Submission Guidelines
Manuscript Preparation
Double Blind
The manuscript should be double-blind compatible, which means (i) the author(s) must remove explicit indications of the authors’ names and institutions, (ii) the author(s) must remove all acknowledgments, and (iii) the paper should be written in such a way that it does not surely reveal an author’s identity (e.g., “I extend the work in my dissertation (Norman 1995)” should be written in a neutral manner like “This work extends the research in Norman (1995)”). Proper attribution of prior work, especially work done by the authors, is a must and takes precedence over maintaining anonymity. Author names, institutions, and acknowledgments will be returned to the printed manuscript upon acceptance for publication.
Plagiarism and Copyright
Authors should read the INFORMS Guidelines for Copyright and Plagiarism before submitting their manuscript.
Disclosure of Related Papers
It is the authors’ responsibility to notify the editor in writing whether their submitted manuscript, or any similar version of it, (i) has substantial overlap with any of their other manuscripts (e.g., prior publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, papers submitted to other journals), (ii) has appeared in or will appear in a non-refereed publication, conference proceeding, or book chapter; and/or (iii) was previously rejected by Management Science (and, if so, justification for resubmission is provided). When in doubt, authors should err on the side of additional disclosure, leaving to the editor to decide what is relevant or not.
Formatting Requirements
Submissions should use a standard (non-narrow) 11-pt font such as Arial, Times New Roman, or Helvetica, have 1-inch margins on all sides, and have 1.5 spacing. Footnotes should be used sparingly. Manuscripts may be submitted in .doc or .pdf format. (LaTeX style files are available here at the INFORMS author portal.)
Page Limit
Papers are judged based on their contribution relative to their length. As such, short papers are encouraged and will not automatically be labeled as “research notes.” Manuscripts are expected to be written with no more than 32 pages (using the formatting described above), including all material (main body, references, appendix, tables, figures, etc.). This constraint applies to new and revised submissions. This page limit is imposed because (i) papers should focus on their main contribution, thereby increasing the clarity of the contribution and its potential to have its full impact; (ii) shorter papers are easier to review; (iii) publishing shorter papers allows us to print more manuscripts per year within our limited budget (revenue is insensitive to page length, but editorial production costs are not).
To stay within our page limit you may wish to follow these guidelines for efficient writing: use a brief introduction only to establish your research question (and not to provide conclusions); avoid outlining the sections of the paper at the end of the introduction (e.g., “In Section 2 we…”) as these outlines are generally not necessary; use the conclusion only to conclude (and not to repeat the research question); do not discuss future research directions and limit discussion on limitations (focus on what your manuscript does, not what it does not do); include references to all relevant literature but focus on the similarities and differences with your own work (and not on the details of what the other papers do); and limit the number of results included in the paper (intuitive, expected, and straightforward results should be excluded so that you can focus on your main result)
Abstract
Authors should provide a text-only abstract of no more than 150 words; references should not appear in the abstract.
References
References should be listed alphabetically by author name 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).
Electronic Companions
At Management Science we print what we review and review what we print. As such, the use of Electronic Companions is not encouraged. Analytical proofs and data analysis results should be included in the main body of the manuscript or in the manuscript’s appendix, which will appear in the print journal if the paper is accepted. Although it is not encouraged, authors may provide reviewers with additional results to assist in their evaluation. These materials should be provided as a supplemental file. It is understood that such material will not be printed in the journal or as an Electronic Companion. Furthermore, the contents of such material should not be critical for the proper evaluation of the paper. Authors are free to make such materials publicly available (e.g., via their personal website or working paper repositories).
Working Paper Postings and Electronic Companions
Management Science discourages the publication of electronic companions (e-companions) in the online edition of the journal. Some exceptions may be made for instruction sets, survey instruments, and data sets.
After acceptance and prior to publication in an INFORMS journal, authors may post their full papers---consisting of the main body of the paper, plus the electronic companion---on sites such as SSRN. After the paper has been published in the print journal, the author should remove the main paper from SSRN or any other website and in its place cite the publication in the journal; the abstract and e-companion may remain on the site.
Template Files
Authors can write their manuscript using their preferred software as long as they can create a PDF that meets the above guidelines. LaTeX style files are available here at the INFORMS author portal.
Submission Instructions
Process
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via ScholarOne Manuscripts. There are detailed instructions in the system, and they should be used in conjunction with these submission guidelines. Authors should contact the managing editor, Kathleen Luckey, if they have any questions or encounter any problems in the system. Authors without Internet access should contact the managing editor to make alternate submission arrangements.
Required Materials
In the submission process authors will be requested to submit, in addition to the blinded manuscript file,
- The name of the preferred Department Editor (DE). (Before choosing a DE, authors should consult the journal's Editorial Board list and the Departmental Editorial Statements.) The preferred DE is likely to be assigned, but a different DE may handle the paper if the workload of the preferred DE is too great or if the DE feels that another DE would be better suited to handle the paper. The corresponding author will be notified if the paper is assigned to a different DE, and, of course, the author will have the option to withdraw the manuscript.
- The names of three Associate Editors (AEs) who would be appropriate to review the manuscript. The three preferred AEs should in general be chosen from the list of current AEs in the Editorial Board list. Authors may recommend one Guest Associate Editor, providing his or her contact information and the reason for the choice in the submissioncover letter.
- The names of six appropriate reviewers for the manuscript, including their institutions and e-mail addresses.
- Authors should not select any DE, AE, or reviewer with whom any author of the paper has a conflict of interest (COI). An author has a conflict of interest with (i) his/her major professor or a student for whom the author served as a major professor, (ii) a person working at the same institution, and/or (iii) a co-author on work completed or in progress. If an author feels that it is absolutely necessary to include a person with a COI, then they must clearly identify the COI with that particular person and explain the reason for the person’s inclusion.
Supplementary Materials
During the submission process authors may upload additional materials that they feel will support the review process. In particular, authors submitting a revision must submit a document that summarizes the changes that they have made and includes a detailed response to each of the comments from the previous round of reviews.
Copyright Policy
The submission of a paper to Management Science for reviewing means that the author certifies that the manuscript is not copyrighted, nor has it been accepted for publication (or published) by any peer-reviewed journal, nor is it being reviewed elsewhere.
Management Insights
The Management Insights editor will write a Management Insights paragraph for every paper that is accepted for publication. The editor may contact the corresponding author with questions regarding the paper.
Review Process
Review for Contribution
The Department Editor (DE) and possibly an Associate Editor (AE) will first evaluate whether a manuscript has sufficient merit to send to reviewers for further review. If not, the paper will be returned to the authors with an explanation of the editors’ reasoning.
Detailed Review
If a manuscript passes the initial screening, the AE will recruit reviewers to assess the merits of the manuscript. Upon receipt of the reviews, the AE will provide a recommendation to the DE, who will decide whether the paper should be accepted as is, revised, or rejected. Note that Management Science makes use of a double-blind review process in which the DEs and AEs know the identity of the authors but the reviewers do not.
Timeline
Management Science strives to provide high-quality feedback to 90% of authors within 90 days. Conditional that a paper is sent out to reviewers, authors will receive a decision from the DE within 65 days on average.
Decision
Notification
Corresponding authors will receive e-mail notification when the DE has made a final decision. (The possible decisions are Reject, Major Revision, Minor Revision, and Accept.) The e-mail message will contain any reviews submitted as text; the corresponding author can access any reviews uploaded as files by following the instructions provided in the e-mail message.
Revisions
A decision of Major Revision or Minor Revision will cause the manuscript to appear in the "Manuscripts Awaiting Revision" area of the submitting author’s Author Center. Manuscripts that are not revised within one year may be reclassified as "withdrawn," and revisions submitted after the one-year mark may be treated as new submissions. All revisions should be accompanied by a separate "Response to Reviewers" document, which provides a summary of the major changes made to the document and a point-by-point description of whether and how the issues raised by the reviewers and editors have been addressed.
Rejection
As a rule, Management Science does not invite resubmissions of rejected manuscripts. If a submitted manuscript is based on a paper previously rejected by Management Science, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to reveal this in the submission cover letter and to state clearly why resubmission is justified. Failure to do this is a violation of our ethical guidelines.
After Acceptance
Final Submission
A decision of Accept will cause the manuscript to appear in the “Manuscripts Accepted for First Look” section of the submitting author’s Author Center, where the author must submit the final version of the manuscript in Word, Tex, LaTeX, or WordPerfect format along with a final, author-generated PDF, a signed copyright transfer agreement, and a file listing the names, institutions, and e-mail addresses of the authors of research articles and books published within the last ten years and cited by the manuscript. These individuals will be contacted when the final version of the manuscript is publicly posted in Articles in Advance.
The material uploaded via the First Look process with be transmitted directly to the production editor at INFORMS, who will contact the corresponding author if any additional information is needed.
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 and/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.
NIH Public Access Policy
The author is responsible for complying with the NIH Public Access Policy. INFORMS follows Method C of NIH's submission methods guidelines (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm) and has no obligation to notify an NIH-funded author about the requirement
More Information
Authors should contact the managing editor, Kathleen Luckey, if they have any questions about a submission or if they are unable to access the ScholarOne Manuscripts site.