
Emerald Insight
development highlights
Since launching our Emerald Insight platform in July 2019, we’ve continued to work hard on developing new features and functionality that will enhance the user experience. Here we share some of our highlights.

Forward-thinking design
Designed to make social sciences research easy and enjoyable to discover, our platform has been built from the ground up in collaboration with leading international academic institutions to ensure that every decision is carefully considered and validated by our users.
The forward-thinking design offers an engaging and rewarding user experience; showcasing researchers’ work, paving the way for rapid evolution and meeting future research needs.
2021 highlights
October 2021
Improvements to alert email
To replicate the user experience on Emerald Insight, we made the following improvements to the alert email:
Special issues now include the guest editor details
Open access articles will display the iconic orange padlock symbol. This aims to differentiate subscription and open access content.
October 2021
Download counts included on journal articles
All journal articles published on Emerald Insight will display a download count.
Read more
The download count sits alongside the Altmetrics score on the article page. This further demonstrates our commitment to a more inclusive approach to research evaluation. This also aims to improve the user experience – by having access to a range of article metrics, users can make quick decisions when navigating content. For authors, this is an important metric that can be used as evidence for reporting the global reach and influence of their work.
What does this look like?
- This will be included on subscription and open access articles, as well as content published through Emerald Publishing Services
- The count is taken directly from COUNTER usage data
- The count includes all article formats, including HTML and PDF
- The count will include all downloads back to 2005, where available. For articles published after this, the count will represent all downloads since publication. The count timeframe for each article can be seen by hovering over the number.
- Download counts will be refreshed every 24 hours.
October 2021
Altmetrics badge added to EMCS content
All Emerging Markets Case Studies on Emerald Insight will now display the Altmetrics badge where data is available. Previously, this was displayed only on journal articles.
This shows Emerald’s belief that every piece of content should be assessed on its own merit, regardless of format.
September 2021
SeamlessAccess functionality is now available on Emerald Insight
This is an enhancement to our pre-existing provision for federated access through Shibboleth/ OpenAthens, allowing users to access emerald.com/insight (and other enabled platforms) anywhere, using a single sign-on.
*For a different format please get in touch
July 2021
Emerald's Insight platform achieves ASPIRE gold standard for accessibility statement
July 2021
Improvements to book and journal browse on Emerald Insight – key benefits for eBooks
Following work behind the scenes to apply richer, industry-standard taxonomy to our book content, we have made a number of changes that allow users to pinpoint relevant content easier and faster:
New three-tier hierarchy for subject filters
Subject filters incorporated into the journey with cross-linking on the content
All book content now browsable by volume
Better linking from volume to series
Improved layout of series and serial homepage
Additional filters by book type
April, 2021
Enhanced navigation for Case Studies on Emerald Insight
Browse all eCases in one place, then refine content using new filters, including: subject area, collection, country, case length and language.
See a visual summary of the changes (PDF*) >
*For a different format please get in touch
April, 2021
New content on Emerald Insight – The Case for Women (TCFW)
Created in partnership with The Case for Women and Forté, TCFW brings together winning cases from a competition dedicated to the female protagonist. Available as part of a subscription to The Case Collection, all cases are complete with teaching notes.
April, 2021
RSS feeds for Emerald journals have been reinstated on Emerald Insight
Available from the top of journal homepage and individual issue pages, users can now subscribe to RSS feeds for current journal publications. RSS feeds notify users whenever new content is available on Emerald Insight for their chosen titles.
April, 2021
Increased visibility of access options
The access option buttons that would have appeared on the bottom of the turnaway page have now been moved to the top. This will simplify the authentication process for users.
February, 2021
Enhancements to UX
Designed to ‘deliver content to user quicker’. Reducing the size of static images and icons and using a ‘lazy load’ technique for images has resulted in a significant reduction in page loading time.
Particularly impactful when viewing content on a laptop or mobile device; by reducing or automatically minimising ‘non content’ page surround, the user can view more content in one place and reduce scrolling.
February, 2021
eCases Browse
The first of the scheduled enhancements to this area is implemented. This allows users to filter Emerging Markets Case Studies content by date of publication.
January, 2021
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® (VPAT®) updated
In line with our commitment to ensure that our platform is accessible for all of our users, regardless of their ability or technology.
2020 highlights
December, 2020
New 'Bulk citation' feature allows the user to select multiple pieces of content from the 'search results' page, then download all .RIS files into one combined file.
December, 2020
New ‘Keyword’ and ‘Country’ filters for Expert Briefings allows the user to discover the content they need quicker and provide inspiration for new searches based on related keywords.
Try out the new filters across all Expert Briefings content >
November, 2020
Faculty and students can sign up to receive an Expert Daily Briefings email alert that brings together all briefings published on a daily basis offering the latest analysis of global events as they happen.
Read the FAQs to find out more >
Share this guide to setting up Expert Daily Briefings email alerts with students & faculty >
October, 2020
New enhanced browse functionality. Accessed from the “Browse our Content” link on the top navigation bar, users can now browse all journals and books together on one page.
September, 2020
The Account Management Portal (AMP) allows the administrator at an institution to manage all their Emerald resources in one place, using their own user profile login.
September, 2020
Emerald Insight has been updated to advance our commitment to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 and Section 508 Standards of the U.S. Federal Accessibility Standard.
September, 2020
Improved "relevance" criteria returns results when you search on Emerald Insight. Better sorting methods include "oldest to newest" and "newest to oldest".
August, 2020
Expert Briefings cotnent is added to the TrendMD widget, further integrating this content and making it discoverable alongside journals, books and cases.
June, 2020
Enabled through their profile area, users can sign up to recieve content alerts for their chosen titles.
May, 2020
Search within a journal functionlaity allows users to surface content within a single title
April, 2020
Predictive search, accessed from the 'quick search' function will make recommendations for results whilst the user is typing.
March, 2020
Trend MD widget will recommend six pieces of related content to the reader, three pieces of content from emerald.com/insight and three from other publishers.
February, 2020
Updated the sitemap XML to ensure the content is grouped in the most efficient way to ensure Google crawlers can work more effectively and our content is more discoverable.
February, 2020
PDF and HTML links are reinstated on the search results page to facilitate content download.
February, 2020
Altmetric Badges displayed on individual journal article pages, further demonstrates Emerald's commitment to a more inclusive approach to research evaluation and impact
January, 2020
New browse option accessed from top navigaton bar users to browse content by journals, books, case studies, Expert Briefings and Open Access.
2019 highlights
November, 2019
Special Issues have increased visibility with additional detail included on the journal homepage.
November, 2019
An archive of over 50,000 pieces of non-article content such as editorials, reviews, interviews and news items made freely available without subscription.
September, 2019
Direct access to eCases teaching notes - allows customers to request direct access to teaching notes via the platform.
September, 2019
A new eCase Studies browse page allows users to browse across all eCase collections and content from publishing partners.
September, 2019
Updating DOIs with CrossRef led to an improvement in our metadata and therefore improved discoverability of content for end users helping them surface the content they want.
September, 2019
Reprints and permissions button allows uers to easily request permission to reuse the content.
August, 2019
Renistating Profiles allow users to personalise their experience on Emerald Insight
August, 2019
Advanced search capabilities allow the user to pin-point the content they need using a range of criteria.
August, 2019
EarlyCite tab on the publication page brings the latest content to the surface
We're listening – tell us what you think
Keep sharing your experience of using the site so it can be developed to meet the needs of you and your library users. We can’t do this without you!
If you have any dedicated feedback, please feel free to get in touch.
Members of Emerald’s Library Advisory Network can start or join a discussion here.