The Emerald journal publishing process

We know it’s important to you to have your research published as quickly as possible. Our journals offer Article Level Publishing (ALP) that allows an article to be typeset, proofed and published online in its final and citable form within an average of 32 business days of acceptance. 

Steps one through four: two–eight months 

1. Submit 

Submit your research through your chosen journal’s online submission site. You will need to register for an account to do this. 

Once your account is set up, you will be guided through a seven-step submission process. 

2. Editor check 

Your paper will then be read by the journal editor to see if it fits with the aims and scope of the journal. If you have submitted to an academic journal, they will enter it into a rigorous, double-anonymous peer review process which considers the quality, originality, approach and clarity of your paper. 

3. Decision 

Once the reviewers have read your paper, they will make one of the following recommendations: 

• Accept
• Minor revisions 
• Major revisions
• Reject 

The final decision lies with the editor. Reviewer feedback on the paper will be provided to the corresponding author. Note, if the paper is outside the journal’s scope, the editor may reject it and suggest it is transferred to a more relevant Emerald journal. 

4. Revisions 

You will receive an email from the Editor containing the final decision. 

If you are asked to make revisions, you have 30 days to resubmit for minor revisions, and 90 days to resubmit for major revisions. 

Once you have resubmitted your paper, it will be reassigned to the same reviewers to check whether their comments have been addressed. 

If sufficient improvements have been made, your paper will be accepted. If not, you may be asked to perform multiple revisions or have your paper withdrawn. 

Steps five through seven: 32 days 

5. Typesetting 

Once accepted, your paper is immediately processed by our in-house team, who check the copyright forms and whether third-party permissions (if applicable) have been provided. 

Your paper is then sent to our typesetting team, who will perform further quality checks and prepare PDF proofs. You will receive an email link to the PDF proofs, along with a query form that highlights any inconsistencies, grammar, table/ figure and referencing errors that need resolving before publication. 

6. Author proofs 

Your proof must be returned to the typesetters within 10 working days. If this deadline cannot be met, any outstanding queries will be resolved by the Emerald team. 

7. Earlycite 

Once proofs are returned, corrections are made by the typesetting team, then final proofs are sent to the journal’s content editors for final checks. Once this is complete, your paper is published through EarlyCite. 

Your paper is now a fully citable, published article with a DOI number. The article can be promoted, downloaded and referenced. 

Your published article will remain on EarlyCite until it is assigned to an issue. 

8. Publication 

When a journal issue is available for your article to be published in, the typeset files will be reworked by the typesetting team to add pagination, volume and issue details. The re-supplied files will be re-loaded to our online platform, moving from the EarlyCite container to the relevant volume and issue number. Where applicable, a print copy will then be produced. 

Please note, the timelines given are for guidance only, and are subject to change.