live policy immediately before submission.

As a practical publication-readiness step, keep a record of ethical approval, consent, funding, conflicts, data permissions, third-party material permissions and any permitted AI-assisted editing. These records make it easier to answer editorial queries accurately.

Submission Process: A Practical Author Checklist

1. Read the current SRJ aims and scope and compare your paper with several recent articles.
2. Confirm that the manuscript is within the stated 5,000–8,000-word range unless a specific call or editor provides different instructions.
3. Prepare the structured abstract and no more than 12 keywords.
4. Apply a consistent recognised Harvard reference style and verify every citation.
5. Remove author names and other identifying details from the review manuscript.
6. Upload biographies and acknowledgements separately when used.
7. Check funding, ethics approval, informed consent, conflicts of interest and permissions.
8. Confirm that tables, figures and supplementary files are complete and readable.
9. Submit through the journal’s ScholarOne system as the corresponding author; Emerald states that submissions should be made directly by the authors, not through a third-party proxy.
10. Keep the manuscript number from the confirmation email and use the official system to track status.

How to Strengthen a Journal-Aligned Manuscript

Strong alignment begins in the introduction. Explain the specific social-responsibility problem, why it matters, what prior research has not resolved, and how your study changes understanding. Avoid presenting “CSR,” “ESG” or “sustainability” as self-evident contributions; show the conceptual mechanism.

In the literature review, position the paper within the debates that SRJ publishes rather than relying on a generic management or sustainability literature. If the study is interdisciplinary, explain what the integration contributes instead of merely combining citations from several fields.

Methods should be detailed enough to support evaluation and reproducibility where appropriate. Empirical studies should connect design, measurement, sampling and analysis choices to the research question. Conceptual and review papers need an equally clear contribution logic, transparent selection approach where relevant, and a conclusion that advances the field rather than summarising existing work.

Finally, make the implications specific. SRJ’s scope spans societal, organisational and individual behaviour, so readers benefit when authors explain who can act on the findings and under what conditions. Practical implications should follow from the evidence rather than becoming generic recommendations.

Common Reasons a Paper May Be Unsuitable

• The manuscript treats CSR or sustainability as a label but does not make a social-responsibility contribution.
• The research question fits a specialist finance, marketing, HR or environmental journal better and has little interdisciplinary relevance.
• The paper falls outside the current word-count or manuscript-format requirements.
• The abstract is not structured as required, or the contribution is unclear from the abstract.
• Anonymisation is incomplete for double-anonymous review.
• Ethics, informed consent, permissions or conflict disclosures are missing where required.
• References are inconsistent or claims are not adequately supported.
• The paper does not engage sufficiently with recent literature relevant to SRJ’s readership.

Publication-Readiness Checklist Before Submission

How Contentxprtz Can Support Ethical Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz supports researchers, PhD scholars, academics and professionals preparing manuscripts for journals such as Social Responsibility Journal. Depending on the manuscript, support may include academic editing, proofreading, journal formatting, reference and citation consistency checks, manuscript assessment, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and publication-readiness review.

The purpose of professional support is to help authors communicate their own research clearly and align the presentation with applicable journal requirements. Contentxprtz does not control editorial decisions, peer reviewers, indexing databases or publication schedules, and it does not guarantee journal acceptance or publication.

Summary: Social Responsibility Journal

Social Responsibility Journal is an Emerald-published interdisciplinary journal focused on social responsibility, sustainability and governance. It is associated with the Social Responsibility Research Network, has print ISSN 1747-1117 and online ISSN 1758-857X, and is identified in Scopus under Source ID 19900191756. Emerald currently reports a 2025 CiteScore of 9.6, a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 4.1 and double-anonymous peer review.

The journal may suit empirical, conceptual and review work that makes a clear contribution to social-responsibility debates across business, society, governance, ethics, environment, stakeholders, regulation and consumption. Current guidelines specify a 5,000–8,000-word range, a structured abstract, up to 12 keywords and Harvard-style references. Authors should reconfirm all metrics, APCs, indexing records and author instructions immediately before submission.

Conclusion: Is Social Responsibility Journal a Good Fit for Your Research?

SRJ can be a strong candidate when the manuscript makes a substantive contribution to social responsibility and connects that contribution with questions of sustainability, accountability, governance, ethics, stakeholders, environment, regulation or social outcomes. Its interdisciplinary scope creates room for varied methods and contexts, but authors still need a precise link to the journal’s research conversation.

Before submitting, confirm the live Emerald author guidelines, Scopus record, current metrics, APC information and any institutional recognition rules that apply to you. Then focus on the factors authors can control: a clear contribution, rigorous method, ethical documentation, accurate references, complete anonymisation and a manuscript that is easy for editors and reviewers to evaluate.

If additional language, structure or formatting support is useful, Contentxprtz can help improve publication readiness while preserving the author’s responsibility for the research and final submission.