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Calls for Papers
Call for Papers—The Return of the Fifth Column
For over 35 years and some 80-plus contributions, Gene Woolsey (former editor in chief of the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics) penned “The Fifth Column.” Today, IJAA is bringing back the “Fifth Column,” but with a submission process. We encourage submissions from industry, government, and academic practitioners of analytics, broadly defined.
As was the case previously, “The Fifth Column” will focus on:
- lessons learned by analysts on how to be a successful analyst
- editorial pieces on the state of the field of analytics
- thought leadership on the analytics process and what causes successes and failures
- misapplications in which there is a significant lesson
Insights for “The Fifth Column” may come from a single project or from decades of experience. Thought leadership and editorials should use logic and data to make their cases. Historically, Fifth Columns have been in a storytelling format, but that is not required. The new column will follow the same submission guidelines and style as other IJAA submissions, but no verification letter is required.
Below are a few examples of past columns by Gene Woolsey:
- “The Fifth Column: Consulting Survival in the Case of Incompetence, or The Iron Law of Consulting,” Interfaces, 38(2), pp. 150–151.
- “The Fifth Column: Production Scheduling as It Really Is,” Interfaces, 12(6), pp. 115–118.
- “The Fifth Column: On System Acceptance,” Interfaces, 16(3), pp. 55–59.
- “The Fifth Column: Reflections on the Past of Scientific Management and the Future of Management Science,” Interfaces, 6(3), pp. 3–4.
Please note that papers that describe the novel use of analytical techniques and the impact on the organization are more appropriate as practice abstracts or regular IJAA submissions.
Questions? Email Jeff Camm, Contributing Editor, The Fifth Column at [email protected].
Call for Book Reviews
INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (IJAA) Book Reviews cover an extensive and diverse range of books, including theory and applications in operations research, statistics, management science, econometrics, mathematics, computers, and information systems. In addition, we include books in other fields that emphasize technical applications. For more information about book reviews or to submit a book review, please e-mail the Book Reviews Editor, Wenjing Shen.
Call for Practice Summaries
INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (IJAA) Practice Summaries present interesting, topical, and novel applications of operations research (OR) methodology to a wide range of industrial applications. Practice Summaries are intended to provide IJAA readers with short (2–4 pages) descriptions of the most relevant aspects of OR-based projects, in a form that is accessible to academics and practitioners in other organizations. The content of the practice summary should include:
- The problem and the client company or agency, including background information as necessary;
- Who in the client organization sponsored the work and who did the work;
- What OR approaches or models were used, and how they were applied to the problem, identifying software packages where appropriate;
- What the organization learned and what happened subsequently, including the current status of the work if it is ongoing, and in particular how the organization has received and used the results. We encourage authors to report constructive negative results.
A paper describing applications or implementations must include a letter from the relevant organization(s) verifying the actual use of the application and its resulting benefits. The paper will not go out for review until this verification letter is received. It must be printed on company letterhead, signed, and addressed to the IJAA editor-in-chief and be submitted with the paper through the ScholarOne Manuscripts system. The file should be designated as a “verification letter”. Submissions should be double-spaced and, unlike other manuscript types, should include all authors’ mailing addresses and the contact author’s telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, and a short abstract (approximately 50 words). Questions regarding Practice Summaries should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, Alexandra Newman.