Submission Guidelines

Preparing Your Manuscript

Manuscript Types

ITE publishes articles in the following categories: regular article, case study (consisting of a case article, case, and case teaching note), game, and puzzle. IMPORTANT: Please review the Area Guidelines before submission.

Abstract

Manuscripts should include an abstract of 100–200 words that communicates the contribution of the paper to general readers as clearly as possible.

Acknowledgments

Place acknowledgments of presentation(s), support, and assistance in a final section that precedes the References, but only if doing so will not compromise anonymity. If the inclusion of acknowledgments will identify any of the manuscript’s authors, please omit this information during peer review; it can be added if the paper is accepted.

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Generative AI presents many opportunities and challenges for the field of (ORMS) education. When it comes to the review process, there is a risk that such technology (if used without careful thought) will generate incorrect, incomplete, or biased reports and outcomes. These considerations, together with the principle that submitted manuscripts are to be treated as confidential documents, result in the following Generative AI guidelines for reviewers and editors:

• All opinions expressed by each member of the review team (Reviewers, Associate Editor, Area Editor) should be theirs and theirs only.
• The author of any report is responsible for the accuracy of all facts and references cited in the report.
• Members of the review team should not deliberately upload a manuscript submitted to INFORMS Transactions on Education (or any portion of the manuscript) into a Generative AI tool in a way that might lead to violations of copyright and/or confidentiality.

Double-Anonymous Peer Review

ITE conducts double-blinded reviews, meaning that both the authors and the reviewers are ‘blind’ to the identity of the other. Authors must remove explicit indications of the authors’ names and institutions and all acknowledgments must be removed. The paper should be written in such a way that it does not reveal an author’s identity (e.g., “I extend the work in my dissertation (Norman 1995)” should be written in a neutral manner like “This work extends the research in Norman (1995)”). Author names, institutions, and acknowledgments will be returned to the manuscript upon acceptance for publication. Authors are responsible for removing any information that would reveal their identity to reviewers.

Equations

Number equations using consecutive Arabic numerals flush with the left margin. You can use any equation editor you like, provided you are able to supply .gif files if your article is accepted.

Figures and Tables

Authors should submit Excel spreadsheets for all tables and charts instead of .gif files. Figures and tables should have captions that are interesting, that are written in complete sentences, and that fully explain and interpret the exhibit without forcing the reader to refer to the text. Conversely, the reader should not have to refer back and forth from the text to the figures and tables to understand the paper.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be numbered consecutively and should be indicated in the text by superscript numbers. Material that would normally appear as a footnote should be placed in the body of the text when it will not impair readability.

Headings

You can use up to three levels of headings. Sections should be numbered consecutively, starting with 1.

Keywords

Within the keyword meta-data field(s) in the ScholarOne submission system, please provide as many keywords as you reasonably can (up to 5), as they improve the discoverability of your article. Do not include keywords in the manuscript itself.

Length

There is no page limit for papers submitted to ITE. However, the length of the paper should be proportional to the potential impact. The category of the paper has a significant impact on its length. The shortest contributions are notes, reviews, and puzzles (750–1,500 words). The longest contribution type is a regular article (3,000–6,000 words). Invited articles, games, and case studies fall somewhere in between (1,000–4,000 words).

References

References should be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper. In-text citations should be indicated by the authors' last name and year of publication; e.g., (Yarko 1977) or Yarko (1977). If the reference has two authors, cite both surnames and the year of publication. If the reference has more than two authors, cite the first author's surname followed by "et al." and the year of publication. If there is more than one reference by the same author(s) with the same year of publication, add "a", "b", etc., suffixes to the year of publication. Click here for examples of reference style.

Style Templates

Authors can write their manuscript using their preferred software as long as they can create a PDF that meets the above guidelines.

We generally request that papers be in single-column format.

The manuscript style is specified in the template file ited-template.tex, which handles most stylistic issues. You can find the template and other necessary files here.

Teaching Notes

Teaching Notes will not be edited. They should be submitted as a PDF file and will be posted as restricted materials. For more information: Instructor Materials

Title

The title should be short, specific, and memorable.

Submitting Your Manuscript

To submit a manuscript to ITE, authors should complete the submission process in the ScholarOne Manuscripts website: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ite.

IMPORTANT NOTE: By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (INFORMS) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more here.

The ScholarOne Submission Process

There are seven steps for uploading a manuscript in the ScholarOne system:

Step 1: Type, Title, & Abstract: Enter your manuscript type (eg, regular article, case study, game, puzzle; please read the Area Guidelines before submission). Provide the manuscript title and a running header. Add the abstract (not more than 200 words).

Step 2: File Upload: Authors will upload as many files as needed for their manuscript. These files will be combined into a single PDF document for the peer review process. For revisions, authors should include only the latest set of files.

Step 3: Attributes Please enter one to five keywords.

Step 4: Authors and Institutions: All authors and their institutions must be identified. Please note that the submitting author is required to provide their ORCID iD (more information about ORCID iDs can be found here). Please note that any changes to the author list after submission require all authors to agree and for the corresponding author to submit an authorship change form. Please see the author resource page for more information.

Step 5: Reviewers and Editors: Manuscript submission can include a list of potential referees; referees should not have a conflict of interest with any of the author(s). An author has a conflict of interest with (a) his or her major professor or a student for whom the author served as a major professor, (b) people working at the same institution, or (c) coauthors on work completed or in progress during the last four years.

Step 6: Details and Comments: Authors can include their cover letter either in the text box or as a separate file. This information will be viewed by the Editor and the Associate Editor but will not be viewed by the reviewers. Authors will denote funding in this section. Last, authors will certify that they are complying with the journal's ethical policies.

Step 7: Review & Submit: As the final step, authors will review the previous six steps for completeness and view the PDF proof generated by the ScholarOne system (this is required). Be sure to select “Submit” when done.

Ethical Statements Authors Will Certify

As part of Step 6 (above), authors will certify the following ethical statements within the ScholarOne System:

Ethical Guidelines

I acknowledge that I am aware of INFORMS Transactions on Education's Guidelines for Ethical Behavior in Publishing and all INFORMS policies referred to therein and that this submission conforms to those policies. I have disclosed (in my cover letter and in any related submission questions) any possible perceived conflicts of interest and noted all of my work that has substantial overlap to prior publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, and papers submitted to this journal or any other journals. I also certify that the copyright for all portions of this paper can and will be transferred to INFORMS upon acceptance.

Plagiarism & Copyright

I acknowledge that in submitting this paper I am aware of INFORMS Policy on Plagiarism and Copyright . Further I acknowledge that I will report to the editor(s) of the journal all of my manuscripts (e.g., prior publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, papers submitted to other journals) that have substantial overlap with the submitted paper. I also certify that the copyright for all portions of this paper can and will be transferred to INFORMS upon acceptance.

Troubleshooting

For additional training and support for using the ScholarOne Manuscripts submission system, please visit ScholarOne’s Author Resources page.

Contact Your Managing Editor

Annie Stevenson
INFORMS
5521 Research Park Drive
Suite 200
Catonsville, Maryland 21228
[email protected]

The Review Process

If the Editor or an Associate Editor (AE) notices a serious problem with the paper, it can be returned to authors without referee reports. In such cases, the problem will be clearly outlined and some guidance to the authors will be provided. This may happen in cases where authors have failed to follow these Instructions for Authors or where the paper is not suitable for ITE. If the paper is not returned to authors shortly after the submission, they can generally expect to hear back from the Editor within eight weeks from submission.

Each regular article, game, case, and note will be peer reviewed by two to four referees, whereas invited articles, puzzles, and reviews will usually be reviewed by one Area Editor. For papers, cases, and notes, you will receive an AE report as well as at least two referee reports. The reports play an important role in the “engineering” of an ITE paper. The primary role of the reports is to help you improve your paper, not help make an accept or reject decision. The overriding concern is simple: "How can we increase the appeal and usefulness of this paper?" ITE is not primarily an archival journal; it is a journal for readers. The authors' goal is to impact OR/MS education. The journal's purpose is to help authors reach this goal. Hence, we desire "developmental" reviews rather than merely judgmental ones. Nevertheless, we do need a recommendation. Typically, there are four summary recommendations: accept (publish as is), minor revision (conditional acceptance pending some minor edits), major revision (revise and resubmit), or reject.

Reviewer and editor reports should clearly outline the shortcomings of the paper and offer advice on how to overcome them. Both sides (referees and authors) have to keep in mind that this is not a contract or an offer. The job of the journal is to advise authors on how to improve the paper. It is up to the authors as to which recommendations they choose to follow and with how much vigor. Authors are the ultimate decision makers as to what their paper should contain, and we respect their priorities (but retain the right to make the publication decision). While we would not require that authors follow every recommendation, the report will identify those that are essential for publication (an example is an incomplete literature survey).

The first-level criterion for publication in ITE is simple: Does this paper help advance OR/MS education? (In other words, can some OR/MS educators deliver their material more effectively as a result of reading this paper?) The second-level criteria will depend on the nature of the paper. However, they are likely to include all or most of the following:

1. Is the survey of the relevant literature complete? (Papers with weak connections to the literature lack authority. We want authors to be aware of what has been done before and clearly state how they contribute to the literature. This is particularly important in papers that can be considered education research.)
2. Do the authors frame the paper by stating what teaching environments it applies to (student backgrounds, degree programs, work experiences, preparation, etc.) and compare it to alternate methods of delivery? Do the authors clearly describe the advantages and disadvantages of their approach? Is the paper well motivated?
3. Is the content sufficiently original or innovative? (Why would we publish a spreadsheet model that any OR/MS teacher can create with some effort?)
4. Is the paper sufficiently rigorous? (We publish essays or opinion pieces in the invited contributions section. Papers that are processed by AEs need rigor. The paper should demonstrate convincingly that statements made are correct and use appropriate analytical tools.)
5. Does the paper have potential for making an impact on the teaching of OR/MS?
6. Is there sufficient detail to allow other instructors to use the material? (This is particularly relevant for papers that describe a new teaching tool or method.)
7. Does the author have teaching experience with the material? What evidence is provided for the effectiveness of the material? Are student assessments and comparative test results included in the paper? For papers that contain formal analysis, is the data analysis appropriate and are the results conclusive? (While we do not require formal assessment, we will not publish untested classroom material. We encourage authors to provide all available and relevant student assessment data.)
8. When a paper describes a transformation of a course or curriculum, can claims of success be verified?
9. Is the paper well organized and well written? Is the exposition clear and of high quality? Did the authors manage the flow of ideas in the paper well?
10. Does the paper use the electronic medium as effectively as possible? Are the attachments (such as student manuals, spreadsheets, applets) adequate and appropriate?
11. Is the length of the paper appropriate given its contents?

Paying attention to these criteria when composing your paper will increase the likelihood of acceptance for publication.

Given the lack of expertise in the OR community in publishing education-related articles, the reports have a significant role to play in suggesting what the final paper should contain. For example, an AE can recommend shortening a paper into a note or expanding a note into a full paper (where the distinction is based primarily on length, which should be proportional to content). Similarly, the AE may be able to identify a separate potential paper or may notice that part of the paper can be built into a more interesting paper or into a paper that has broader appeal. Our AEs and referees are instructed that, in addition to judging what has been submitted, it is important to evaluate the potential and offer direction to the authors.

The AE report carries a recommendation, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision. In most cases, the Editor-in-Chief's decision will be consistent with the AE recommendation. You can appeal a rejection decision by writing to the Editor. In cases of resubmissions, authors should include a separate document explaining how they dealt with comments from the first-round reviews and outlining the changes made.

Please note that any changes to the author list after submission require all authors to agree and for the corresponding author to submit an authorship change form. This includes authors added during the review process. Please see the author resource page for more information.

Appeals Policy

Occasionally, Reviewers or Associate Editors will make errors in their reviews. The Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editor may fail to catch these errors. Although it is unlikely that an error would impact the final decision on a manuscript, the possibility exists. Therefore, we do allow authors to appeal decisions.

Authors should never appeal decisions only because they disagree with the outcome or feel that the evaluators merely lacked appreciation for what they have done (evaluators are often chosen from the author’s recommendations). Moreover, authors should never appeal on the grounds that their standing in the discipline accords them some special treatment. We give all authors equal opportunity and maintain a double-blind review process. However, if the reviewers or evaluators have made errors that can be documented, authors can and should appeal decisions under the following procedure. Please note that this formal appeals process is the only option for appealing a decision. Informal appeals are not allowed.

1. Every author on an appealed manuscript is allowed a maximum of one appeal per year. The journal does not have the capacity to handle more than this number, formally.
2. Identities of appealing authors will become part of the journal record and are known to future editors.
3. An appeal must be sent by e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief no sooner than 30 days and no later than 180 days after the date of the decision letter on the manuscript.
4. All authors must be copied on the appeal email to the Editor-in-Chief.
5. The authors should provide a document that quotes each evaluator statement that is in error and explains why the statement is incorrect.
6. The authors’ case is judged by an appeal committee that consists of the Editor-in-Chief and two editors that were not involved in the review of the manuscript.
7. In their appeal document, authors may provide the names of editors that should not be considered for the appeals committee. If the Editor-in-Chief is among these, a senior Associate Editor will serve as a replacement.
8. If the appeals committee finds the authors' case has no merit, the original decision stands. If the appeals committee finds the authors' case has merit, the paper will be assigned a new Associate Editor, and will be sent out to new referees.

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Generative AI presents many opportunities and challenges for the field of (ORMS) education. When it comes to the review process, there is a risk that such technology (if used without careful thought) will generate incorrect, incomplete, or biased reports and outcomes. These considerations, together with the principle that submitted manuscripts are to be treated as confidential documents, result in the following Generative AI guidelines for reviewers and editors:

• All opinions expressed by each member of the review team (Reviewers, Associate Editor, Area Editor) should be theirs and theirs only.
• The author of any report is responsible for the accuracy of all facts and references cited in the report.
• Members of the review team should not deliberately upload a manuscript submitted to INFORMS Transactions on Education (or any portion of the manuscript) into a Generative AI tool in a way that might lead to violations of copyright and/or confidentiality.

After Acceptance

When a manuscript is accepted for ITE, the ScholarOne system automatically moves the paper to the “Manuscripts Accepted for First Look” area of the submitting author’s Author Center in ScholarOne. Authors will need to access this area of their Author Center so they can upload a set of final files for the production process. We respectfully request that authors upload their final files to the submission site within seven days from receipt of the acceptance decision. The decision of accept is not considered binding until final files have been received. Once final files have been uploaded, it is important that authors view the ScholarOne-created PDF file and then hit the “Submit” button, as they would for a normal submission. Otherwise, the manuscript will languish in the author’s First Look area indefinitely.

For publication, submitting authors will upload the following files:

1. Source file of the article (e.g., Microsoft Word or LaTeX). For case studies, this means one source file each for the case article, the case, and the teaching notes.
2. A PDF file of the paper (generated by the author, not the ScholarOne system); for case studies, a separate PDF file for each part of the case should be provided.
3. High-quality graphics files (PostScript or PDF) of the figures, either embedded in the manuscript file or as a separate file(s).
4. Online supplemental materials (if any) in the format they should have when appearing online (PDF, plain text, etc.).
5. The signed publication license form, with the CC:BY license type indicated.
6. The completed Editorial Checklist.

Figures

Color figures will publish online in color at no charge to the authors.

Publication Forms (Downloadable)

• Publication License Form
• Media Promotion Form
• Editorial Checklist

Open Access

ITE is published open access as part of INFORMS mission to advance operation research, management science, and analytics education at all levels worldwide. ITE articles are published under the Creative Commons license of the author’s choosing; a complete list of Creative Commons licenses can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. Authors will retain copyright and reuse rights as defined within the Creative Commons license under which their article is published. There are no article processing charges or submission fees to publish in ITE.

The content published in ITEis available freely via INFORMS PubsOnline. Although accepted articles are available via INFORMS PubsOnline, author(s) agree and allow redistribution of this paper by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences in paper-based and electronic formats, as well as digital document-delivery services and databases.

NIH Public Access Policy. Authors are responsible for complying with the NIH Public Access Policy. INFORMS follows Method C of NIH's submission methods guidelines (http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm) and has no obligation to notify an NIH-funded author about the requirement.

Contact Your Production Editor

After receipt of final files from authors, manuscripts are sent to production for copy editing and layout. Questions about the publication status of an accepted manuscript should be directed to [email protected].