Journal profile · Multiple
International Journal of Forecasting
ISSN 0169-2070 · eISSN 1872-8200 · Elsevier
International Journal of Forecasting: CAS Zone 2 · Economics (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 5.42; hybrid open access; APC about USD 2,800; review about 318 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); 85 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
International Journal of Forecasting is published by Elsevier and is in Zone 2 of Economics in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Forecasting Techniques and Applications, Monetary Policy and Economic Impact and Market Dynamics and Volatility, together about 46.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Economics and Econometrics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Official Publication of the International Institute of ForecastersThe International Journal of Forecasting is the leading journal in its field. It is the official publication of the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) and shares its aims and scope. More information about the IIF may be found at https://www.forecasters.org.The International Journal of Forecasting publishes high quality refereed papers covering all aspects of forecasting. Its objective (and that of the IIF) is to unify the field, and to bridge the gap between theory and practice, making forecasting useful and relevant for decision and policy makers. The journal places strong emphasis on empirical studies, evaluation activities, implementation research and ways of improving the practice of forecasting. It is open to many points of view and encourages debate to find solutions for problems facing the field.Topics covered in the International Journal of Forecasting:• Economic and econometric forecasting • Marketing forecasting • New products forecasting • Financial forecasting • Production forecasting • Technological forecasting • Forecasting applications in business, government, and the military • Demographic forecasting • Energy forecasting • Climate forecasting • Crime forecasting • Seasonal adjustments and forecasting • Time series forecasting • Legal and political aspects of forecasting • Implementation of forecasting • Judgmental/psychological aspects of forecasting • Impact of forecast uncertainty on decision making • Organizational aspects of forecasting • Sport forecasting • Machine Learning forecasting • Forecasting methodology • Election forecasting • Big data forecasting Features of the IJF include research papers, research notes, discussion articles, book reviews, editorials and letters.Data and computer programs associated with articles published in the International Journal of Forecasting are provided as online supplements on ScienceDirect.Objectivity To ensure fairness and objectivity, double-blind reviewing will be used.Replication studies The IJF encourages replication studies, especially of highly cited papers. See Encouraging replication and reproducible research (an editorial published in 2010) for further information. A replication study that confirms that a published paper can be successfully replicated would normally be quite short (about a page is often sufficient to describe what calculations and comparisons have been done). Where a previously published paper has not been successfully replicated, more details are required to explain how the results differ from those previously published.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Editor-in-chief Pierre PinsonPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 2%); most named United Kingdom 17, United States 12, Australia 9, Germany 7, Netherlands 6 (81 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Forecasting Techniques and ApplicationsDecision Sciences18.1%
- Monetary Policy and Economic ImpactEconomics, Econometrics and Finance18%
- Market Dynamics and VolatilityEconomics, Econometrics and Finance10.7%
- Financial Risk and Volatility ModelingEconomics, Econometrics and Finance7.7%
- Stock Market Forecasting MethodsDecision Sciences6%
- Complex Systems and Time Series AnalysisEconomics, Econometrics and Finance4.2%
- Energy Load and Power ForecastingEngineering3.7%
- Financial Markets and Investment StrategiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Economics Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Economics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Management | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Economics Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Economics | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Management | Zone 2 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Economics Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Economics | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Management | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 5.42LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 5.7Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 15.7LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 15.7Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.27LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 3.13LetPub ·
- h-index
- 194OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 2,101OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.95OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 46.21%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 93LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,740 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 63 | 39 | 22 |
| 2025 | 85 | 46 | 238 |
| 2024 | 96 | 67 | 705 |
| 2023 | 93 | 46 | 1,025 |
| 2022 | 125 | 71 | 5,026 |
| 2021 | 143 | 64 | 6,225 |
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.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
318 dayssubmission to acceptance
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Submission to first decision
- 9 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 93 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 318 daysPublisher website ·
- 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.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 2,800 / EUR 2,620 / GBP 2,240 / JPY 347,280 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 3,500 | — | — |
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.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Open calls for papers1, by deadline
Publisher websiteWhat to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 100–150 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 5
- Reference style
- Author–date
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
Generative AI use must be declared. Model summary
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Author contributions
At least five keywords required. Model summary
For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor's specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration;…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of competing interest
Competing interests disclosure required. Model summary
Corresponding authors, on behalf of all the authors of a submission, must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles includ…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
At least two independent expert reviewers review all papers. Model summary
This journal operates a double anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor'…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism
Original work not published elsewhere. Model summary
Submission of a paper implies that it contains original work that has not previously been published and that has not being submitted for publication elsewhere.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the nam…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
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.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- ISSN
- 0169-2070
- Electronic ISSN
- 1872-8200
- Society / sponsor
- International Institute of Forecasters
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about International Journal of Forecasting
What CAS zone is International Journal of Forecasting in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, International Journal of Forecasting is in Zone 2 of Economics, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Economics / Management. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Economics. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of International Journal of Forecasting?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 5.42; CiteScore 15.7, h-index 194.
How long does peer review take at International Journal of Forecasting?
The publisher reports about 318 days (submission to acceptance). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of International Journal of Forecasting?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 100–150 words; Keywords: ≥ 5; Reference style: Author–date. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of International Journal of Forecasting based?
Of the 81 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 2%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (17), United States (12) and Australia (9). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index International Journal of Forecasting?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, International Journal of Forecasting is indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Is International Journal of Forecasting open access, and what is the APC?
International Journal of Forecasting is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 2,800.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .