Expanding Access
We are excited to announce that beginning January 1st, 2026, Strategy Science will be available through EBSCO’s Business Source databases, along with sixteen other INFORMS journals. With this change, Strategy Science will be available in over 35,000 libraries in more than 150 countries—a more than 35-fold increase in the number of libraries and institutions through which Strategy Science can be accessed. This move obviously represents a very significant step forward in increasing the global accessibility and visibility of the journal.
Growing Submissions and Discriminating Acceptance Rate
Strategy Science continues to see sustained growth in submissions. We experienced a 17.5% increase in manuscripts in 2024 and 68% growth since 2021. Our acceptance rate on regular submissions remains just below 10%, which is about where we want to be.
Impact Factor
As with nearly all business school journals, we did see a drop in our Impact Factor from Clarivate this year, as changes in the calculation continue to phase in. Last year we were at 3.9—our first year in which we were eligible—but dropped to 2.9 this year. Despite this, our two-year and five-year citations per article continue to climb. Downloads of Strategy Science publications have more than doubled over the past three years.
A Fast and Decisive Review Process
Strategy Science prides itself on a fast, decisive, and developmental review process. Editors seek insightful reviewer input and then make early decisions about a paper’s potential. When a promising paper is identified, their task shifts to working with authors to develop a persuasive and compelling contribution. We are committed to relatively few review rounds, especially few rounds with reviewers, and fast cycle times. The following metrics speak to our performance:
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A major revision request is a strong signal that an editor sees a path to publication at Strategy Science. About 85% of manuscripts given a revision request in the first round eventually receive an acceptance. Over the past three years, all but one manuscript given a revision request in the second round was eventually accepted. There have been zero late round rejections.
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Manuscripts eventually accepted undergo few review rounds with reviewers.
The average Strategy Science manuscript that reaches acceptance undergoes 2.5 revision rounds, but rarely more than two rounds with reviewers and often only one. Fifty-eight percent of manuscripts were accepted after the first or second round. But for one exception, all third and fourth round revisions are managed exclusively by an editor.
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Review rounds occur rather quickly.
Our median days from submission to initial decision is 71 and from resubmission to second decision is 73 days. Median days for any third round revision is 35 days, and for any fourth round, 19 days.
We believe these numbers reflect well on our commitment to a fast, decisive and developmental review process at Strategy Science.
External Recognition, Journal Lists, and the FT 50
Strategy Science continues its progress toward recognition on formal international journal lists. This year we were rated for the first time by the Chartered Association of Business Schools in their AJR rankings. We are now on the Italian list of “scientific journals,” and on Australia’s A list. Strategy Science now counts for tenure decisions at several of the top ranked French business schools. Perhaps most notable, informal polling suggests that Strategy Science publications count for tenure at most leading US business schools.
But there is much work that remains on this front. There are far too many schools with formal journal lists used in evaluating promotion, tenure, and summer support that have yet to add Strategy Science. While essentially all other business fields (finance, marketing, accounting, operations) have 3-4 pure field journals along with other highly regarded disciplinary journals on these journal lists, strategy typically has but one. We continue to hear complaints from scholars at good institutions going up for tenure with essentially all their publications in a single top tier strategy outlet, who have had to provide explanations to the school’s promotion and tenure committees as to why this concentration in a single outlet is appropriate for a strategy scholar. This needs to change. We obviously see the inclusion of Strategy Science as the remedy. We recognize that journal lists are carefully guarded and politicized, but this simply highlights the need to start the lobbying process now. If we can be helpful with these efforts, please reach out.
It is also quite likely that sometime in 2026, a dean at your institution will be invited to complete a survey indicating journals to consider adding to the FT 50 list. If you feel Strategy Science merits inclusion, please ensure you voice this to the dean’s office. As a quick benchmark, finance has five pure finance journals in the FT 50, accounting has six, marketing has six, operations has five (plus two in IS), entrepreneurship has three, and human resources has two. Strategy has one.
The Strategy Science Conference(s)
The Strategy Science Conference continues to thrive. The 2024 conference at the University of Michigan received over 200 submissions and pushed the organizers to add an additional, fourth track to the conference. This year’s conference will be hosted at IESE in Barcelona, June 13-14, and submissions this year were close to 300.
Strategy Science also was also one of the co-hosts for the Utah Strategy Summit at Deer Valley in August—an event that assembled 140 of the field’s top scholars to tackle ten of the strategy field’s most pressing questions. As a result of this conference, an open special issue call for papers was issued focused on the themes of the conference. That call for papers is still open with details below.
Special Issues
The call for papers for the special issue: Can AI Do Strategy? has an approaching deadline of May 1st.
The special issue call for papers on the topics of the Utah Strategy Summit, co-sponsored by Strategy Science, had an initial deadline of June 30th that has been extended to September 1st, 2025. For more information about the varied themes of this special issue, please go to: https://eccles.utah.edu/utah-strategy-summit/.
If you have not seen our last two special issues on Corporate Purpose and the Theory-based View, they include an outstanding lineup of papers and authors and are well worth a look.
Thanks for your ongoing support for the journal. We hope you continue to enjoy its contents.