The Review of International Organizations publishes original scientific contributions in the entire field of political economy, with a focus on the policies and structure of international organizations, such as the WTO, World Bank, NATO, WHO, the European Court of Human Rights, and the UN. The journal includes studies based on modern economic, political economic, and international relations theories, using quantitative or qualitative methods. Papers should ideally put forward a new theory and provide a rigorous empirical test of this theory, but the RIO allows for a trade-off between the two.

The RIO features a comment section where it invites comments to articles published in the Review of International Organizations and elsewhere. Replication is particularly encouraged.

The RIO invites submission of data articles. Compared to regular articles, data articles focus less on theory and should present high-quality, important and relevant data that can be expected to be widely used by the research community.The RIO aims for a quick turnaround. In 2020, the average number of days between the date the manuscript was received and the first decision was 36 days. The RIO checks data and program files of empirical papers prior to publication.