Ten Selected HR Management Research Areas and Journals

Published April 9, 2024  |  Last updated October 31, 2026

Ten Selected HR Management Research Areas, Ranked by Open-Access Output

Editverse selected ten contemporary, people-focused HR phrases and ranked them by how many 2025 articles in DOAJ carry the phrase in the title, abstract or keywords. The ranking covers only these ten. Long-established phrases that Editverse did not select have larger counts in the same database: on 31 October 2026, job satisfaction appeared in 1,688 articles from 2025 and organizational culture in 983. DOAJ metadata is released under a CC0 waiver, so Editverse could count and redraw it freely.³ The counts, multiples and shares were computed by Editverse in R on 31 October 2026.¹

Swipe sideways to see every column.

Three patterns stand out within these ten. First, work-life balance, employee engagement and employee well-being have the largest counts. Second, the steepest rises started from very small 2019 bases, so a multiple of 44.5 for AI and HR means 4 articles becoming 178. Third, two further phrases were counted separately and are not among the ten: hybrid work grew from 2 to 114 articles, and the exact phrase people analytics appeared in only 15 articles in 2025. Authors also write HR analytics or workforce analytics, and Editverse did not count those variants.

Is the Phrase Human Resource Management Growing Faster Than DOAJ Overall?

Yes, for this exact phrase. Articles with the phrase human resource management rose from 135 in 2015 to 914 in 2025. Because DOAJ itself grew from 439,403 to 1,346,498 articles over the same years, Editverse also computed the rate per 100,000 DOAJ articles: 30.7 in 2015 and 67.9 in 2025, a 2.2-fold rise.¹ The share of DOAJ records that carry an abstract or keywords may vary by year, which can move a phrase count, so read this as a trend in one database and not as the growth of the whole HR field.

HR Management Journals You Can Read Without a Subscription

DOAJ lists 27 journals under the subject Personnel management. Employment management.² The table shows six of them with the facts DOAJ records. For example, the SA Journal of Human Resource Management states that it covers HRM in many organisational settings, with a focus on Africa, and that it uses double-blind peer review.⁴

Swipe sideways to see every column.

Across all 27 journals, 19 use CC BY, 4 use CC BY-NC, 3 use CC BY-NC-ND and 1 use CC BY-SA. 9 list an article processing charge and 18 do not. Amounts are quoted in different currencies, so compare fees journal by journal on DOAJ.²

This list covers only journals that DOAJ indexes under this subject. For any title outside DOAJ, read the aims and scope and the current indexing statement on the journal’s own site before you decide.

How to Choose an HR Management Journal

Use these five checks in order. They need no impact factor to start.

1. 1Match the question to the scope. Read the aims and scope and the last two issues. If your topic never appears, look elsewhere.
2. 2Check the open-access terms. For an open-access journal, read the licence and any article processing charge before you submit.
3. 3Confirm indexing from the journal’s own page. Look for the journal in DOAJ, Scopus or Web of Science and note the date you checked.
4. 4Read the review model. Double anonymous and single anonymous review change how you prepare the title page.
5. 5Read current metrics at the source. If a metric matters to your institution, take it from the current edition of the index that publishes it, not from a blog.

How Editverse Counted: Method and What the Numbers Show

Editverse queried the DOAJ search interface on 31 October 2026.¹ For each phrase, an article counted if the exact phrase appeared in its title, abstract or keywords. The AI and HR line required both artificial intelligence and human resource. Rates divide each count by the number of DOAJ articles with the same publication year. The journal tallies come from the 27 journal records returned for subject code HF5549.² Only aggregate counts are published here.

The ten topics were selected by Editverse as contemporary, people-focused HR phrases. They are not the ten largest HR phrases in DOAJ, and no selection rule beyond that was applied. Each count used the query (bibjson.title:”phrase” OR bibjson.abstract:”phrase” OR bibjson.keywords:”phrase”) AND bibjson.year:2025. Phrase matching is exact and not stemmed, so a variant such as turnover intentions is a different phrase.

These counts show where open-access HR research is concentrated and how that changed since 2019 in one database. They do not measure citations, quality or the whole HR literature, and a phrase match is not a topic classification.

Need the Analysis Run or Checked? Consult Editverse

Editverse subject-matter experts work to COPE, ICMJE and GPP 2022 guidance, with institutional and country-specific ethics followed.

Editverse

Journal Selection

Not sure which HR journal fits your paper?

You send: your abstract, field and any constraints such as open access or fees.

You get: a ranked list of 5 to 10 recommended journals, with the rationale for each, based on scope fit.

When: Your manuscript is nearly ready and the target journal is still open.

Scientific Journal Selection Services · $115

Find my journal →

Editverse

Statistical Analysis

Survey or HR dataset waiting to be analysed?

You send: your dataset, codebook and research questions.

You get: analysis run in SPSS, R or STATA, with annotated code, output files, an interpretation guide and publication-ready tables.

When: Your data are collected and the results section is not.

SPSS/R/STATA Statistical Analysis · $400

Get my data analysed →

Editverse

Manuscript Writing

Ready to turn your HR study into a submitted paper?

You send: your data, notes and target journal.

You get: a manuscript written and edited by PhD experts, with statistical review, journal selection and submission support.

When: Your project is finished and the paper is not.

Manuscript Writing Services · $1,500

Write my paper →

Frequently Asked Questions

Which HR management research areas have the most open-access articles?

Among ten HR phrases selected by Editverse and counted in DOAJ for 2025, work-life balance (667), employee engagement (434), employee well-being (393), psychological safety (340) and remote work (299) had the most articles. This ranks only the ten chosen phrases in one database. Long-established phrases such as job satisfaction (1,688 articles in 2025) and organizational culture (983) have larger counts and were not selected.

Which HR research topic is growing fastest?

Measured by the multiple of the 2019 count, artificial intelligence and HR rose from 4 to 178 articles and remote work from 7 to 299. Hybrid work rose from 2 to 114. These start from small 2019 bases, so read the counts as well as the multiples.

Are there open-access HR management journals?

Yes. DOAJ tags 27 journals under Personnel management. Employment management. 19 use CC BY and 9 list an article processing charge. Check the page of each journal for the current terms.

Do open-access HR journals charge fees?

Some do. In the DOAJ records, 9 of the 27 journals list an article processing charge and 18 do not. The amounts are in different currencies, so compare fees journal by journal on DOAJ and on the home page of each journal.

How do I choose an HR management journal?

Match your question to the scope of the journal, read its open-access terms and fees, confirm indexing in DOAJ, Scopus or Web of Science from the page of the journal itself, and check the review model. Take any metric from the current edition of the index that publishes it.

Why does this guide not list impact factors?

An impact factor changes with each release and belongs to the index that publishes it, so a figure copied into a post can be out of date. Read the current value for your target journal from its own source before you decide.

Is people analytics a large research area?

Under the exact phrase people analytics, DOAJ held 15 articles in 2025. Authors also use HR analytics and workforce analytics, which Editverse did not count, so the true size of the area is larger than this figure.

Where does the DOAJ data come from and can I reuse it?

The counts come from the public DOAJ search interface, queried on 31 October 2026. DOAJ states on its terms page that its journal-level and article-level metadata is available under a CC0 waiver, so Editverse could count the records and publish the aggregate results. Check the DOAJ terms page for the current wording before you reuse any data.

References

1. DOAJ. Application programming interface documentation: search endpoints for journals and articles (accessed 31 October 2026). doaj.org/api/v4/docs
2. DOAJ. Journal search, subject code HF5549 (Personnel management. Employment management): 27 journals returned on 31 October 2026. Licences, fees, review model and start year tallied by Editverse in R. doaj.org/api/search/journals/bibjson.subject.code%3AHF5549
3. DOAJ. Terms of use: journal-level and article-level DOAJ metadata are released under a CC0 waiver (accessed 31 October 2026). doaj.org/terms/
4. SA Journal of Human Resource Management. About the journal: focus and scope, publisher AOSIS, CC BY 4.0 licence, double-blind peer review (accessed 31 October 2026). sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/about
5. Personnel Assessment and Decisions. Journal home page, International Personnel Assessment Council (accessed 31 October 2026). scholarworks.bgsu.edu/pad/
6. Journal of Chinese Human Resources Management. Journal home page, Porcelain Publishing International Limited (accessed 31 October 2026). porcelainpublishing.com/journal/JCHRM
7. International Labour Review. Journal home page, Open Library of Humanities (accessed 31 October 2026). en.ilr-rit.org
8. Revista Vasca de Gestión de Personas y Organizaciones Públicas. About the journal, Instituto Vasco de Administración Pública (accessed 31 October 2026). www.ivap.euskadi.eus/revgp-about-the-journal/webivap00-a3rvop/en/

Editverse Research Team | Updated October 2026