INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics Editor’s Statement

As I approach the midpoint of my time as editor-in-chief (EiC) of the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (IJAA) (formerly Interfaces), I am ecstatic to be in this position for its 50-year anniversary!

INFORMS’ premier applied journal has a long and proud history in this organization, starting with then-TIMS (The Institute of Management Sciences) President Peter Norden’s announcement of the formation of the journal, informally dubbed THE BULLETIN (Norden 1970). In that first issue, he requested,

There's only one problem: We don't have a title for this new journal yet. Elsewhere in this issue you are asked to consider some titles proposed by Council and editorial staff members, or create one entirely on your own. Do respond to this request and help us name the new baby!

Name it we did, and the name Interfaces had a proud 49-year run. Its nine¹ editors-in-chief have published approximately 1,800 articles in that span. We are the proud home of 45 Edelman Award winners and more than 300 Edelman finalist papers that demonstrate the awesome impact of analytics in practice. We also house the work of 21 Wagner Award winners and more than 120 papers of applied work on problems that are elegantly solved and whose exposition is of the highest quality. We also have begun publishing perspectives from the winners of the UPS George D. Smith Prize for the best academic programs in the teaching of applied analytics. Truly, the journal is the source of some of the greatest applied work in our field in the world.

To celebrate this momentous year in our history, we have a number of special items in the works:

• • a semicentenary logo adorning our cover and each IJAA article published in 2020, thanks to INFORMS Senior Manager and Creative Director Mary Leszynski’s hard work;

• • a journal retrospective from all former editors-in-chief;

• • an article on the history of the Edelman award;

• • an article on the “evolution of Interfaces”;

• • “IJAA@50”: a virtual collection of seminal articles from IJAA’s 50-year history that will be curated throughout the year, beginning with Peter’s “A Message from the President” that launched this journey (https://pubsonline.informs.org/page/inte/ijaa-at-50);

• • also, you can take a look at our most cited articles from this proud history at https://pubsonline.informs.org/action/showMostCitedArticles?journalCode=inte.

Now, with its new name, INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics embarks on its next 50 years with a very, very bright future.

Planned Special Issues

We have a number of special issues planned for the coming year or two. Sean Willems (University of Tennessee) is guest editor for an issue featuring INFORMS Prize award winners. The INFORMS Prize is awarded to organizations that have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the use of analytics in their business strategy. Articles in this issue will highlight some of these winners—how they did it, and how they successfully sustain the investment in and use of analytics. If your organization is a former INFORMS Prize award winner and is interested in participating, please contact Sean ([email protected]) as soon as possible!

Burcu Keskin (University of Alabama) and Pavithra Harsha (IBM, T.J. Watson Research Center) are guest editors for a special issue on the use of analytics in omni-channel supply chains. While the due date for letters of intent to submit has passed, feel free to contact Burcu ([email protected]) or Pavithra ([email protected]) as soon as possible if you have work underway that would be a good fit.

Newly Announced Special Issues

With target publication dates in 2021, we have two newly announced special issues in exciting new areas: customer experience design and execution, and analytics for technical infrastructure planning, design, robustness, and execution.

The special issue on Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Science for Technical Infrastructure (https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.2019.1025) features guest editors from Facebook: Martin Valdez-Vivas ([email protected]), Julie Drew ([email protected]), and Alexander Gilgur ([email protected]). The guest editors are looking for papers that feature the many exciting opportunities for novel applications of tools and methodologies to improve technical infrastructure lying at the intersection of optimization, data, and predictive analytics.

The special issue on customer experience analytics—Analytics and Personalizing Moments that Matter to Customers: New Realm of Customer Centricity (https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.2019.1026)—has guest editors from Verizon, Citi Group, Facebook, and Amazon: Hossein Abdollahnejadbarough ([email protected]), Pallav Chhaochhria ([email protected]), Yanai S. Golany ([email protected]), and Shashi Mittal ([email protected]). The special issue is focused on the era of big data wherein every click of customers on an app or website platform is collected and stored, providing data scientists and analytics professionals access to rich customer datasets that weren’t available before. Customer experience analytics (CXA) is a growing area in which analytics and computing power are used to provide customers with better experiences.

Please contact me or the special issue editors with thoughts and questions.

Editorial Board Changes

I am happy to announce the addition of three new editorial board members. Michael Fry (University of Cincinnati) brings expertise in sports analytics and will help fill out our board coverage in this burgeoning field of research. We have also added two new European board members: Jeroen Belien (KU Leuven) and Stefan Creemers (IESEG, France), who will help us in the areas of scheduling, inventory management, and business games as needed. I welcome them to the board and thank them for their service!

IJAA is constantly evolving its editorial board. We are looking for applications-savvy reviewers and associate editors in methodological areas such as simulation, statistics, artificial intelligence, metaheuristics, and pattern recognition, among others. If you have passion and expertise in any of these areas, please contact me.

Close

Nearly 50 years after his Volume 1, Issue 1 article, I had the opportunity to talk with Peter Norden in November 2019. He commented that the original name, Interfaces, is what the journal is—the interface between academia and practice. He suggested that the new name, INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, is what we do—apply analytics—and perhaps that the name better communicates our value proposition to others. He advised that in our 50th year, it is critical that we continue to promulgate further—to get feedback “from business, government, or anyone who runs anything”—on how our techniques perform and how they could be made more effective, continue to improve, and expand their use in the field.

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I look forward to the semicentennial of this great journal—The Bulletin, Interfaces, and now INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. Whatever the name, this journal presents demonstrable excellence in the application of analytics and is essential for our discipline, our INFORMS organization, our researchers, our students, and the competitiveness and efficiency of the world around us!

Thank you,

Michael F. Gorman

Niehaus Chair of Analytics and Operations

University of Dayton

School of Business, Department of MIS, Operations and Decision Sciences