Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

Author guidelines

Please note, the journal seeks to obtain a minimum of three reviewers per paper or two reviewers plus feedback from an Associate Editor in addition to inform the Editor’s decision. Papers that do not meet the quality criteria, author guidelines and/or editorial scope are desk rejected. The journal acceptance rate is below 10% and the desk rejection rate is approximately 70%.

Before you start

For queries relating to the status of your paper pre decision, please contact the Editor or Journal Editorial Office. For queries post acceptance, please contact the Supplier Project Manager. These details can be found in the Editorial Team section.

Author responsibilities

Our goal is to provide you with a professional and courteous experience at each stage of the review and publication process. There are also some responsibilities that sit with you as the author. Our expectation is that you will:

Respond swiftly to any queries during the publication process.
Be accountable for all aspects of your work. This includes investigating and resolving any questions about accuracy or research integrity
Treat communications between you and the journal editor as confidential until an editorial decision has been made.
Read about our research ethics for authorship. These state that you must:
- Include anyone who has made a substantial and meaningful contribution to the submission (anyone else involved in the paper should be listed in the acknowledgements).
- Exclude anyone who hasn’t contributed to the paper, or who has chosen not to be associated with the research.
- In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools, Large Language Models cannot be credited with authorship as they are incapable of conceptualising a research design without human direction and cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and validity of the published work. The author(s) must describe the content created or modified as well as appropriately cite the name and version of the AI tool used; any additional works drawn on by the AI tool should also be appropriately cited and referenced. Standard tools that are used to improve spelling and grammar are not included within the parameters of this guidance. The Editor and Publisher reserve the right to determine whether the use of an AI tool is permissible.
If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent.

Emerald’s Policy on AI Usage

Emerald’s overarching principles of AI usage:

1) Authors and peer reviewers are responsible and accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work.

2) AI tools and technology must be used responsibly and transparently.

3) AI tools and technology should not replace human involvement in the publication process but instead supplement it.

Copywriting (creating, drafting, or writing) any part of a submission using generative AI tools and technology to generate new material is not permitted.

Copy-editing (correcting, editing, formatting, modifying, or refining) all or part of an author’s own original existing work using generative AI tools and technology the content to improve its structure and the clarity of the language and grammar is permitted, ensuring users adhere to the following overarching principles.

Emerald’s full policy, including examples of use cases can be found on our Publishing Ethics page.

Research and publishing ethics

Our editors and employees work hard to ensure the content we publish is ethically sound. To help us achieve that goal, we closely follow the advice laid out in the guidelines and flowcharts on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) website.

We have also developed our research and publishing ethics guidelines. If you haven’t already read these, we urge you to do so – they will help you avoid the most common publishing ethics issues.

A few key points:

Any manuscript you submit to this journal should be original. That means it should not have been published before in its current, or similar, form. Exceptions to this rule are outlined in our pre-print and conference paper policies. If any substantial element of your paper has been previously published, you need to declare this to the journal editor upon submission. Please note, the journal editor may use Crossref Similarity Check to check on the originality of submissions received. This service compares submissions against a database of 49 million works from 800 scholarly publishers.
Your work should not have been submitted elsewhere and should not be under consideration by any other publication.
If you have a conflict of interest, you must declare it upon submission; this allows the editor to decide how they would like to proceed. Read about conflict of interest in our research and publishing ethics guidelines.
By submitting your work to Emerald, you are guaranteeing that the work is not in infringement of any existing copyright.

Third party copyright permissions

Prior to article submission, you need to ensure you’ve applied for, and received, written permission to use any material in your manuscript that has been created by a third party. Please note, we are unable to publish any article that still has permissions pending. The rights we require are:

Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter.
Print and electronic rights.
Worldwide English-language rights.
To use the material for the life of the work. That means there should be no time restrictions on its re-use e.g. a one-year licence.

We are a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) and participate in the STM permissions guidelines, a reciprocal free exchange of material with other STM publishers. In some cases, this may mean that you don’t need permission to re-use content. If so, please highlight this at the submission stage.

Please take a few moments to read our guide to publishing permissions to ensure you have met all the requirements, so that we can process your submission without delay.

Open access submissions and information

All our journals currently offer two open access (OA) publishing paths; gold open access and green open access.

If you would like to, or are required to, make the branded publisher PDF (also known as the version of record) freely available immediately upon publication, you can select the gold open access route once your paper is accepted.

If you’ve chosen to publish gold open access, this is the point you will be asked to pay the APC (article processing charge). This varies per journal and can be found on our APC price list or on the editorial system at the point of submission. Your article will be published with a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence, which outlines how readers can reuse your work.

Alternatively, if you would like to, or are required to, publish open access but your funding doesn’t cover the cost of the APC, you can choose the green open access, or self-archiving, route. As soon as your article is published, you can make the author accepted manuscript (the version accepted for publication) openly available, free from payment and embargo periods.

You can find out more about our open access routes, our APCs and waivers and read our FAQs on our open research page.

Find out about open

Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines

We are a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, a framework that supports the reproducibility of research through the adoption of transparent research practices. That means we encourage you to:

Cite and fully reference all data, program code, and other methods in your article.
Include persistent identifiers, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), in references for datasets and program codes. Persistent identifiers ensure future access to unique published digital objects, such as a piece of text or datasets. Persistent identifiers are assigned to datasets by digital archives, such as institutional repositories and partners in the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS).
Follow appropriate international and national procedures with respect to data protection, rights to privacy and other ethical considerations, whenever you cite data. For further guidance please refer to our research and publishing ethics guidelines. For an example on how to cite datasets, please refer to the references section below.

Prepare your submission

Manuscript support services

We are pleased to partner with Editage, a platform that connects you with relevant experts in language support, translation, editing, visuals, consulting, and more. After you’ve agreed a fee, they will work with you to enhance your manuscript and get it submission-ready.

This is an optional service for authors who feel they need a little extra support. It does not guarantee your work will be accepted for review or publication.

Visit Editage

Manuscript requirements

Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below. You will also find some useful tips in our structure your journal submission how-to guide.

Format	Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below.
Article length / word count	Articles should be between 10000 and 12000 words in length. This includes all text, for example, the structured abstract, references, all text in tables, and figures and appendices. Please allow 280 words for each figure or table.
Article title	A concisely worded title should be provided.
Author details	The names of all contributing authors should be added to the ScholarOne submission; please list them in the order in which you’d like them to be published. Each contributing author will need their own ScholarOne author account, from which we will extract the following details: Author email address (institutional preferred). Author name. We will reproduce it exactly, so any middle names and/or initials they want featured must be included. Author affiliation. This should be where they were based when the research for the paper was conducted. In multi-authored papers, it’s important that ALL authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper are listed. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. You should never include people who have not contributed to the paper or who don’t want to be associated with the research. Read about our research ethics for authorship.
Biographies and acknowledgements	If you want to include these items, save them in a separate Microsoft Word document and upload the file with your submission. Where they are included, a brief professional biography of not more than 100 words should be supplied for each named author.
Research funding	Your article must reference all sources of external research funding in the acknowledgements section. You should describe the role of the funder or financial sponsor in the entire research process, from study design to submission.
Structured abstract	All submissions must include a structured abstract, following the format outlined below. These six sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included: Purpose Design/methodology/approach Findings Originality Practical implications Social implications The following sub-heading is optional and can be included, if applicable: Research limitations/implications You can find some useful tips in our write an article abstract how-to guide. The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below).
Keywords	Your submission should include up to 12 appropriate and short keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our Creating an SEO-friendly manuscript how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords. Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility.
Article classification	During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit: Research Paper Research Note New Item You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit: Research paper. Reports on any type of research undertaken by the author(s), including: The construction or testing of a model or framework Action research Testing of data, market research or surveys Empirical, scientific or clinical research Papers with a practical focus Viewpoint. Covers any paper where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation which are supported by analysis of evidence. Technical paper. Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services. Conceptual paper. Focuses on developing hypotheses and is usually discursive. Covers philosophical discussions and comparative studies of other authors’ work and thinking. Case study. Describes actual interventions or experiences within organizations. It can be subjective and doesn’t generally report on research. Also covers a description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise. Literature review. This category should only be used if the main purpose of the paper is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular field. It could be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources, or the paper may aim to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views. General review. Provides an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon. Papers are likely to be more descriptive or instructional (‘how to’ papers) than discursive.
Headings	Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy. The preferred format is for first level headings to be in bold, and subsequent sub-headings to be in medium italics.
Notes/endnotes	Notes or endnotes should only be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets. These numbers should then be listed, and explained, at the end of the article.
Figures	All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically. Both colour and black and white files are accepted. There are a few other important points to note: All figures should be supplied at the highest resolution/quality possible with numbers and text clearly legible. Acceptable formats are .ai, .eps, .jpeg, .bmp, and .tif. Electronic figures created in other applications should be supplied in their original formats and should also be either copied and pasted into a blank MS Word document, or submitted as a PDF file. All figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have clear captions. All photographs should be numbered as Plate 1, 2, 3, etc. and have clear captions. All figure/table captions should include the necessary credit line, acknowledgement, or attribution if you have been given permission to use the figure/table; if the figure/table is the property of the author(s), this should be acknowledged in the caption.
Tables	Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.). Give each table a brief title. Ensure that any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items and have explanations displayed as footnotes to the table, figure or plate.
Supplementary files	Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content hosting platform, or on an institutional or personal repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance. If you choose to host your supplementary files on Insight, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article, there is no need to include the content of the file but only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication. Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copyedited, typeset, and authors will not receive proofs. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article. Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) MS Word document (.doc, .docx) MS Excel (.xls, xlsx) MS PowerPoint (.pptx) Image (.png, .jpeg, .gif) Plain ASCII text (.txt) PostScript (.ps) Rich Text Format (.rtf) If you choose to use an institutional or personal repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process).
References	All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised Harvard styles. You are welcome to use the Harvard style Emerald has adopted – we’ve provided a detailed guide below. Want to use a different Harvard style? That’s fine, our typesetters will make any necessary changes to your manuscript if it is accepted. Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Emerald’s Harvard referencing style References to other publications in your text should be written as follows: Single author: (Adams, 2006) Two authors: (Adams and Brown, 2006) Three or more authors: (Adams et al., 2006) Please note, ‘et al' should always be written in italics. A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references. When referring to pages in a publication, use ‘p.(page number)’ for a single page or ‘pp.(page numbers)’ to indicate a page range. Page numbers should always be written out in full, e.g. 175-179, not 175-9. Where a colon or dash appears in the title of an article or book chapter, the letter that follows that colon or dash should always be lower case. When citing a work with multiple editors, use the abbreviation ‘Ed.s’. At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.
For books	Surname, initials (year), title of book, publisher, place of publication. e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.
For book chapters	Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20.
For journals	Surname, initials (year), "title of article", journal name, volume issue, page numbers. e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80.
For published conference proceedings	Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118.
For unpublished conference proceedings	Surname, initials (year), "title of paper", paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date). e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005), "Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki", paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007).
For working papers	Surname, initials (year), "title of article", working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization, date. e.g. Moizer, P. (2003), "How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments", working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, 28 March.
For encyclopaedia entries (with no author or editor)	Title of encyclopaedia (year), "title of entry", volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers. e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926), "Psychology of culture contact", Vol. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, pp.765-771. (for authored entries, please refer to book chapter guidelines above)
For newspaper articles (authored)	Surname, initials (year), "article title", newspaper, date, page numbers. e.g. Smith, A. (2008), "Money for old rope", Daily News, 21 January, pp.1, 3-4.
For newspaper articles (non-authored)	Newspaper (year), "article title", date, page numbers. e.g. Daily News (2008), "Small change", 2 February, p.7.
For archival or other unpublished sources	Surname, initials (year), "title of document", unpublished manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive. e.g. Litman, S. (1902), "Mechanism & Technique of Commerce", unpublished manuscript, Simon Litman Papers, Record series 9/5/29 Box 3, University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
For electronic sources	If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed. Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year). e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018) Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (Roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper).
For data	Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year). e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)

Submit your manuscript

There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.

Double check your manuscript

Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:

Give the journal aims and scope a final read. Is your manuscript definitely a good fit? If it isn’t, the editor may decline it without peer review.
Does your manuscript comply with our research and publishing ethics guidelines?
Have you cleared any necessary publishing permissions?
Have you followed all the formatting requirements laid out in these author guidelines?
Does the manuscript contain any information that might help the reviewer identify you? This could compromise the anonymous peer review process. A few tips:
- If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
- If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, don’t include this work in the reference list.
- Any acknowledgments or author biographies should be uploaded as separate files.
- Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.

You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website Think.Check.Submit.

The submission process

All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.

The only way to submit to the journal is through the journal’s ScholarOne site as accessed via the Emerald website, and not by email or through any third-party agent/company, journal representative, or website. Submissions should be done directly by the author(s) through the ScholarOne site and not via a third-party proxy on their behalf.

A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the Create an account or Register now option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.

Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.

Don't forget to add your ORCiD ID during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.

Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to register for a free ORCiD identifier.

Visit the ScholarOne support centre for further help and guidance.

What you can expect next

You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please contact our Rights team on [email protected]

Post submission

Review and decision process

Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.

If they think it might be suitable for the publication, they will send it to at least two independent referees for double anonymous peer review. Once these reviewers have provided their feedback, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline your work.

When you submit your paper, either the Editor or and Associate Editor will invite referees. They aim to get three reviews for each paper. They strive to get authors feedback quickly, given that they want their research to have a practice and policy impact to achieve sustainable development. To achieve this they ask reviewers to return their reviews within four weeks.

This journal offers an article transfer service. If the editor decides to decline your manuscript, either before or after peer review, they may offer to transfer it to a more relevant Emerald journal in this field. If you accept, your ScholarOne author account, and the accounts of your co-authors, will automatically transfer to the new journal, along with your manuscript and any accompanying peer review reports. However, you will still need to log in to ScholarOne to complete the submission process using your existing username and password. While accepting a transfer does not guarantee the receiving journal will publish your work, an editor will only suggest a transfer if they feel your article is a good fit with the new title.

While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.

During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper. Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you email [email protected].

If your submission is accepted

Open access

Once your paper is accepted, you will have the opportunity to indicate whether you would like to publish your paper via the gold open access route.

Copyright

All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form. This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.

Proofing and typesetting

Once we have received your completed licence form, the article will pass directly into the production process. We will carry out editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting and then return proofs to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. This is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.

When the page proofs are finalised, the fully typeset and proofed version of record is published online. This is referred to as the EarlyCite version. While an EarlyCite article has yet to be assigned to a volume or issue, it does have a digital object identifier (DOI) and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the journal’s issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.

How to share your paper

Visit our author rights page to find out how you can reuse and share your work.

To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about how to promote your work.

Correcting inaccuracies in your published paper

Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our article withdrawal and correction policies.

Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a submission fee for the journal?	The only time we will ever ask you for money to publish in an Emerald journal is if you have chosen to publish via the gold open access route. You will be asked to pay an APC (article-processing charge) once your paper has been accepted (unless it is a sponsored open access journal), and never at submission. Read about our APCs At no other time will you be asked to contribute financially towards your article’s publication, processing, or review. If you haven’t chosen gold open access and you receive an email that appears to be from Emerald, the journal, or a third party, asking you for payment to publish, please contact our support team via [email protected].
How can I become a reviewer for a journal?	Please contact the editor for the journal, with a copy of your CV. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.
Who do I contact if I want to find out which volume and issue my accepted paper will appear in?	Typically, papers are added to an issue according to their date of publication. If you would like to know in advance which issue your paper will appear in, please contact the content editor of the journal. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. Once your paper has been published in an issue, you will be notified by email.
Who do I contact if I have a query about my submission?	Please email the journal editor – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. If you ever suspect an email you’ve received from Emerald might not be genuine, you are welcome to verify it with the content editor for the journal, whose contact details can be found on the editorial team tab on this page. Alternatively, you can email our Rights team.
Is my paper suitable for the journal?	If you’ve read the aims and scope on the journal landing page and are still unsure whether your paper is suitable for the journal, please email the editor and include your paper's title and structured abstract. They will be able to advise on your manuscript’s suitability. You will find their contact details on the Editorial team tab on this page.
How do I make a change to the list of authors once the manuscript has been submitted?	Authorship and the order in which the authors are listed on the paper should be agreed prior to submission. We have a right first time policy on this and no changes can be made to the list once submitted. If you have made an error in the submission process, please email the Journal Editorial Office who will look into your request – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.

Editorial team

Co-Editors-in-Chief
- Professor Subhash Abhayawansa
  Swinburne University of Technology - Australia
  [email protected]
- Professor Carol Adams (Founding Editor)
  Durham University Business School - UK
  [email protected]
Associate Editor for Social Media
- Associate Professor Giuseppe Nicolò
  University of Salerno - Italy
Associate Editors
- Professor Michele Andreaus
  University of Trento - Italy
- Dr Massimo Contrafatto
  University of Sussex Business School - UK
- Dr Ruth Dimes
  The Open University - UK
- Dr Vassiliki Grougiou
  University of Macedonia, Department of Business Administration - Greece
- Professor Jim Haslam
  Durham University Business School - UK
- Associate Professor Gary Hsu
  Durham University - UK
- Professor Javier Husillos
  Universidad Pública de Navarra - Spain
- Professor (Adjunct) Christine Jubb
  Swinburne University - Australia
- Prof. Sarah Lauwo
  Robert Gordon University - UK
- Dr. Mercedes Luque-Vílchez
  University of Córdoba - Spain
- Associate Professor Luis F. Martinez
  Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Portugal
- Professor Josie McLaren
  Newcastle University - UK
- Associate Professor Giuseppe Nicolò
  University of Salerno - Italy
- Dr Simone Pizzi (Accounting)
  Univeristà del Salento - Italy
- Professor Hongtao Shen
  Jinan University, Management School - People's Republic of China
- Professor Javed Siddiqui
  The University of Manchester - UK
- Associate Professor Mauricio Gomez Villegas
  Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Colombia
- Professor Sujuan Xie
  Ocean University of China - People's Republic of China
- Professor Kemi Yekini
  Aston University - UK
Commissioning Editor
- Clare Lehane
  Emerald Publishing - UK
  [email protected]
Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)
- Please contact the Journal Editorial Office
  [email protected]
Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)
- Vidhi Tyagi
  Emerald Publishing
  [email protected]
Editorial Advisory Board
- Associate Professor of Finance Mahmoud Araissi
  Adnan Kassar School of Business, Lebanese American University - Lebanon
- Associate Professor Seraina Anagnostopoulou
  University of Piraeus, Department of Banking and Financial Management - Greece
- Professor Claudia Arena
  University of Naples Federico II - Italy
- Dr Diogenis Baboukardos
  Essex Business School, University of Essex - UK
- Associate Professor Nick Barter
  Griffith University, Griffith Business School - Australia
- Richard Busulwa
  Swinburne University of Technology - Australia
- Emeritus Professor Garry Carnegie
  RMIT University - Australia
- Dr Antonios Chantziaras
  Durham University Business School - UK
- Assistant Professor Stacy Chavez
  Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola University Maryland - USA
- Professor Jennifer Chen
  Brigham Young University–Hawaii - USA
- Professor Yunsen Chen
  School of Accountancy, Central University of Finance and Economics - People's Republic of China
- Professor Charles Cho
  York University - Canada
- Professor Christine Cooper
  University of Edinburgh - UK
- Associate Professor Michela Cordazzo
  Ca' Foscari University of Venice - Italy
- Professor Nathalie Crutzen
  Smart City Institute, HEC Liège - Belgium
- Professor Colin Dey
  University of Dundee - UK
- Professor Samanthi Dijkstra-Silva
  TU Dresden - Germany
- Professor Christos Doucouliagos
  Deakin University - Australia
- Dr Matthew Egan
  University of Sydney - Australia
- Professor Geoff Frost
  University of Sydney - Australia
- Dr Peiyuan Guo
  SynTao Co. - People's Republic of China
- Associate Professor Kathleen Herbohn
  University of Queensland - Australia
- Professor Andreas Hoepner
  University College Dublin - Ireland
- Professor Leanne Keddie
  Carleton University - Canada
- Professor Katsuhiko Kokubu
  Kobe University - Japan
- Dr Blerita Korca
  University of Bamberg - Germany
- Dr Nooch Kuasirikun
  Alliance Manchester Business School - UK
- Professor Carlos Larrinaga
  Universidad de Burgos - Spain
- Dr Eric Lee
  Australian Accounting Standards Board - Australia
- Associate Professor Stergios Leventis
  International Hellenic University - Greece
- Professor Sumit Lodhia
  Adelaide University - Australia
- Professor Michel Magnan
  Concordia University - Canada
- Associate Professor Nicholas McGuigan
  Monash Business School, Monash University - Australia
- Professor Ken McPhail
  University of Manchester - UK
- Professor Giovanna Michelon
  University of Bristol - UK
- Emeritus Professor Markus Milne
  University of Canterbury - New Zealand
- Dr Franklin Nakpodia
  Durham University - UK
- Professor Carlos Noronha
  Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Macau - People's Republic of China
- Dr Eduardo Ortas Fredes
  University of Zaragoza - Spain
- Professor Brendan O’Dwyer
  University of Amsterdam - Netherlands
- Professor Brad Potter
  University of Melbourne - Australia
- Dr Robin Roberts
  University of Central Florida - USA
- Professor Remmer Sassen
  TU Dresden - Germany
- Professor Stefan Schaltegger
  Leuphana University Lüneburg - Germany
- Dr Daniela Senkl
  Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph - Canada
- Professor Roger Simnett
  The University of New South Wales - Australia
- Professor Teerooven Soobaroyen
  Aston University - UK
- Professor Kanji Tanimoto
  Waseda University - Japan
- Dr Edward Tello
  Monash University - Australia
- Adjunct Research Professor Carol Tilt
  Adelaide University - Australia
- Professor Helen Tregidga
  Royal Holloway, University of London - UK
- Dr. Nikos Tsileponis
  University of Bristol - UK
- Professor Nikos Vafeas
  University of Cyprus - Cyprus
- Dr Xuejun Wang
  Peking University - People's Republic of China
- Professor Olaf Weber
  Schulich School of Business, York University - Canada
- Professor Shuang Xue
  Shanghai University of Finance and Economics - People's Republic of China
- Professor Suzanne Young
  La Trobe University - Australia
- Professor John Zhang
  Audencia Business School - France
- Professor Charl de Villiers
  University of Auckland - New Zealand

Indexing & metrics

Citation metrics

11.3

CiteScore 2024

15.6

CiteScore Tracker 2025

(updated monthly)

7.2

2024 Impact Factor

7.4

5-year Impact Factor (2024)

Publication timeline

Time to first decision

days

Acceptance to publication

days

Acceptance rate

5.4

Usage

Downloads

36254

Articles

This journal is abstracted and indexed by

ABI/INFORM Complete
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Professional ABI/INFORM Complete
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This journal is ranked by

The Association of Business Schools' (ABS) Academic Journal Guide 2024 (the Guide)
Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List
CAS Journal Ranking (3)
ESSEC Rankings of Journals 2016
FNEGE (France)
NSD (Norway)
Polish Scholarly Bibliography (PBN)
Scopus
VHB-JOURQUAL - Category C, (Germany)
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Reviewers

Reviewer information

Peer review process

This journal engages in a double-anonymous peer review process, which strives to match the expertise of a reviewer with the submitted manuscript. Reviews are completed with evidence of thoughtful engagement with the manuscript, provide constructive feedback, and add value to the overall knowledge and information presented in the manuscript.

Mission

The mission of the peer review process is to achieve excellence and rigour in scholarly publications and research.

Vision

Our vision is to give voice to professionals in the subject area who contribute unique and diverse scholarly perspectives to the field.

Values

The journal values diverse perspectives from the field and reviewers who provide critical, constructive, and respectful feedback to authors. Reviewers come from a variety of organizations, careers, and backgrounds from around the world.

Ethics

All invitations to review, abstracts, manuscripts, and reviews should be kept confidential. Reviewers must not share their review or information about the review process with anyone without the agreement of the editors and authors involved, even after publication. This also applies to other reviewers’ “comments to author” which are shared with you on decision.

Resources to guide you through the review process

Discover practical tips and guidance on all aspects of peer review in our reviewers' section. See how being a reviewer could benefit your career, and discover what's involved in shaping a review.

More reviewer information

Calls for papers & news

Calls for papers

Accounting, Reporting, Assurance and Governance for Circular Economy: Rethinking for Sustainable Development

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

Submit your paper hereIntroductionThe transition toward a circular economy has become a strategic priority for advancing sustainable development and...

Guest editor(s):

Samanthi Senaratne, Nuwan Gunarathne, Miguel Marco-Fondevila, Sabina Scarpellini

Sustainability Education: Preparing Future Leaders for a Better World

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

Submit your paper hereIntroductionSustainability education has become a crucial component of management studies as businesses and society increasingly...

Guest editor(s):

Valentina Beretta, Davide Calandra, Charles H. Cho, Chiara Demartini, Paolo Biancone

News

Virtual Special Issue: Indicative Papers

The Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) brings together research from a range of disciplinary approaches to address social and environmental sustainability challenges and the social and environmental ...

14/10/2025

Thank you to the 2024 Reviewers of Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following people for their invaluable service as 2024 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish suc...

03/09/2025

Thank you to the 2023 Reviewers

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2023 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

15/08/2024

Thank you to the 2022 Reviewers

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2022 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

14/08/2023

SAMPJ impact webinars

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) impact webinars are designed to facilitate engagement between academics, sustainability change makers, policy influencers and policymakers. ...

01/11/2022

Virtual Special Issue: Sustainability accounting, management and policy in the African context

This virtual special issue compiles nine previously published papers that examine sustainable accounting and management practices in the African context. The Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) publis...

22/09/2022

Thank you to the 2021 Reviewers

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2021 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

14/09/2022

Virtual Special Issue: Accounting for biodiversity, ecosystems and natural capital

Given the current interest in accounting for nature, we are pleased to share this virtual special issue on accounting for biodiversity, ecosystems and natural capital. It has been edited by Dr Madlen Sobkowiak of the University of Birmingham. ...

10/06/2022

Standard-setting of sustainability reporting workshop

Sustainability Accounting Management Policy Journal is pleased to announce the second SAMPJ webinar engaging academics with policymakers and practitioners. This special issue online workshop looking at Standard-se...

13/05/2022

Climate financing and the role of accounting in reducing carbon emissions

In light of COP26, we are pleased to share this virtual special issue on climate financing and carbon accounting. It has been edited by Dr Madlen Sobkowiak of the University of Birmingham. All papers will be free to access from 1...

18/11/2021

Virtual Special Issue: Universities and sustainable development

Universities have a significant role to play in the transition to sustainable development, through research, education and the example they set through their operations. This virtual special issue of the Sustainability Accoun...

03/06/2021

Making a difference: research seeking to contribute to sustainable development

This Virtual Special Issue compiles twelve previously published papers that seek to contribute to sustainable development solutions. The Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) publis...

29/04/2021

Literati awards

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal - Literati Award Winners 2025

We are pleased to announce our 2025 Literati Award winners!Outstanding PaperGlobal investor responses to the International Sustainability Standards Board draft s...

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal  - Literati Award Winners 2024

We are pleased to announce our 2024 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper Disentangling the concept of comparabi...

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal  - Literati Award Winners 2023

We are pleased to announce our 2023 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper A Commentary on the ‘New’ Institutiona...

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal  - Literati Award Winners 2022 

We are pleased to announce our 2022 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper Business contributions to th...

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal - Literati Award Winners 2021

We are pleased to announce our 2021 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper The presence of citizen scie...

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal - Literati Award Winners 2020

We are pleased to announce our 2020 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper Progress towards sustainable urban water management ...

ISSN: 2040-8021
eISSN: 2040-803X

You can choose to publish your article open access in this journal by indicating on the editorial system when you submit your paper.

Aims and scope

Please note that SAMPJ only accepts papers that seek to contribute to sustainable development. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Submitted papers should address issues relevant to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Papers that do not clearly articulate how they contribute to sustainable development will be desk rejected. Papers that provide insufficient justification and/or contextual information to make them helpful in informing practice or policy will be desk rejected. Please click here for examples of indicative papers published in SAMPJ.

The Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) brings together research from a range of disciplinary approaches to address social and environmental sustainability challenges and the social and environmental consequences of climate change. SAMPJ seeks to contribute to practical and policy solutions to improve the impact of organisations and societies on sustainable development. The journal takes research and viewpoints from academics, practitioners and consultants in the field.

Coverage includes, but is not limited to:

Accountability for impacts on sustainable development
Biodiversity accounting and management
Carbon accounting and trading
Corporate governance and sustainable development
Corporate strategy and sustainable development
Economic impact of social and environmental policies
ESG ratings and sustainable development
Human rights and labour rights and sustainable development
Leadership and sustainable development
Multiple capitals and sustainable development
Public sector accountability and sustainable development
Race, gender, disability and LBTQI accounting
Regulation, standards and sustainable development
Responsible investment and sustainable development
Smart cities and sustainable development
Social and environmental audit
Stakeholder engagement and sustainable development
Sustainability accounting, accountability and reporting
Sustainability assurance
Sustainable development and the UN SDGs
Sustainable development risks and opportunities
Water accounting and management.

Coverage does not include:

Papers that are concerned with ESG, financial sustainability and/or sustainability (longevity) of the organisation.
Papers that are primarily concerned with board composition, CEO characteristics, and auditing with no link to the organisation’s impact on sustainable development.
Quantitative papers that look at the link between financial and “sustainability" performance.

Latest articles

These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: April 2025)

Do high-quality online interactions improve corporate ESG performance? Evidence fromChina

Extreme weather events in New Zealand: Financial market-related impacts

An analysis of the influence of CEO duality on carbon emissions: Do board characteristics matter?

Top cited

These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: April 2025)

This title is aligned with our responsible management goal

We aim to champion researchers, practitioners, policymakers and organisations who share our goals of contributing to a more ethical, responsible and sustainable way of working.