European Journal of Information Systems Submission Guide
A source-checked EJIS submission guide for genre choice, critical information-systems contribution, evidence, and package readiness.
Readiness scan
Find out if this manuscript is ready to submit.
Run the Free Readiness Scan before you submit. Catch the issues editors reject on first read.
This guide is one part of a 3-source submission path.
The Journal Submission Source Map separates the official pages that resolve Scope & fit, Article type & genre, and Package requirements for European Journal of Information Systems.
Journal overview
- Journal home and scope
- Resolves: Scope & fit
- Required for the mapped core job
Author workflow
- About this journal
- Resolves: Package requirements
- Required for the mapped core job
How to approach European Journal of Information Systems
Use the submission guide like a working checklist. The goal is to make fit, package completeness, and cover-letter framing obvious before you open the portal.
Stage | What to check |
|---|---|
1. Scope | Choose the manuscript genre |
2. Package | Align question, evidence, and structure |
3. Cover letter | Prepare the current submission package |
4. Final check | Pass editorial screening |
Quick answer: Submit to the European Journal of Information Systems when the paper makes a clear information-systems contribution, offers a critical or theoretically meaningful account of technology in use, and follows through on the research genre it claims. Decide the genre before finalizing the abstract and structure; a genre mismatch makes a strong study harder to evaluate.
This European Journal of Information Systems submission guide starts with the genre decision. Use this guide to make the abstract, evidence, and section order keep the same promise.
EJIS provides a global forum with a distinctive European perspective on the theory and practice of information systems. Its scope reaches the effects, development, implementation, strategy, management, and policy of information technology, but the paper must still own an IS question rather than use technology as scenery.
Evidence basis: We checked the current EJIS journal and manuscript-genre page, EJIS aims and scope, and the EJIS editorial on first-submission length and readability on August 18, 2026. Publisher facts are sourced; the decision framework is Manusights editorial judgment. Confirm the live instructions and portal fields before upload.
Source limitation: Public guidance explains scope, genres, and readability expectations, but not the reasons behind individual desk decisions. The genre audit below is a preparation framework grounded in those sources, not an inside view of EJIS review outcomes.
This guide cannot predict acceptance or editorial priority. It is designed to expose fixable fit, flow, and evidence problems before submission.
From our manuscript review practice
EJIS asks authors to choose a research genre, not merely an indexing label. The paper's question, evidence, contribution, and structure should all behave like the genre selected in the portal.
EJIS decision at a glance
Gate | Evidence to inspect | Hold when |
|---|---|---|
IS ownership | Technology, information, people, organization, or institution form the research problem | Technology is only the setting for a generic behavior study |
Genre integrity | Question, literature, method, and claimed contribution match the selected genre | The paper calls itself theory development but only tests familiar paths |
Critical value | The analysis reveals a consequential mechanism, tension, boundary, or alternative explanation | The conclusion simply says technology has benefits and risks |
Evidence fit | The method can support the kind and strength of knowledge claim | Rich description is presented as causal proof, or a narrow test as universal theory |
Readable package | The main text earns its length and guides the reader through one contribution | Multiple papers are compressed into one submission |
Choose the genre before choosing the section order
The current EJIS page explains that authors select a manuscript genre in the second submission step. It lists genres such as literature review and theory development and points authors to journal editorials for the distinctions. The important practical lesson is that genre is a knowledge contract.
Genre move | What the paper must deliver | Common mismatch |
|---|---|---|
Empirical explanation | A consequential phenomenon, defensible mechanism, and evidence that tests it | A methodologically elaborate study with a routine contribution |
Theory development | New concepts, relationships, or explanations that change understanding | A conceptual diagram assembled from established constructs |
Literature review | A theory-guided synthesis that exposes bias, gaps, and a research platform | A descriptive catalogue or bibliometric map without intellectual synthesis |
Critical or policy work | A rigorous account of power, consequences, governance, or institutional choices | An opinion essay without an analytical or empirical foundation |
Write a one-sentence genre promise: “This is a ___ study that uses ___ evidence to change understanding of ___.” Every major section should help keep that promise.
Make the information-systems contribution visible
An EJIS paper should not require the editor to infer why the phenomenon belongs to information systems. Name the technological arrangement, the human or organizational actors, the outcome or tension, and the explanatory mechanism.
For example, “employees distrust AI” is broad. “Contestability features alter when professional employees defer to an AI allocation system under asymmetric accountability” is an IS question with actors, artifact, mechanism, and boundary. The paper can then explain whether its contribution is theoretical, design-oriented, critical, or policy-facing.
Use length as a reasoning constraint
The current EJIS editorial says first submissions should usually keep the main text to no more than 10,000 words, counting tables and figures but excluding references and appendices. Treat that as an argument-design constraint, not a formatting game.
Do not move necessary reasoning into an appendix merely to shrink the count. Instead:
- remove literature that does not create the problem or mechanism;
- combine repeated descriptions of the same result;
- keep robustness details accessible without forcing the reader to reverse-engineer the claim;
- use tables and figures when they clarify relationships rather than store prose;
- preserve the negative cases and limitations that bound the contribution.
Worked example: a platform-governance paper
Suppose interviews show that sellers adapt to a platform's ranking changes. A thin paper lists coping strategies and concludes that platforms should communicate more clearly.
A stronger EJIS submission defines the governance tension, explains how opacity and dependence interact, samples variation that can reveal the mechanism, and follows evidence from the platform change through interpretation to action. It shows when adaptation becomes innovation, gaming, exit, or collective resistance. The contribution then changes how IS researchers understand algorithmic governance rather than only documenting reactions.
Failure patterns we see in EJIS drafts
In our pre-submission review work, the strongest EJIS repairs usually come from clarifying the paper's genre rather than adding another literature section. We compare the genre promise with the introduction, method, principal artifact, and discussion opening.
Genre changes mid-paper. The introduction promises theory development, the method runs a routine empirical test, and the discussion becomes a research perspective. Choose the dominant knowledge move and make the other elements support it.
Critical language replaces analysis. A manuscript invokes power, fairness, responsibility, or marginalization but does not identify actors, mechanisms, evidence, and consequences. Define what is being distributed or contested and show how the research design can observe it.
The context is either flattened or romanticized. A European, public-sector, platform, or emerging-market setting is treated as generic in the model and exceptional in the implications. Explain which contextual features alter the mechanism and which do not.
The 10,000-word constraint creates an evidence gap. Necessary method logic is pushed into an inaccessible appendix while repeated theory remains in the main text. Protect the reasoning and decisive evidence first. Compress repetition, not auditability.
Authors select the closest article type in step one and the research genre in step two of the current submission flow. That distinction is easy to miss and worth checking in the live portal before the corresponding author begins.
Readiness check
Run the scan against the requirements while they're in front of you.
See score, top issues, and journal-fit signals before you submit.
Build a first-screen path
An editor should be able to answer five questions without hunting:
- What information-systems phenomenon is consequential now?
- Which conversation is incomplete or wrong?
- What does this paper do that can resolve it?
- Why can the evidence support that move?
- What should the field understand differently afterward?
Put the shortest honest answers in the title, abstract, introduction, method rationale, decisive result or model, and discussion opening. The details can be complex; the dependency chain should not be hidden.
EJIS submission checklist
- Select the manuscript genre that matches the paper's actual contribution.
- State the IS phenomenon, actors, artifact, mechanism, and boundary.
- Keep the main text within the current first-submission expectation or explain a necessary exception.
- Align claims with method and acknowledge rival explanations.
- Make figures and tables advance the reasoning.
- Check anonymous-review requirements, declarations, permissions, data statements, and file metadata in the live instructions.
- Inspect the compiled submission proof and every supplement.
Common questions
Use these answers to settle the genre, length, and review questions that can change the structure of an EJIS package. Confirm any volatile limit against the live author page.
What does EJIS publish?
EJIS publishes research on the theory and practice of information systems, including critical work on the effects, development, implementation, strategy, management, and policy of information technology.
Do authors choose an EJIS manuscript genre?
Yes. The current journal page says authors indicate the manuscript genre during submission. Choose the genre that matches the paper's actual knowledge contribution.
How long should an EJIS initial submission be?
A current EJIS editorial says the journal usually expects no more than 10,000 words in the main text at first submission, with tables and figures included and references and appendices excluded. Verify the live instructions because limits can change.
Does this guide guarantee review?
No. It helps test fit, genre, evidence, and package coherence before upload. EJIS editors retain all screening and publication decisions, and meeting the stated requirements does not establish editorial priority.
What to read next
Browse the journal directory, then compare the MIS Quarterly submission guide, Information Systems Research submission guide, Journal of Management Information Systems submission guide, and JAIS submission guide. Use a free manuscript readiness scan to test genre, contribution, and evidence together.
Official sources accessed 2026-08-18.
- European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis.
- EJIS aims and scope, Taylor & Francis.
- The end of the beginning: the 10,000-word limit at EJIS, EJIS editorial.
Submit If
Submit when the manuscript makes a visible IS contribution, behaves consistently with its chosen genre, and gives the reader enough evidence and structure to evaluate the claim without reconstructing it.
Think Twice If
- The technology could be replaced by any workplace object without changing the theory.
- Genre is treated as a portal label, while the abstract and methods make a different knowledge promise.
- The paper is long because its tables and discussion carry several competing contributions.
- The implications flatten a critical analysis into generic managerial advice.
- The evidence cannot support the strength or reach of the final claims.
Frequently asked questions
EJIS publishes research on the theory and practice of information systems, including critical work on the effects, development, implementation, strategy, management, and policy of information technology.
Yes. The current journal page says authors indicate the manuscript genre in step two of the submission form. Choose the genre that matches the paper's actual knowledge contribution.
A current EJIS editorial says the journal usually expects no more than 10,000 words in the main text for first submission, with tables and figures included and references and appendices excluded. Verify the live instructions because limits can change.
No. It helps test fit, genre, evidence, and package coherence. EJIS editors retain all screening and publication decisions.
Before you upload
Choose the next useful decision step first.
Move from this article into the next decision-support step. The scan works best once the journal and submission plan are clearer.
Use the scan once the manuscript and target journal are concrete enough to evaluate.
Private API processing. Your manuscript is not used to train models.
Put the guidance to work
Turn the guide into a complete submission package.
Use one final checklist, then verify the journal rule that controls the files, declarations, and reporting details you will submit.