Trends in Operations Research

The field of operations research has been rapidly growing this past year. The Operations Research Society of America has been founded and now has about 500 members. More and more large companies—aircraft and electrical manufacturers, railroads and oil companies, insurance companies and department stores—are forming their own operations-research groups or are buying consulting services in operations research. It will not be long before more positions will be open in industrial than in military operations research. We should no longer have trouble explaining the scope and methods of operations research to the layman. We already can say: Operations research is the activity carried on by members of the Operations Research Society; its methods are those reported in our Journal. Very soon this definition will be more instructive and convincing than any number of special explanatory articles and talks.

Operations Research, ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.