Language Editing & Writing Support

Writing & Editorial Assistance

Authors may choose to use third-party editorial, language, translation, or writing-support services or AI-assisted tools to improve clarity, readability, grammar, organization, or adherence to journal formatting expectations.

Such assistance may include:

• grammar and language editing,
• manuscript organization,
• formatting and style consistency,
• translation,
• figure preparation, and
• LaTeX and technical document preparation.

Use of any third-party editorial assistance does not guarantee acceptance or favorable editorial decisions.

All authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted materials, even when prepared with third-party editorial or AI-assisted support.

This includes compliance with:

• journal policies,
• authorship requirements,
• disclosure obligations,
• confidentiality expectations, and
• standards of research integrity.

Authors are responsible for verifying that all assisted or AI-generated content is accurate, properly attributed, and free from fabricated, misleading, or nonexistent material, including false citations or references. Submissions containing fabricated or misleading content may be subject to immediate rejection and may be handled as potential violations of applicable publication ethics policies.

AI systems and automated tools do not qualify for authorship.

Authors should consult the INFORMS Publication Ethics policies and any applicable journal-specific guidance regarding AI and generative technologies.

Confidentiality & Proprietary Information

Before sharing manuscripts with external editorial services or third-party software platforms, authors should consider confidentiality obligations, sponsor or institutional restrictions, data privacy requirements, and intellectual property considerations.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that any external services used during manuscript preparation appropriately protect the confidentiality and sensitivity of the manuscript and any associated data or proprietary information.

Ethical Considerations

Editorial and language assistance should support the communication of scholarly work and should not alter the underlying intellectual contributions of the authors or improperly influence editorial evaluation or peer review processes.

Authors should not use editorial services or AI-assisted tools to:

• fabricate or manipulate research findings,
• generate false citations or references,
• obscure authorship responsibility, or
• circumvent journal policies regarding originality, attribution, disclosure, confidentiality, or peer review.

All listed authors remain responsible for the integrity of the manuscript and all submitted materials.

Accessibility & Readability

Authors are encouraged to prepare manuscripts that are accessible and readable for a broad scholarly audience.

This includes:

• using clear and consistent terminology,
• minimizing unnecessary jargon,
• structuring complex arguments carefully, and
• providing explanatory context for equations, figures, abbreviations, and specialized notation.

Authors preparing mathematically intensive manuscripts may also wish to consult the Guidelines for Mathematical Notation.

Related Guidance

Authors should also consult:

• Publication Ethics and Authorship & Contributor Roles policies,
• Preparing Manuscript & Figure Files,
• journal-specific submission guidelines for the relevant journal,
• Research Transparency & Reproducibility and journal-specific data policies, and
• journal-specific guidance regarding AI and generative technologies, where applicable.