Ikonomicheski Izsledvania

About Ikonomicheski Izsledvania

Ikonomicheski Izsledvania (Economic Studies) — Journal Profile

Ikonomicheski Izsledvania — cited internationally as Economic Studies (in Bulgarian, Икономически изследвания) — is the flagship economics journal of the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, published in Sofia. It appears six times a year and carries its single ISSN, 0205-3292, the identifier recorded on this JournalsWorld record and printed in the journal's own volumes. The journal's current site describes it as the first international economic journal in Bulgaria, founded by the Economic Research Institute in 1988 and referenced and indexed in Scopus since 2009, and over the past fifteen years it has developed — in its own words, following good international practices and standards — into an authoritative publication for authors from all continents. Its pages carry theoretical and empirical research in economic science, practice and policy, with a standing brief to present new ideas and provide a platform for discussion of contemporary issues relevant to the scientific community and society in Bulgaria and Europe and on a global scale. For economists working on transition and post-transition economies, European integration, public finance, labour markets and regional development in Central and Eastern Europe, Economic Studies is one of the region's longest-running academy journals and a natural first port of call.

History and identity

The journal's official site dates Economic Studies to 1988, when the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences established it as Bulgaria's first international economic journal. An older institutional history of Bulgarian economics publishing traces the underlying series further back — to 1950, as Izvestia na Ikonomicheskia Institut (Announcements of the Economic Institute), taking the name Economic Studies in the mid-1980s and published for a period in cooperation with the Academy of Economics in Svishtov and the University of Economics in Varna. Whichever date a historian prefers, the continuity is the point: the title descends from the in-house research series of Bulgaria's national economics institute, and it carried that institute's work through the country's post-1989 transition — the period when its subject matter changed most dramatically, from the economics of a planned system to privatisation, restructuring, fiscal reform, EU accession and the euro-adoption debate.

Scopus indexing from 2009 marks the journal's modern, international phase. The editors state that over the past fifteen years the journal has followed international practices and standards to become an authoritative publication for authors from all continents. The 2024 volume illustrates the milestone culture of the institution: its fourth issue that year marked both the 75th anniversary of the Economic Research Institute and the 155th anniversary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The journal is governed by an editorial board drawn from the institute and Bulgarian universities, supported by an international advisory board whose published membership has included economists from Hungary, Italy, Austria, Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and North Macedonia — a network that mirrors the journal's Central and East European centre of gravity. The 2021 volume lists Prof. Mitko Dimitrov as chief editor, with a board including Profs. Atanas Damianov, Daniela Bobeva, George Shopov, Hristina Nikolova, Iskra Balkanska, Neno Pavlov, Plamen Tchipev, Stoyan Totev, Tatayana Houbenova and Vasil Tsanov, among others; readers should consult the journal's current site for the board as it stands today.

Scope and subject coverage

The journal publishes the results of theoretical and empirical research in economic science, practice and policy. Its stated scope covers macroeconomics and microeconomics, international and regional economics, and socio-economic policy. The priority areas named on its official site are: human resource management; public administration and management; operations and supply chain management; marketing; entrepreneurship; corporate social responsibility; international business; corporate governance; sustainability and green business; green finance; financial markets; public finance; behavioural economics; international economics; financial economics; economic policy; and environmental and ecological economics. An older description of the journal, carried by the CEEOL platform that distributes it, gives the flavour of the same scope in the vocabulary of the transition era — economic policy, industrial restructuring, regional and ecological policy, financial and fiscal problems, ownership and behaviour of firms, social insurance, foreign economic relations and European integration — and notes that the journal also reports major scientific events, conferences and symposia, and reviews of newly published books by Bulgarian and foreign authors.

Recent content shows the scope in action. A 2024 article examined fiscal consolidation after the pandemic and the growth effects of EU funding for 2021–2027 in Bulgaria and the other Central and East European member states, in the context of the 2023 initiative to reform the EU's fiscal and macroeconomic governance framework. Labour-market studies, regional-development analyses, innovation and competitiveness work, and corporate-governance research recur across volumes. Articles are substantial by modern journal standards — the older institutional description puts studies at up to forty pages — and, in that description, studies are published after two positive reviews, each accompanied by a summary in English. Bulgarian-language and English-language articles both appear; international authors should confirm the current language and formatting requirements on the journal's site or with the editorial office before submitting.

Publisher and editorial organisation

The publisher is the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences — in Bulgarian, the Ikonomicheski Institut of the Bulgarska Akademiya na Naukite — headquartered at 3 Aksakov Street in central Sofia. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the country's national academy, and its institutes are state research organisations; Economic Studies is therefore an academy journal in the classic Central European sense, owned and staffed by a public research institute rather than by a commercial house or a membership society. The editorial office contact published in the journal's volumes is econ.studies@iki.bas.bg, with the chief editor and journal secretary reachable through the institute. That academy structure gives the journal its durability — it has survived the funding shocks that closed many post-socialist titles — and also its character: a strong presence of institute and Bulgarian university authors, an international advisory layer, and a deliberate openness to authors from all continents that the editors have cultivated since the Scopus era began.

Indexing and metrics

The journal is indexed in Scopus (since 2009, per its official site), where it carries a SCImago Journal Rank. CEEOL's description of the journal records that all articles are indexed and abstracted by the Journal of Economic Literature / EconLit, published by the American Economic Association, as well as by RePEc and EBSCO, in addition to Scopus. SCImago categorises the journal under Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous); SCImago-derived listings report an SJR of 0.177 and a fourth-quartile standing in recent years — the quartile recorded on this JournalsWorld record — with an h-index of 14 and 82 documents published in 2025 in the SCImago journal-value listing.

One caution is owed to readers who consult open citation databases. OpenAlex resolves the journal's ISSN to a record held under the Bulgarian title (Икономически изследвания, source S4306539310) that contains only 171 works and 11 citations — plainly a partial, split record for a journal that has published six issues a year for decades. Those OpenAlex figures should not be quoted as the journal's output or impact; the Scopus-based SCImago indicators above are the reliable public measures, and the journal's own site and the EconLit and RePEc listings best represent its presence in the economics literature. This kind of database fragmentation is common for journals that publish under a transliterated Latin title, a Cyrillic title and an English translated title at once, and it is a further reason the journal's three names — Ikonomicheski Izsledvania, Икономически изследвания and Economic Studies — should always be searched together.

How to submit

Authors should approach the journal through its official site (econ-studies.iki.bas.bg) and the editorial office at the Economic Research Institute, using the contact published in the journal. Prepare a substantial theoretical or empirical study — the journal's tradition is the long-form study rather than the short note — within the stated priority areas, with an English summary, and follow the formatting instructions the journal currently publishes. Whether a Bulgarian-language, English-language or bilingual submission is appropriate, and whether any publication fee applies, are details that could not be verified from a current public fee schedule when this profile was checked; the editorial office is the authoritative source, and authors should confirm both points before submitting rather than relying on third-party listings.

Similar journals

Readers comparing Central and East European economics outlets may also consider Economic Thought (Ikonomicheska Misal), the Bulgarian Academy's companion economics title; the Montenegrin Journal of Economics; Economics and Sociology; Amfiteatru Economic (Romania); and Finance: Theory and Practice. Economic Studies is distinguished among them by its academy-institute ownership, its six-issue rhythm, its bilingual Bulgarian-English character, and a lineage that runs from the institute's post-war research series through the transition era to today's Scopus-indexed international journal.

Frequently asked questions

What does Ikonomicheski Izsledvania mean? It is Bulgarian for "Economic Studies" (Икономически изследвания), the title under which the journal is cited internationally.

What is the journal's ISSN? 0205-3292. No separate electronic ISSN could be verified for the title when this profile was checked.

Who publishes the journal? The Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia.

How often does it appear? Six issues a year.

When was it founded? The journal's official site dates it to 1988 and describes it as Bulgaria's first international economic journal; an institutional history traces its predecessor series to 1950.

Where is it indexed? Scopus (since 2009), EconLit / Journal of Economic Literature, RePEc and EBSCO, per the journal's site and its CEEOL description.

What subjects does it cover? Macroeconomics, microeconomics, international and regional economics and socio-economic policy, with named priority areas from public finance and financial markets to green finance, behavioural economics and sustainability.

The archive as a research resource

For historians of economic thought and students of post-socialist transformation, the journal's back run is itself a primary source. A title published continuously by Bulgaria's national economics institute — first as the institute's research announcements, then as Economic Studies — documents, issue by issue, how Bulgarian economists understood the problems in front of them: the reform debates of the late socialist period, the shock of price liberalisation and privatisation in the 1990s, the currency-board era after 1997, EU accession in 2007, the financial crisis, the pandemic and the fiscal questions that followed it. The CEEOL platform, which distributes the journal, preserves that archive in searchable form and presents the journal to the international library market as an internationally recognised scientific economic journal published in six books a year. Researchers tracing a single theme — pension reform, say, or regional policy, or the behaviour of firms under changing ownership — can follow it across three decades of Bulgarian policy debate in one title, with English summaries making the Bulgarian-language material navigable for non-Bulgarian readers.

The journal's role in the national research system also shows in its apparatus. Issues carry information on scientific events at national and international level — conferences, symposia, seminars and round tables — and reviews of recently published books by Bulgarian and foreign authors. That chronicle-and-review function, common in academy journals and rare in commercial ones, makes the title a bulletin of Bulgarian economics as well as a repository of studies: a reader can learn not only what the institute's economists concluded, but what the community was reading, celebrating and arguing about.

Editorial governance in detail

The governance published in the journal's volumes has two tiers. The editorial board is drawn mainly from the Economic Research Institute and Bulgaria's economics universities, and the 2021 volume's board — chief editor Prof. Mitko Dimitrov, with members including Atanas Damianov, Daniela Bobeva, George Shopov, Hristina Nikolova, Iskra Balkanska, Neno Pavlov, Plamen Tchipev, Stoyan Totev, Tatayana Houbenova and Vasil Tsanov, and associate professors Dimitra Zlatinov, Victor Yotzov and Vladimir Zhechev among the wider team — reflects the senior professoriate of Bulgarian economics. The international advisory board sits above it, and its published names read as a map of the journal's intended conversation: Andrash Inotai (Hungary), Bruno Dallago (Italy), Gabor Hunia (Austria), George Petrakos (Greece), Gheorghe Zaman (Romania), Igor Britchenko (Ukraine and Poland), Ruslan Grinberg (Russia), Saul Estrin (the United Kingdom), Taki Fiti (North Macedonia) and Xavier Richet (France), alongside Bulgarian members. Day-to-day production in the 2021 volume was handled by a journal secretary, Diana Dimitrova, with text editing by Ilko Valkov, from the institute's address at 3 Aksakov Street, Sofia 1000, telephone (+359-2) 8104019 as printed in the journal. Boards change, and the current composition should always be taken from the journal's own site, but the two-tier structure — national board, international advisers — has been stable across recent volumes.

For authors: language, length and fit

Three practical judgements matter most for a prospective author. The first is length and genre: this is a journal of studies, not of notes. The older institutional description gives articles of up to forty pages, published after two positive reviews, and recent issues sustain that long-form character — the fiscal-consolidation study in the 2024 anniversary issue, for example, runs to more than twenty pages of sustained comparative argument. A submission should therefore arrive as a complete piece of research with its literature, method and evidence fully developed, not as an extended abstract. The second judgement is language. The journal publishes in Bulgarian and in English and equips articles with English summaries; an international author writing in English is within the journal's stated ambition to attract authors from all continents, while a Bulgarian author reaches the home community directly. Either way, the English summary is not an ornament — it is the door through which EconLit, RePEc and Scopus users will find the paper — and it deserves the same care as the text. The third judgement is fit. The named priority areas are broad, but the journal's comparative advantage is unmistakable: work on Bulgaria, the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe and the wider European economy, and work in which transition, integration, fiscal and regional questions are central, speaks to the readership the journal actually has. A technically strong paper on a wholly unrelated setting may still be publishable here, but it must make its relevance to that readership explicit.

Reading and access

The journal's current site presents its aim, scope and priority areas and serves as the point of contact for the editorial office. Distributed access runs through the channels that carry academy journals in the region: CEEOL holds the journal's description and archive presence, RePEc lists the Economic Research Institute's publications including Economic Studies articles, and EconLit indexes its contents for the economics profession. The Scopus record, running from 2009, is the citation record of reference. Print volumes continue the six-issue rhythm under ISSN 0205-3292. Readers citing the journal should use the title form Economic Studies (Ikonomicheski Izsledvania) with volume, issue and year, matching the citation form printed in the journal itself.

Standing within Bulgarian and regional economics

Within Bulgaria, Economic Studies sits in a small group of academy titles that anchor the national economics literature, alongside its stablemate Economic Thought, which covers theoretical and policy debate in a companion register. Its Scopus presence since 2009 gives Bulgarian economists a home journal that counts in international evaluation systems without requiring them to abandon Bulgarian topics or the Bulgarian language — a combination that matters in a small research system, where the pressure to publish abroad can drain national journals of exactly the work their communities most need. Regionally, its natural comparators are the academy and university economics journals of the Balkans and Central Europe, and its international advisory board and all-continents authorship show a title working to be read in that wider arena. The journal's fourth-quartile SCImago standing should be read in that light: it measures citation density in a global database, not the journal's function in the Bulgarian policy conversation, where its authors — institute researchers who advise on fiscal, regional and social policy — write for readers who act on what they publish.