Editorial Statements
As one of the major journals of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Operations Research presents a balanced view of the entire OR profession, while other INFORMS journals provide more extensive coverage of subfields in OR. Hence, the journal is interested in papers that focus on one or more of the following dimensions:
- Define new problem domains for the field;
- Introduce innovative concepts and mathematical formulations of problems;
- Provide new insights into operational problems;
- Develop new methodologies to approach known and new problems;
- Apply operations research methods in creative ways to interesting application areas.
At the same time, the journal is looking for papers that are of interest to the entire community. These include
- Survey papers that summarize and update readers on the current state of the art of a major topic in operations research;
- Important historical surveys and overviews of the profession and its intellectual heritage; and
- Position papers suggesting new research directions for the profession or analyzing and critiquing current trends.
To judge whether a manuscript meets the criteria described, Operations Research consists of 14 areas that specialize in various aspects of OR. (See Area Editor Statements.) These areas fall into three major categories: Methods, Contextual Areas, and Cross-Cutting Areas. The Area Editors solicit and handle manuscripts in their respective areas as well as coordinate the handling of papers that "fall between the cracks" of the different areas.
You are invited to peruse the Area Editor statements describing their areas and providing more detail on how each area interprets the term "contribution." Authors should submit their contributions directly to the Area Editor that they deem most appropriate. In the event that the author is unsure which area is most appropriate, the author should submit the article directly to the Editor in Chief.
Many times, papers are submitted that are technically correct, but simply do not fit the editorial mission of the journal. Our goal is to make this decision quickly to not impede the refereeing process and to assist the author in finding the most suitable outlet for his or her work.
Finally, the Editorial Board has focused on significantly shortening the review process. For this purpose, Operations Research has implemented the following steps:
- Use Manuscript Central for online submission and peer review, which allows the editorial board to closely monitor the process,
- Recognize the work of exceptional Associate Editors and referees
- Identify and sanction tardy referees. See Monitoring Tardy Papers.