本雜志提出并促進了組合優化的理論和應用。組合優化是應用數學、計算機科學和運籌學交叉的研究領域，與計算復雜性、計算生物學、超大規模集成電路設計、通信網絡和管理科學等許多其他領域重疊。它包括組合優化問題的復雜性分析和算法設計、數值實驗和具有科學和工程應用價值的問題發現?！督M合優化》雜志發表了涉及組合優化的所有理論、計算和應用方面的參考論文。它還出版有關書籍和期刊的評論。

This journal advances and promotes the theory and applications of combinatorial optimization, which is an area of research at the intersection of applied mathematics, computer science, and operations research and which overlaps with many other areas such as computation complexity, computational biology, VLSI design, communication networks, and management science. It includes complexity analysis and algorithm design for combinatorial optimization problems, numerical experiments and problem discovery with applications in science and engineering.The Journal of Combinatorial Optimization publishes refereed papers dealing with all theoretical, computational and applied aspects of combinatorial optimization. It also publishes reviews of appropriate books and special issues of journals.