Emerald Publishing began with one journal in 1967 and has grown into an international academic publisher serving researchers, universities, and business schools. The figures below describe its publishing portfolio, audience, usage, open-access activity, workplace measures, and reported environmental performance across the periods stated by Emerald.
Contents
- Company history and scale
- Publishing portfolio and discovery
- Global audience and usage
- Journals, citations, and impact indicators
- Business cases and books
- Open access and author costs
- People, equity, and environmental measures
Company history and scale
Emerald says it was founded in 1967 and has been championing fresh thinking for more than 50 years. Its starting point was unusually focused: the company began with one journal, Management Decision, which it bought for £1. The Emerald timeline records that the first office was funded by 50 academics in 1969, with each academic paying £100 for a share. Emerald hired its first full-time employee in 1970.
The early growth figures show how the organisation developed before its current international scale. By 1981, Emerald had 20 employees and published 15 journals. In 1984, it had 25 staff working in a Victorian house and managed a portfolio of 25 journals. That same year, it bought six STM journals. Emerald opened its first overseas office in Japan in 1993; by then, it had representation in more than 20 countries and offices across five continents. As Emerald entered its 50th year, it had more than 350 employees worldwide. These historical figures come from [The Emerald timeline].
The current company description places that history in a substantially larger network. Emerald says it works with thousands of universities and business schools worldwide, serves 500,000 researchers in more than 130 countries, records 30 million downloads per year, and receives 109 million visitors worldwide. Those figures are presented by Emerald in [About us] and describe stated global reach rather than a single dated usage study.
Publishing portfolio and discovery
Emerald’s 2024 responsible publishing reporting lists a broad content portfolio:
- More than 400 journals.
- More than 4,180 books.
- More than 3,100 business cases.
Its researcher-facing search platform contains more than 255,000 journals, books, and case studies. This platform figure is a measure of discoverable content across formats, so it should not be added to the separate counts above: the categories overlap in how the platform organises content. The platform total is reported on [Researchers].
The company’s older timeline provides a useful historical comparison. In 2000, Emerald’s eJournal collections featured more than 255,000 articles and more than 350 journals. The same timeline records that Emerald had over 350 employees worldwide as it entered its 50th year. These are separate historical snapshots, not current catalogue totals, and are reported in [The Emerald timeline].
Emerald also reports activity connected with responsible publishing. It launched over 40 missions across its goal areas and says the share of content mapped to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals increased from 29% in 2023 to 32% in 2024. Its stated 2026 target is 40% of content mapped at article and chapter level. Emerald also raised more than £25,000 for BookTrust in 2024. These figures are from [Responsible publishing report 2024] and [How we’re doing].
Global audience and usage
Emerald’s usage reporting gives a more specific view of international demand. In 2022, 58% of journal usage came from beyond Europe and North America. The journals generated more than 45 million downloads that year, representing 21% growth compared with 2021. The most downloaded article exceeded 33,000 downloads in 2022. These figures are from the [eJournals sales leaflet 2024] and refer specifically to 2022 usage.
Books show a similar geographic pattern. In 2022, 60% of online usage of Emerald books came from outside Europe and North America. Emerald book chapters were downloaded more than 1.5 million times in 2022, and authors from 101 different countries published Emerald books during that year. These measures come from the [eBooks sales leaflet 2024].
Case studies also reached a wide institutional audience in 2022. Emerald case studies recorded more than 105,000 downloads, and faculty at 988 institutions downloaded case studies. The most popular case study had 2,325 downloads. Emerald’s case-study collection contains more than 2,900 high-quality case studies, according to [Case Studies 2024]. The collection size is a catalogue measure, while the downloads and institution count are 2022 usage measures.
The main audience measures can be read together as follows:
| Measure | Figure | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Researchers served | 500,000+ | More than 130 countries; company-wide statement |
| Annual downloads | 30 million | Company-wide statement |
| Journal downloads | 45 million+ | 2022 |
| Journal usage beyond Europe and North America | 58% | 2022 |
| Book usage outside Europe and North America | 60% | 2022 |
| Case-study downloads | 105,000+ | 2022 |
| Institutions with faculty case-study downloads | 988 | 2022 |
The measures use different scopes and should not be combined into one total. In particular, the annual-download statement and the 2022 journal figure are not interchangeable reporting bases.
Journals, citations, and impact indicators
Emerald’s 2022 journal reporting records more than 297,000 total citations to its articles. It also states that 93% of Emerald journals were indexed in Web of Science. Indexing coverage and citation totals measure different aspects of visibility: the first describes inclusion in an index, while the second describes citations recorded for the reported period. Both figures appear in the [eJournals sales leaflet 2024].
Two journal-level indicators in the same source illustrate differences between titles. The European Business Review had a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 4.2 and a five-year Impact Factor of 12.4. The International Journal of Operations and Production Management had a JIF of 9.9 and a five-year Impact Factor of 9.9.
| Journal | JIF | Five-year Impact Factor |
|---|---|---|
| The European Business Review | 4.2 | 12.4 |
| International Journal of Operations and Production Management | 9.9 | 9.9 |
These indicators belong to individual journals and should not be treated as an average for Emerald’s full portfolio. The source identifies the values but does not establish that the two titles are representative of all Emerald journals.
Business cases and books
Business learning readers may be especially interested in Emerald’s case-study scale. The company reports more than 3,100 business cases in its overall publishing portfolio and more than 2,900 high-quality case studies in the case-study collection. Because the two descriptions use different catalogue labels, they should be kept as separate reported figures rather than added together.
The 2022 case-study usage figures indicate both volume and institutional reach: more than 105,000 downloads, 2,325 downloads for the most popular case study, and faculty downloads at 988 institutions. Together, these figures show the reported spread of case-study use, but they do not establish how many unique readers or courses were involved.
Emerald’s books generated more than 1.5 million chapter downloads in 2022. Online usage from outside Europe and North America accounted for 60%, and authors from 101 countries published Emerald books. The geographic percentage describes usage, while the country count describes author affiliation or origin as reported by Emerald; the two measures should not be interpreted as the same kind of reach.
Emerald also reports a publishing expansion involving now publishers. The sale included over 50 books, 14 peer-reviewed journals, and 28 Foundations and Trends serials, according to [Emerald homepage acquisition]. These figures describe the contents of that sale and are not an addition to Emerald’s entire current catalogue.
Open access and author costs
Emerald’s stated hybrid-journal article processing charge is £3,222, $4,351, or €3,710, depending on the currency and pricing context shown by Emerald. These are listed currency amounts, not a currency-converted single price. The figures appear in [Publish in an open access journal].
Emerald also says that article processing charges for its new fully open access journals are waived for manuscripts submitted during the first year. The waiver is tied to the first year of submission described by Emerald; it should not be read as a permanent waiver for every fully open access journal or every future submission.
An open-access voucher agreement with SANLiC covered 27 organisations in South Africa and had more than 900 registered users. Emerald reported a 100% utilisation rate for APC vouchers in the first year of the agreement. These figures come from [SANLiC agreement]. The agreement’s organisation count, user count, and voucher utilisation rate describe the programme, not Emerald’s entire global open-access activity.
People, equity, and environmental measures
Emerald’s responsible publishing reporting says the average length of service is seven years and that turnover is usually between 15% and 18%. It also reports positive responses from colleagues across several measures: 92% for Emerald’s management, 91% for work and life blend, 90% for equity, diversity, and inclusion, and 90% for social connection. Emerald’s Planet Team comprised over 30 volunteers. The same report says Emerald achieved 100% renewable energy at its headquarters in Leeds, UK.
External workplace recognitions listed by Emerald include being one of only 50 businesses on the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality list in 2024. Emerald was also ranked number 32 in the Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces in the UK and Ireland in 2024. These are recognition figures for 2024, not measures of the whole publishing sector.
Emerald’s Gender & Ethnicity Pay Gap Report 2024 records a 22% mean hourly gender pay gap and a 29% median hourly gender pay gap. The mean gender bonus gap was 4%, while the median gender bonus gap was -3%. For ethnicity, the mean hourly pay gap was 18% and the median was 28%; the mean ethnicity bonus gap was 39% and the median was 28%.
| 2024 reported measure | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Gender hourly pay gap | 22% | 29% |
| Gender bonus gap | 4% | -3% |
| Ethnicity hourly pay gap | 18% | 28% |
| Ethnicity bonus gap | 39% | 28% |
The report distinguishes mean from median measures, so the figures should not be collapsed into one overall gap.
Emerald’s FY24 SECR reporting gives the following emissions figures: Scope 2 emissions of 3.24 tCO2e on a location-based basis and 0.00 tCO2e on a market-based basis; recorded Scope 3 emissions of 452.76 tCO2e location-based; and total recorded emissions of 456.00 tCO2e location-based. The reported emissions intensity ratio was 1.88 tCO2e per full-time equivalent employee. Waste generated during operations was reported as 1.55 tCO2e. These are FY24 measures, and the location-based and market-based Scope 2 figures use different accounting bases.