The Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A publishes original mathematical research concerned with theoretical and practical aspects of combinatorics in all branches of science. The journal is primarily concerned with finite and discrete structures, designs, finite geometries, codes, combinatorics with number theory, combinatorial games, extremal combinatorics, combinatorics of storage, and other important theory/applications of combinatorics.It is a valuable tool for mathematicians and computer scientists, and for scientists working in information theory.

As one of the premier journals in these areas, the journal sets very high standards for publication. Manuscripts accepted by the journal are generally expected to solve or make a significant step towards a solution of an important open problem, to develop a new proof technique, or to substantially advance our knowledge in some other way. The journal imposes even higher standards for accepting very long papers. Survey papers are in general not considered, unless they are of exceptionally high quality, dealing with a fundamentally important and trending topic in combinatorics. Only papers which are well-written and appear to be within these high standards will proceed to a phase of review which involves a detailed refereeing process.