An Opinionated Essay on the Meaning of Implementation of OR/MS in the Public Sector

A number of recent incidents in my tenure as editor prompts this essay. I have been having some real difficulties resolving the definition of implementation of OR/MS in the public sector. Rather, I am having problems with public-sector authors who choose to submit “applications” papers to Interfaces. The authors and I usually cannot agree on what the measure of implementation of public sector OR/MS ought to be. I will now give a few pungent examples of the kinds of papers I am getting.