Submission Fee Waivers

As part of INFORMS' commitment to fairness and broad access to scholarly publishing, Management Science offers an honor-based waiver for authors who are unable to pay the submission fee — for any reason. This approach reflects our trust in the research community and our belief that financial limitations should never stand in the way of contributing to high-quality, peer-reviewed science.

To learn more about the rationale behind this policy, please see our FAQ or Editor-in-Chief Christoph Loch’s editorial "Reinforcing Research Transparency at Management Science.

At the time of submission, authors will be presented with the following waiver options:

• INFORMS Member Waiver
• Low-Income or Lower-Middle-Income Country Waiver (per World Bank designation)
• Financial Hardship Waiver (for any other reason)

Authors will be asked to indicate the applicable waiver (via checkbox) during submission. This information will:

• Not be verified at the point of submission;
• Not be shared with editors or reviewers;
• Be stored only for anonymous, aggregate-level reporting to evaluate waiver use and community participation over time.

By capturing minimal self-reported data, we preserve the ability to assess how the policy is functioning — without introducing friction for authors or compromising fairness.

Lower-Income & Lower-Middle-Income Country Waivers

Submitting authors from institutions in the following low-income or lower-middle-income countries (per World Bank classifications) will receive an automatic waiver of their submission fee.

Lower-Income Countries

• Afghanistan
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo, Democratic Republic of the
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gambia, The
• Guinea-Bissau
• Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mozambique
• Niger
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Togo
• Uganda
• Yemen, Republic of

Lower-Middle-Income Countries

• Angola
• Bangladesh
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Cabo Verde
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Comoros
• Congo, Republic of
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Djibouti
• Egypt, Arab Republic of
• Eswatini
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Haiti
• Honduras
• India
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Lao People’s Democratic Republic
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Mauritania
• Micronesia, Federated States of
• Morocco
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Nicaragua
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Samoa
• São Tomé and Principe
• Senegal
• Solomon Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Timor-Leste
• Tunisia
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Vietnam
• West Bank and Gaza
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe