Submission Guidelines

Service Science is dedicated to publishing papers of the highest quality and the broadest significance that scientifically address the problems, interests, and concerns of people who are involved in service research, education, and practice.

Length and Style Requirements

  1. Papers should not exceed 40 pages, including all references, tables, graphs, and appendices (except material intended for publication as an online supplement to the paper, which does not count in the 40-page total).
  2. Double-spacing should be used throughout, including the abstract, references, and footnotes.
  3. Papers should have 1-inch margins on all sides and use 11-point font.
  4. Manuscripts should include a nonmathematical abstract of no 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, which 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, it might be 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.
  5. 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 authors’ last name and year of publication, e.g., (Normam 1977) or Norman (1977).
  6. Figures should be submitted in black and white. In some situations, an exception may be made for publication of color figures or artwork. The editor in chief's office must approve any color publication at a paper's acceptance, prior to publication. The author is responsible for color publication fees and must pay them prior to publication.
  7. All submissions should be accompanied by a list of three potential referees, including area of expertise, title, full mailing address, phone, fax, and email. These suggested referees should not have a conflict of interest with the author(s). An author has a conflict of interest with (a) his/her major professor or a student for whom the author served as a major professor, (b) people working at the same institution, and/or (c) coauthors on work completed or in progress during the last four years.

Ethical Guidelines

Submission of a paper to Service Science for review means that the author certifies that

  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-in-Chief 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 Service Science, this fact and the justification for resubmission has been clearly communicated to the Editor-in-Chief.

Manuscript Submission

All submissions must be made electronically at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/serv.

  1. Log in: If you have not registered, you will have to register yourself first. Please fill in the entire registration form; the email address is used for all correspondence related to your submission.
  2. Submit your paper online: Once logged in, the site walks you through step by step for submitting a paper. The system accepts MS Word or PDF files. Papers written in Latex must be converted to PDF before submission, because the system does not convert Latex to PDF. In addition to uploading your manuscript, you will be asked for an abstract, key words, and a list of suggested referees who do not have any conflict of interest with you or your coauthors. All submissions to Service Science are expected to comply with the above Ethical Guidelines and INFORMS Copyright Guidelines.

Review Process

  1. Review for fit is made by the Editor-in-Chief. Only if the manuscript is deemed consistent with the journal and its objectives is it sent on for further review. This step should take less than two weeks.
  2. Review for significance is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an Associate Editor. If the paper is not judged to have the potential to make a significant contribution to the literature, it will be returned to the authors. This step should take less than two weeks.
  3. Detailed review will be typically made by at least three qualified reviewers. Based on Referees’ and the Associate Editor’s recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief will decide whether the paper should be accepted as is, revised, or rejected.
  4. Timeline: Our goal is to provide feedback to all authors within 90 days. If the paper goes beyond 3 months in the review process, it is considered LATE. You are within your rights to inquire of the Editor-in-Chief concerning the status of a late paper.

Decision

  1. Email notification will be sent to the corresponding author announcing that a decision has been made. The possible decisions are as follows: Reject, Major Revision Required, Minor Revision Required, and Accept. All feedbacks will be emailed to the corresponding author.
  2. Authors should promptly act on the feedbacks from reviewers if a revision-type decision (Major Revision Required or Minor Revision Required) is recommended.

Website

The author can also check the review status and decision as well as read comments at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/serv.

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.

Post Acceptance

Final submission: If the paper is conditionally accepted for publication, you will be requested to submit the final version of your manuscript in Latex, Word, or PDF. 
 
As a condition of final acceptance of a paper for publication in Service Science, the author(s) must transfer copyright of the paper to INFORMS. The full agreement is contained in the Assignment of Copyright form. Authors of accepted papers will be requested to complete and sign this form. Acceptance of a paper for publication is not final until the signed form is received by INFORMS.

pdf Copyright Transfer Agreement - Service Science
 

More Information: If you have any questions, are unable to access the website, or are having trouble getting information on the status of your paper, please contact the Managing Editor. If you have an inquiry on publication- related issues, please contact the Production Editor.

Managing Editor
Kelly Kophazi
Kelly.Kophazi@INFORMS.ORG

Production Editor
Stephanie Myers
Stephanie.Myers@INFORMS.ORG

INFORMS  •  7240 Parkway Drive, Suite 300, Hanover, MD 21076 USA  •  443-757-3500  •  800-4INFORMS (800-446-3676)  •  informs@informs.org