Journal profile · Business, Management and Accounting-Business, Management and Accounting (all)
Vikalpa
ISSN 0256-0909 · eISSN 2395-3799 · SAGE · India
Vikalpa: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 388 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 3.3% (journal website); 29 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Vikalpa is published by SAGE. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Business and Management Studies, Management and Organizational Practices and Global and Cross-Cultural Management, together about 23.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Strategy and Management. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
'Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers' is a quarterly peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (https://iima.ac.in) since January 1976. The journal adopts a broad view of the management discipline and encourages the publication research output under several formats such as:Research articles: Research articles published in Vikalpa are expected to have substantial original contribution to the body of knowledge in management or allied disciplines. The research could be theoretical or empirical. The journal is open to publishing articles with qualitative or quantitative methodology. The recommended length of the article is up to 8,000 words. You may go through published research articles in Vikalpa for a better understanding (Click here for a sample)Perspectives: Perspectives articles present a synthesis of the knowledge in a specific sub-field of management offering valuable lessons to management practitioners and policy makers. Typically the Perspectives call for action or rethinking by managers and policy makers in organizations. The Perspective article need not necessarily be backed by original field research. The recommended length of the article is up to 6,000 words. You may go through recently published Perspective articles in Vikalpa for a better understanding. (Click here for a sample)Management Case: The case feature of Vikalpa encourages authors to publish real-life managerial decision contexts in the form of instructional cases for the benefit of the academia. The decision context could be centered around an organization or an individual. The case should present ample data to facilitate a rich analysis of the situation. Vikalpa publishes cases related to the various managerial sub-disciplines such as business strategy, marketing, finance, organizational behavior and human resources management etc. Each case should be accompanied by a detailed teaching note, which presents an in-depth analysis of the situation and data presented in the case by the author. The author must obtain explicit written permission from the organization involved in the case to be eligible for publication of the case. The recommended length of the case is about 3,000 words, excluding the teaching note. You may go through recently published cases in Vikalpa for a better understanding. (Click here for a case and Click here for a diagnoses)Colloquium: Colloquium presents an intense debate among various stakeholders on a contemporary management issue where each of the stakeholders presents their view on the issue. The Colloquium is expected to educate the audience of the journal on the various facets of issue. Typically the Colloquium engages the academia, practitioners, policy makers and civil society to elicit their perspective about a certain issue. If you are interested to coordinate a Colloquium please contact dianaj@iima.ac.in with a short proposal and a brief profile of the coordinators. (Click here for sample)Book review: Vikalpa encourages the publication of short review of recently released titles in management and allied disciplines. The recommended length of the case is about 2,000 words. You may go through recently published published book-reviews in Vikalpa for a better understanding. (Click here for a sample)The journal strongly believes that a healthy mix of the article formats would promote a deeper and more meaningful engagement among the academia, practitioners, policy makers and the civil society. To download the detailed description of the article formats, please click here.This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vik.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Business, Management and Accounting-Business, Management and Accounting (all)
Editor-in-chief Subhadip RoyPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 2%); most named India 28, United States 14, United Kingdom 2, Australia 2, Singapore 2 (58 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Business and Management StudiesDecision Sciences8.5%
- Management and Organizational PracticesBusiness, Management and Accounting8.5%
- Global and Cross-Cultural ManagementSocial Sciences6.9%
- Management Theory and PracticeBusiness, Management and Accounting6.3%
- Indian Economic and Social DevelopmentEconomics, Econometrics and Finance6.3%
- Corporate Finance and GovernanceBusiness, Management and Accounting5.5%
- Business Strategies and InnovationBusiness, Management and Accounting5.5%
- International Business and FDIBusiness, Management and Accounting4.9%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Business, Management and Accounting | Q3 | 138/235 | 41st |
| General Decision Sciences | Q4 | 35/43 | 19th |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.3LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.71LetPub ·
- h-index
- 54OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 315OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.08OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,946 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 15 | 15 | 684 |
| 2025 | 29 | 29 | 931 |
| 2024 | 29 | 29 | 1,093 |
| 2023 | 25 | 25 | 1,210 |
| 2022 | 23 | 23 | 1,111 |
| 2021 | 24 | 24 | 1,088 |
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
388 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 10 weeks
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 10 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 3.3%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 155 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 388 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 130 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 10 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
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)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 80–100 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 4
- Reference style
- APA
Article types accepted11, with length limits
- book reviewVikalpa has the following features and the authors must categorize the manuscript at the time of submission: Perspectives presents the author's opinion and inte…main text ≤ 2,000 words
- book reviewsBook Reviews covers reviews of current books on management. Recommended length of the book review is about 2000 words.Length not stated
- colloquiumColloquium includes debate on a contemporary topic. Both academicians and practitioners discuss the topic. This feature is typically an on-invitation piece. How…Length not stated
- management caseManagement Case describes a real-life situation faced, a decision or action taken by an individual manager or by an organization at the strategic, functional or…Length not stated
- opinionVikalpa has the following features and the authors must categorize the manuscript at the time of submission: Perspectives presents the author's opinion and inte…Length not stated
- perspectiveVikalpa has the following features and the authors must categorize the manuscript at the time of submission: Perspectives presents the author's opinion and inte…Length not stated
- perspectivesPerspectives presents the author's opinion and interpretation on emerging issues and ideas that call for action or rethinking by managers, administrators, and p…Length not stated
- researchResearch includes research articles that focus on the analysis and resolution of managerial and academic issues based on analytical and empirical or case resear…Length not stated
- research articleVikalpa has the following features and the authors must categorize the manuscript at the time of submission: Perspectives presents the author's opinion and inte…Length not stated
- reviewVikalpa has the following features and the authors must categorize the manuscript at the time of submission: Perspectives presents the author's opinion and inte…Length not stated
- the diagnosesThe Diagnoses presents analyses of the featured management case by academicians and practitioners. This is an on-invitation piece. The case problems are examine…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Author contributions
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review and publication process, this journal has adopted CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). CRediT is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, which is used to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Vikalpa is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad sponsors the journal by covering the Article Processing Charge (APC), so there is no APC payable by authors.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review model: Double anonymized Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency:Double Anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk reject…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
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
- SAGE
- Country or region
- India
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0256-0909
- Electronic ISSN
- 2395-3799
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Vikalpa
How long does peer review take at Vikalpa?
The publisher reports about 388 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 10 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 3.3%. 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 Vikalpa?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 80–100 words; Keywords: ≥ 4; Reference style: APA. 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 Vikalpa based?
Of the 58 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 2%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are India (28), United States (14) and United Kingdom (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Vikalpa?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Vikalpa is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Vikalpa open access, and what is the APC?
Vikalpa is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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: .