By Redzuan Abdullah, Senior Librarian, Research & Data Services
Researchers in business and management have long relied on the Financial Times Top 50 (FT50) journal list as a benchmark for identifying influential journals, conducting literature reviews, and evaluating research output. For many years, the list remained largely unchanged. However, in April 2026, the Financial Times announced its first major revision since 2016, adding three journals and removing three others.
FT50 2026 Revision
For researchers, the practical implication is straightforward: search strategies, journal filters, and publication analyses that rely on the FT50 should be updated accordingly. In earlier pieces we discussed how to create search strategies using database Web of Science and Scopus.
Though the steps in Scopus to create and combine search strings remained the same as in the older article, we provide an updated search string here that you can cut and paste to use (see below).
What changed though is the following:
| Removed | Added |
| Human Relations | Academy of Management Annals |
| Journal of Business Ethics | American Sociological Review |
| Organization Studies | Psychological Science |
Constructing the FT50 Filter Search in Scopus
When constructing a Scopus search limited to FT50 journals, use ISSNs rather than source titles wherever possible.
Filtering by journal title, referred to as the source title in Scopus, can produce false matches because several FT50 journals have short or generic titles. Consider Management Science. Even a tightly specified advanced search such as:
EXACTSRCTITLE({Management Science})
Will retrieve articles from journals such as Management Science Letters.
The EXACTSRCTITLE field prevents Scopus from expanding the individual search terms to word variants, while the curly brackets require the words Management Science to appear as an exact phrase. However, neither requires the complete source-title field to contain only those two words. Scopus describes EXACTSRCTITLE as returning sources that "contain the exact words" entered.
As such, source-title searching alone is not sufficiently precise for constructing an FT50 journal filter.
ISSNs are preferable because they identify specific serial publications without relying on potentially ambiguous title strings.
While the situation is a little different from the Web of Science as you can search with exact only journal titles, we currently recommend that you use ISSNs as well.
We provide the current list of ISSNs for your use:
| Journal | Print ISSN | E-ISSN |
| Academy of Management Annals | 1941-6520 | 1941-6067 |
| Academy of Management Journal | 0001-4273 | |
| Academy of Management Review | 0363-7425 | |
| Accounting Review | 0001-4826 | 1558-7967 |
| Accounting, Organizations and Society | 0361-3682 | |
| Administrative Science Quarterly | 0001-8392 | 1930-3815 |
| American Economic Review | 0002-8282 | 1944-7981 |
| American Sociological Review | 0003-1224 | 1939-8271 |
| Contemporary Accounting Research | 0823-9150 | 1911-3846 |
| Econometrica | 0012-9682 | 1468-0262 |
| Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice | 1042-2587 | 1540-6520 |
| Harvard Business Review | 0017-8012 | |
| Human Resource Management | 0090-4848 | 1099-050X |
| Information Systems Research | 1047-7047 | 1526-5536 |
| Journal of Accounting and Economics | 0165-4101 | |
| Journal of Accounting Research | 0021-8456 | 1475-679X |
| Journal of Applied Psychology | 0021-9010 | 1939-1854 |
| Journal of Business Venturing | 0883-9026 | |
| Journal of Consumer Psychology | 1057-7408 | 1532-7663 |
| Journal of Consumer Research | 0093-5301 | 1537-5277 |
| Journal of Finance | 0022-1082 | 1540-6261 |
| Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis | 0022-1090 | 1756-6916 |
| Journal of Financial Economics | 0304-405X | |
| Journal of International Business Studies | 0047-2506 | 1478-6990 |
| Journal of Management | 0149-2063 | 1557-1211 |
| Journal of Management Information Systems | 0742-1222 | 1557-928X |
| Journal of Management Studies | 0022-2380 | 1467-6486 |
| Journal of Marketing | 0022-2429 | 1547-7185 |
| Journal of Marketing Research | 0022-2437 | 1547-7193 |
| Journal of Operations Management | 0272-6963 | 1873-1317 |
| Journal of Political Economy | 0022-3808 | 1537-534X |
| Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science | 0092-0703 | 1552-7824 |
| Management Science | 0025-1909 | 1526-5501 |
| Manufacturing and Service Operations Management | 1523-4614 | 1526-5498 |
| Marketing Science | 0732-2399 | 1526-548X |
| MIS Quarterly | 0276-7783 | 2162-9730 |
| MIT Sloan Management Review | 1532-9194 | |
| Operations Research | 0030-364X | 1526-5463 |
| Organization Science | 1047-7039 | 1526-5455 |
| Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes | 0749-5978 | 1095-9920 |
| Production and Operations Management | 1059-1478 | 1937-5956 |
| Psychological Science | 0956-7976 | 1467-9280 |
| Quarterly Journal of Economics | 0033-5533 | 1531-4650 |
| Research Policy | 0048-7333 | |
| Review of Accounting Studies | 1380-6653 | 1573-7136 |
| Review of Economic Studies | 0034-6527 | 1467-937X |
| Review of Finance | 1572-3097 | 1573-692X |
| Review of Financial Studies | 0893-9454 | 1465-7368 |
| Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal | 1932-4391 | 1932-443X |
| Strategic Management Journal | 0143-2095 | 1097-0266 |
Building an FT50 Search in Scopus & Web of Science
To validate the revised FT50 journal ISSN search strategy, the same identical set of verified print ISSNs was used in both Scopus and Web of Science.
A search strategy in Scopus using all the FT50 ISSNs can be constructed as follows:
ISSN ( 1941-6520 OR 0001-4273 OR 0363-7425 OR 0001-4826 OR 0361-3682 OR 0001-8392 OR 0002-8282 OR 0003-1224 OR 0823-9150 OR 0012-9682 OR 1042-2587 OR 0017-8012 OR 0090-4848 OR 1047-7047 OR 0165-4101 OR 0021-8456 OR 0021-9010 OR 0883-9026 OR 1057-7408 OR 0093-5301 OR 0022-1082 OR 0022-1090 OR 0304-405X OR 0047-2506 OR 0149-2063 OR 0742-1222 OR 0022-2380 OR 0022-2429 OR 0022-2437 OR 0272-6963 OR 0022-3808 OR 0092-0703 OR 0025-1909 OR 1523-4614 OR 0732-2399 OR 0276-7783 OR 1532-9194 OR 0030-364X OR 1047-7039 OR 0749-5978 OR 1059-1478 OR 0956-7976 OR 0033-5533 OR 0048-7333 OR 1380-6653 OR 0034-6527 OR 1572-3097 OR 0893-9454 OR 1932-4391 OR 0143-2095 )
The equivalent search in Web of Science uses the IS= field:
IS=( 1941-6520 OR 0001-4273 OR 0363-7425 OR 0001-4826 OR 0361-3682 OR 0001-8392 OR 0002-8282 OR 0003-1224 OR 0823-9150 OR 0012-9682 OR 1042-2587 OR 0017-8012 OR 0090-4848 OR 1047-7047 OR 0165-4101 OR 0021-8456 OR 0021-9010 OR 0883-9026 OR 1057-7408 OR 0093-5301 OR 0022-1082 OR 0022-1090 OR 0304-405X OR 0047-2506 OR 0149-2063 OR 0742-1222 OR 0022-2380 OR 0022-2429 OR 0022-2437 OR 0272-6963 OR 0022-3808 OR 0092-0703 OR 0025-1909 OR 1523-4614 OR 0732-2399 OR 0276-7783 OR 1532-9194 OR 0030-364X OR 1047-7039 OR 0749-5978 OR 1059-1478 OR 0956-7976 OR 0033-5533 OR 0048-7333 OR 1380-6653 OR 0034-6527 OR 1572-3097 OR 0893-9454 OR 1932-4391 OR 0143-2095 )
Results
In Scopus, the ISSN() search successfully retrieved the expected FT50 articles, however in the Source Title filter, the retrieval included unrelated journal titles such as (Topics in Catalysis). Researchers may simply wish to verify the journal titles shown in the filter panel when validating ISSN-based searches in Scopus.
The list of journals retrieved in Scopus above using FT50 ISSNs included unrelated titles such as Topics in Catalysis and similar named titles. This appears to be some type of indexing issue. Researchers should therefore further investigate the articles in these titles if they are relevant, or they can run a more recent year-frame search. We have informed Scopus at the time of writing this article.
In contrast to the search in Web of Science below, the IS= search produced a cleaner and expected set of 50 publication titles corresponding exclusively to the FT50 journals.
Conclusion
While both Scopus and Web of Science successfully retrieve FT50 publications using ISSNs, users should remain attentive to database-specific indexing behavior and review results carefully when constructing comprehensive searches.
Note: Many journals have both a print ISSN (p-ISSN) and an electronic ISSN (e-ISSN). Either identifier may be recognised by Scopus and Web of Science. For consistency, this guide uses the print ISSNs verified from the Scopus Source database as the primary identifiers for constructing and validating the FT50 search strategy.
