Submission Guidelines

This document provides the instructions to follow to submit a paper to M&SOM. Your submission is considered active (for cycle time tracking purposes) only when you have completed all of the requirements in this document. The information requested is used to ensure you receive a high quality and unbiased review in a timely manner.

The first part of this document discusses the length and formatting requirements of all manuscripts. The second part provides two sets of directions, one to submit a new manuscript and one to submit a revision. (A revision of a manuscript that was previously rejected is considered a new submission and must follow the new submission process.) The third part of the document states the journal’s copyright policy and guidelines on academic integrity.

Length and Formatting Requirements

Papers cannot exceed 32 pages, including all references, tables, graphs, and appendices, when typeset using either the Latex or Word style files for M&SOM. In addition to the regular manuscript, authors may submit as a separate file a supporting document intended for publication as an online supplement to the paper; the online supplement is restricted to be at most 8 manuscript pages.
Double-spacing should be used throughout the regular manuscript, including abstract, references, and footnotes.

Papers should have one inch margins on all sides and use at least 11-point font.

Manuscripts should include a nonmathematical abstract of not more than 200 words that communicates the contribution of the paper to general readers as clearly as possible. It is important that your abstract not contain mathematical notation that may be difficult to properly present in Web browsers. The abstract is not only part of the full article (print and online) but, more importantly, serves as the only free-for-all record of your paper. It is reused and remapped by a variety of online portals and metadata databases, some of which are text only. Please provide a text-only abstract, or, if that is absolutely impossible, try to minimize the use of math symbols and please completely avoid accented variables.

References should be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper in conformance with journal style. In-text citations should be indicated by the author’s last name and year of publication, e.g., (Norman 1977) or Norman (1977).

Figures should be in black and white.

Templates

Word: If you use Word to prepare your manuscript, you can use the format given in the following files, which contain proper font, margin spacing, and other settings, as well as information on citation rules and formats:

- MSOMWordtemplate.doc

Latex: To prepare a manuscript using Latex, you can download the style files for M&SOM. The readme file explains the templates and how to use them.

- Download the M&SOM Latex files

To Submit a New Manuscript

To submit a new manuscript to M&SOM, you must complete the submission process on the Manuscript Central (MC) website:

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/msom

In MC, there are seven steps in the submission process. Much of the submission process is self-explanatory (e.g., the field to enter the title of the paper). The following lists the steps in the process and provides instructions to complete each step that are not obvious.

Step 1: Type, title, abstract - It is important that your abstract not contain mathematical notation that may be difficult to properly present in Web browsers. The abstract is not only a part of the full article (print and online) but, more importantly, serves as the only free-for-all record of your paper. It is reused and remapped by a variety of online portals and metadata databases, some of which are text only. Please provide a text-only abstract, or, if that is absolutely impossible, try to minimize the use of math symbols and please completely avoid accented variables.
Step 2: Attributes - Click here to see a list of key words.
M&SOM Key Words
Step 3: Authors and Instructions - Self-explanatory.
Step 4: Reviewers and Editors - You must enter 6 preferred reviewers and 3 Associate Editors. Regular Associate Editors
(list of regular AEs) are preferred but you may also include Guest Associate Editors if you feel their expertise is particularly appropriate for the manuscript. These persons should have no conflict of interest with any of the authors of the paper. A conflict of interest exists if the person is a major thesis advisor of the author(s) or a former student whose thesis the author(s) have supervised or employees of the same company or institution as the author(s) or a co-author of recently completed work or work in progress with the author(s).
Step 5: Details and Comments - This is where you can provide additional information either in the text box or by uploading a cover letter. This information will be viewed by the Editor and the Associate Editor but will not be viewed by the reviewers. You might provide any additional comments for the Editor or Associate Editor that will assist us in the evaluation of your paper. For example, you might offer a brief explanation for your choice of six reviewers and three Associate Editors. Nevertheless, nothing is required here.
Step 6: File Upload - This is where you upload your manuscript and any supplemental materials. A technical appendix is considered a "supplemental material." Supplemental materials are viewed by the Editor, Associate Editor, and reviewers. See below for information on what these files should contain.
Step 7: Review and Submit - Self-explanatory.

Manuscript File

The file is a PDF of your paper. This file should contain the paper's title, abstract, main body, references, figures, tables, and appendices. The authors’ names, addresses, and affiliations should be completely removed from this file because M&SOM uses a double-blind review process. Be sure that there is no personal information in the "DocumentProperties" field.

Supplemental material file

This is not required, but authors may submit additional materials that are not part of the main manuscript file. As with the manuscript file, this must be a PDF and not contain any direct information to identify the authors.

To Submit a Revision of a Manuscript

To submit a revision of a manuscript to M&SOM, you must complete the revision submission process on the Manuscript Central website:

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/msom

This process is mostly self-explanatory. As with a new submission. you must submit PDF files. The main manuscript file should contain the paper's title, abstract, main body, references, figures, tables, and appendices. This file should provide no indication of the authors' identities (i.e., names, addresses, or affiliations). Be sure that there is no personal information in the "Document Properties" field.

Upload a single PDF file that contains the response to the previous reports as a supplemental file (Step 6 of the process). The response to the reviewers should begin with a general description of all major changes made in the paper. Please indicate if a change is in response to a particular reader (reviewers, AE and/or Editor). This general description should be targeted to all of the reviewers. The authors may choose to have subsequent sections that target specific reviewers, but those sections should not repeat portions of the first section, i.e., it should be assumed that all reviewers will read the initial section describing the changes in the paper. A cover letter can be uploaded but is not necessary.

Guidelines on Academic Integrity and Copyright Policy

Submission of a paper to M&SOM for review means that the author certifies that (the following is an adaptation of the Management Science Ethical Guidelines, prepared by Wallace Hopp; I thank Wally for his permission to use this):
1. The manuscript is not copyrighted and is not under review, has not been accepted for publication, and has not been published by any refereed journal.
2. If the manuscript, or any similar version if it, has appeared or will appear in a nonrefereed publication, the details of such publication must be made known to the Editor at the time of submission.
3. The results reported in the submitted manuscript are substantially new and do not include significant repetition of results reported in other submitted or published papers by the authors or other scholars (to the authors' best knowledge).
4. Any previous work by the author(s) that is relevant to the results of the submitted paper is properly cited.
5. If this manuscript, or an earlier version of it, was previously rejected by M&SOM, this fact and the justification for resubmission has been clearly communicated to the Editor.

Violation of these principles of ethical publishing is a serious matter and will result in rejection of the manuscript, and may result in more serious sanctions, including forfeiture of the right to publish in INFORMS journals.

As a condition of final acceptance of a paper for publication in an INFORMS journal, the author must indicate if the paper is posted on a website other than the author's personal website. The author is responsible for ensuring that, if any part of the paper has been copyrighted for prepublication, for example, as a working paper, the copyright can and will be transferred to INFORMS when the paper has been accepted. This includes both print and electronic forms of the paper. Authors may post their papers on websites after acceptance and prior to publication, as long as the sites are not copyrighted or do not serve as formal repositories. Authors may not post their page proofs on websites prior to publication. Contact permissions@informs.org for further information.

More tips can be found at the INFORMS Author Portal: http://authors.pubs.informs.org.