Paper Competition -- Application Process

2026 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition Call for Papers

 

The INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) Forum invites submissions to the JFIG paper competition. JFIG was created in 2001 to promote the career development of tenure-track faculty in INFORMS. The goals of the paper competition are to encourage research among junior faculty and to increase the visibility of research conducted by junior faculty within the fields of operations research and management science (ORMS). The JFIG award committee will judge the submissions and select up to eight finalists. The papers submitted for the competition will be evaluated based on the importance of the topic, appropriateness of the research approach, and the significance of the research contribution.

Winners will be announced at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, where all finalists will present their research at a JFIG-sponsored session. For the 2026 competition, $500 will be awarded for first place, $250 for second place, and $150 for third place, with the remaining finalists receiving $100 each.

The prizes awarded by the competition are intended to be a recognition for outstanding research developments. Every author listed in a paper submitted to the competition (independent of their role or involvement) is considered a contributor to the paper. Therefore, as the goal of the competition is to encourage the research conducted/directed by junior faculty, there are strict limitations regarding the eligibility of submitted papers based on the list of authors. In particular, the competition forbids the direct involvement of senior researchers on submitted papers.

 

Eligibility Requirements

All authors listed in the paper, including the corresponding author who submits the paper, must comply with the following requirements:

 

  1. The corresponding author must be a member of JFIG and should be available to present their research and attend in the INFORMS JFIG Luncheon, in case the paper is selected among the finalists.
  2. All authors of the paper must have obtained their PhD in one of the six calendar years preceding the year of the prize submission, that is, after January 1, 2020, with the exception of “industry collaborators” with a supporting role in the study. Industry collaborators are defined as domain experts (e.g., medical and health practitioners) whose primary affiliation is non-ORMS-related. For industry collaborators with doctoral degrees conferred before January 1, 2020, signed statements by the collaborators are required to express the nature and scope of their involvement in the study. The period of six years may be extended for personal reasons, such as parental leave or health issues. Extension requests must be sent to the 2026 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition Co-chairs. The Committee will decide if an extension is granted.
  3. No author may have earned tenure (or an appointment without limitation of term) by the date of the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting, with the exception of industry collaborators. Authors may be industry professionals, students, post-docs, etc.
  4. There is no limit on the number of junior faculty that can be listed as authors in a paper.
  5. No individual can be listed as an author or co-author on more than one paper submitted to the competition.
  6. The lead author of the paper must be a junior faculty member, or a junior faculty member's graduate or undergraduate student.
  7. All individuals contributing to a submitted paper must be listed as authors.
  8. Past winners and finalists of the JFIG paper competition are not eligible to enter the competition again.

 

Paper Criteria

  1. The submitted paper must present original research results. It may be a working paper or under review, but it must not have been accepted for publication in a journal prior to submission to this competition.
  2. The paper must not have been a winner or finalist in a previous JFIG paper competition.

 

Application Process: The submission deadline for the 2026 JFIG Paper Competition is June 30, 2026, 11:59PM (Pacific Daylight Time). All submissions should be sent via email with the title “2026 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition Submission” to Prof. Cheng Guo ([email protected]) containing the following information:

  1. A main document (as PDF attachment) that complies with the following formatting:
    1. The competition uses a double-blind review process. Therefore, the list of authors must not appear in the main document. Similarly, the main document must not have affiliations, acknowledgments, grant/sponsor information, or any other element that can be used to identify any of the authors.
    2. The document must:
      1. be written in a 12-point font,
      2. be 32 lines per page at most,
      3. have one inch margins,
      4. Line spacing should be 1.5
      5. comprise 35 pages or fewer, including the title page, main content, tables, and figures, but excluding references and appendices.
      6. The document must be self-contained. No references to external sources in an attempt to circumvent the page limit are allowed; e.g., having portions of the paper, such as proofs, tables, and figures linked in external URLs. Reviewers are under no obligation to view any web pages.
      7. The filename of the submitted paper should be ShortTitleOfThePaper.pdf.

Length and format guidelines will be strictly enforced. Papers that do not meet all requirements will not be taken into consideration.

 

  1. In addition, in the main body of the email, please provide the following information:
    1. Title of the paper.
    2. Names and affiliation of all authors on the paper.
      1. For each author having earned a Ph.D. or an equivalent degree, the date that the degree was conferred.
      2. A confirmation statement that all eligibility requirements have been met is required: “I have reviewed eligibility requirements (A)-(H) and acknowledge that all co-authors meet the listed criteria.”
      3. To help better match the submission to the judges, please specify in your email the tools and application areas:

Tools (Choose all that apply)

  1. Optimization
  2. Stochastics/Applied Probability
  3. Game theory/Mechanism Design
    1. Empirical (Natural/Field Experiment)
      1. Behavioral/Experimental
      2. Machine Learning/Data Analytics
      3. Inventory Theory
      4. Statistics
      5. Simulation
        1. Finance Interface
    2. Other (please specify) Application Area (Choose all that apply)
      1. Retail Operations
      2. Revenue Management and Innovative Marketplace
      3. Service Systems
        1. Healthcare
          1. Supply Chains (Transportation and Logistics)
          2. Military
          3. Sustainability
          4. Humanitarian Logistics
          5. Transportation
            1. Facility Locations
              1. Other (please specify)

Co-Chairs of the 2026 JFIG Paper Competition

For questions regarding submissions, please contact [email protected].