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INFORMS Peer Review Policy and Journal Practices
To uphold INFORMS’ commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and the promotion of equal opportunity, editors-in-chief and their editorial boards are required to implement double-anonymous peer review for all submitted manuscripts in their respective journals. This policy is based on the extensive body of research supporting double-anonymous peer review as a means to mitigate conscious and unconscious bias in manuscript evaluation.
While complete anonymity of authors may not always be possible (e.g., authors may post a preprint of their manuscript on SSRN, arXiv, or other scholarly collaboration network), INFORMS adopts this policy to underscore its dedication to fair evaluation practices and to address any perception of bias in the evaluation process. The goal is to create an environment that encourages the free exchange of ideas and ensures that all submissions are evaluated solely on their scientific merit.
Authors are encouraged to adhere to the following guidelines when anonymizing their submissions:
- Exclude any mention of grants or acknowledgements in the anonymous version of the manuscript. This information can be provided separately through the web submission form and will be reintroduced into the manuscript text upon acceptance.
- Avoid including any identifying information in page headers or footers.
- Minimize self-citations, and if necessary, use third person to refer to your own work.
- Review your source files, including supplemental material, code, or data files, for personal identifying information or metadata.
This policy does not intend to impose any new restrictions on authors regarding the dissemination or publicizing of their work before, during, or after the peer review process. INFORMS will instruct referees to avoid trying to identify authors during the review process.
NOTE: This policy became effective January 1, 2025, for all journals except INFORMS Journal on Computing, Mathematics of Operations Research, and Stochastic Systems, which will implement double-anonymous review with their next EIC transition (January 1, 2026).