4OR-A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research

4OR-A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research is published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg and is in Zone 4 of Management in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Vehicle Routing Optimization Methods, Scheduling and Optimization Algorithms and Optimization and Packing Problems, together about 30.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

4OR - A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research is jointly published by the Belgian, French and Italian Operations Research Societies. It publishes high quality scientific papers on the theory and applications of Operations Research. It is distributed to all individual members of the participating societies. The journal consists of several sections: · Invited Survey. This section is limited to one paper per issue, and consists of "state-of-the-art surveys" written by prominent researchers on invitation from the Editors-in-Chief. · Research Papers. This section is the core of the journal. Its aim is to publish high quality scientific papers within a short period of time, allowing OR researchers to communicate innovative results in a fast and efficient way. The emphasis on scientific rigor and on innovation implies, in particular, that the journal does not publish articles that: o present applications of methods based on machine learning, neural networks, and blockchain technology, unless they have an explicit link with Operations Research; o present complex variants of classical models (e.g., inventory, production planning or supply chain models) obtained by adding artificial features (multiple objectives, fuzzy parameters,…), typically formulated as long and unsolvable MIPs, and finally solved through arbitrarily chosen metaheuristics. Such articles do not pass the “innovativeness” criterion, since the same incremental process can be indefinitely applied without bringing any new knowledge about the problem under consideration; o simply propose disguised variants of known methods or theoretical results like, e.g.,1. "new" metaheuristics that are claimed to be “effective” on the sole basis of metaphorical comparisons with natural or artificial systems and processes, or2. "new" optimization algorithms derived from existing ones by exploiting some of their "degrees of freedom" to produce formally different but largely equivalent methods, or3. "new" classes of optimization problems that slightly generalize existing ones, not justified by compelling applications and for which theoretical results barely extend the already available ones. New methods must be presented in metaphor-free language and in a way which clarifies their relationship with classical paradigms. Their properties must be established on the basis of scientifically compelling arguments: mathematical proofs, controlled experiments, objective comparisons, etc. Except possibly for the proposal of e

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Operations Research & Management Science

Editor-in-chief Yves CramaPublisher website

Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named France 10, Italy 9, Belgium 4, Japan 1, Germany 1 (29 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Indexing the journal's website claims

EI CompendexzbMATHDBLPEconLitPublisher website

Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS

As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

1.8LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher) 2025

2Publisher website · 2026-09-29

5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025

2Publisher website · 2026-09-29

CiteScore 2026-06

4.6LetPub · 2026-09-13

SJR 2026-06

0.74LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

1.17LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

34LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

56OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

258OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

1.05OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

0%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

29.55%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

15LetPub · 2026-09-13

Downloads per year (publisher) 2025

66,100Publisher website · 2026-09-29

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Other sources

Average review time (community reports)

over 12 weeksLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

EasyLetPub · 2026-09-13

Submission to first decision

14 daysPublisher website · 2026-09-29

Peer review

Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Country or region

GERMANY

Language

English

Frequency

Quarterly

Founded

2003

ISSN

1619-4500

Electronic ISSN

1614-2411

Latest issue on the website

Volume 24, Issue 2 (June 2026)

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
• Submission system ↗LetPub
• Author guidelines ↗LetPub