Database Submissions

Introduction

Marketing Science, in collaboration with the INFORMS Society on Marketing Science (ISMS) announces a new type of authored submission - the database report. Marketing Science will consider the publication of submitted databases. The same standards will apply to these detached databases as for the data employed in submitted manuscripts.

Note: at the moment there is no direct way for authors to designate database reports as a type of submission via Manuscript Central. As a process, authors should submit them via Manuscript Central and indicate that they are database reports in their cover letter to the editor.

The Basic Idea

Marketing Science is proud to announce a new type of authored submission - the database report. Marketing Science will consider submitted databases for publication. The same standards apply to these detached databases as for the data employed in submitted manuscripts.

Scholarly journals traditionally archive research and create the incentives for the sharing of information. Authors donate their research to scholarly journals. In return, scholarly journals assure the future availability of that research and allow authors to receive credit. Journals also peer-review research to enforce the standards of scientific inquiry. When research involves data collection, scholarly journals inherently review the data as well. Marketing Science will perform these same functions for detached databases (i.e., databases not accompanying a submitted manuscript).

How it Works

If you have collected data or own data from a previously published or unpublished research project, you may submit clean databases for publication in Marketing Science. Authors can submit, for example, valuable databases collected with great effort by the author, databases that are no longer in active use, or data in areas the author seeks to encourage research. Authors should submit their databases electronically via Manuscript Central, with a database report and detailed descriptive documentation for the database. Marketing Science will maintain (i.e., archive) these databases on the Marketing Science website accompanied by the detailed descriptive documentation.

In return for the database, Marketing Science will allow print and electronic publication of the database report. Database reports should describe the type of information in the database, any relevant history, references to any existing publications using the database, any special features of the database and sample research questions relevant for the database. Database reports will be disseminated with both print and electronic versions of the journal and found everywhere that Marketing Science is found (i.e., they are Marketing Science articles).

After publication, anyone who uses the database is required to cite the database report. Hence, authors will get credit for every use of the database and there will be an historic record of all published uses.

Criteria

All Marketing Science submissions are peer-reviewed using the accepted criteria for the discipline. For database submissions, the following criteria apply:

All databases should be sufficiently novel, inclusive and accurate to possess the potential for answering at least some interesting, but unanswered, research questions. It is difficult to foresee all potential relevant applications of a database. Therefore, when in doubt, making data publicly available is a priority.

All databases should meet the appropriate standards for the type of data that it is (e.g., survey, experimental, secondary, quasi-experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal etc.). For example. experimental data should have clean and well-documented manipulations and transparent procedures for assigning subjects to groups. Survey data and secondary data should have adequate and transparent sampling procedures and appropriate pre-tests. The Marketing Science website (http://mktsci.pubs.informs.org) contains criteria developed by a blue ribbon panel consisting of Professors John R. Hauser, Donald R. Lehmann, Gerard J. Tellis, John G. Lynch, Jr., Richard Staelin, Tulin Erdem, Dominic Hanssens and Steven M. Shugan and Eric T. Bradlow as ex-officio members. Of course, Marketing Science will avoid discriminating against authors who collected their own data over authors who obtained secondary data with no influence over the collection effort (see Shugan 2002). The Marketing Science website provides specific criteria. The review team will assess whether the data collection procedures were seriously flawed and potential users must judge whether data is appropriate for their particular use.

Restrictions on the database should be minimal. For example, secondary data should not have excessively restrictive secrecy (confidentiality) issues that would hinder replication. Experimental data using human subjects should have appropriate approvals.

The online documentation accompanying the database must be sufficient. The documentation should include details of the collection procedures (for both self-collected and secondary data), details relating to the formatting of the data and details related to potential flaws (e.g., missing observations, questionable observations, collection problems and so on). Again, potential users must decide whether flaws represent a significant hindrance for their particular use. All data have some flaws.

The database should be in a commonly used nonpropriety format (e.g., text, Excel, SPSS, SAS, LISREL, AMOS, etc.). As text and Excel are the most common that are accepted and transferable by most packages, they are strongly encouraged.

INFORMS must be absolved of all responsibilities related to the use of the data or any other material published in INFORMS journals utilizing these databases.

For databases already used in published articles in major peer-reviewed scholarly journals that are submitted to Marketing Science, the review process will focus on the relevancy of the data and the adequacy of the descriptive documentation.

Finally, Marketing Science is unable to guarantee the quality of published articles or published databases. Marketing Science can guarantee the quality of the review process for both types of submissions and that Marketing Science meets the standards of the highest quality peer-reviewed scholarly journals in the discipline.