brycewang-stanford Pre-Submission Preflight (mgsci-submission)
When to trigger
- "We're submitting this week" — the last check before hitting submit
- Unsure what ScholarOne requires, or which Department to select
- Need to confirm double-anonymization and the disclosure package are complete
- Verifying fee/waiver eligibility and the citation/format specs
Always re-verify current limits, fees, and required files on the official Management Science submission guidelines and Code and Data Disclosure Policy pages before submitting — specifics change. As of 2026-06-20 the verified key specs are below.
Verified Management Science specs (confirm current values)
- Portal: ScholarOne Manuscripts ("Manuscript Central") at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mnsc via INFORMS PubsOnline; a seven-step upload workflow (type/title/abstract, file upload, keywords, authors/institutions, reviewers/editors, details/comments, review/submit).
- Abstract / keywords: abstract 250 words or less; 3–5 keywords.
- Length: no formal limit at initial submission, but the journal prefers short, focused papers; invited revisions must fit 47 pages double-spaced (25 lines/page) or 32 pages 1.5-spaced (33 lines/page), 11-pt font, 1-inch margins, online appendix excluded.
- Style: author-year (name–date) in-text citations, e.g., (Norman 1977); alphabetical reference list; double- or 1.5-spaced, 11-pt, 1-inch margins; PDF preferred.
- Review: double-anonymous; a Department Editor and possibly an Associate Editor first screen fit and merit, so select the correct Department at submission.
- Submission fee: USD $79 per original submission (effective Aug 1, 2025); waived for current INFORMS members at submission and for authors whose primary affiliation is in a low-/lower-middle-income country; an honor-based, no-justification waiver is available; ability to pay is not visible to the editorial decision hierarchy.
- Code and Data Disclosure: policy effective June 1, 2019 and revised April 20, 2026; authors provide an AsCollected project-page URL at submission. Accepted numerical/computational papers must provide data, programs, and other details sufficient to permit replication before production, or an approved alternative disclosure plan for proprietary/sensitive data.
Pre-submission checklist
Double-anonymization
- Manuscript contains no author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, or funding
- Self-citations worded neutrally, not "our earlier work"
- File metadata/properties scrubbed; file names carry no identifiers
- Any conference-proceedings version disclosed in the cover letter and the proceedings paper cited anonymously
Format & style
- Abstract ≤ 250 words; 3–5 keywords supplied
- Author-year in-text citations; alphabetical INFORMS/journal-style reference list
- Double- or 1.5-spaced, 11-pt, 1-inch margins; PDF
- Notation minimal and consistent; exhibits self-contained
- Main body short and focused (recall the invited-revision cap; appendix excluded)
Department & ScholarOne (seven steps)
- Correct Department / area selected so the right Department Editor desk-screens it
- Article type, title, abstract, keywords entered
- Authors/institutions and ORCID current
- Five appropriate, non-conflicted reviewers proposed
- Three appropriate, non-conflicted Associate Editors proposed, plus any Guest AE rationale if used
- Built PDF previewed before final submission
Fee & disclosure
- Submission fee ($79) paid or a waiver claimed (INFORMS member / low-income economy / honor-based)
- Code and Data Disclosure package prepared: master script regenerates main-text results where applicable, README, version-pinned environment, data sources, and alternative disclosure plan for proprietary/sensitive data if needed
- AsCollected project-page URL supplied
- Author-contribution disclosure included
References & consistency
- Every in-text citation appears in the reference list and vice versa
- Canonical works for the focal Department's conversation cited
- Proposition/hypothesis labels, notation, and exhibit numbers consistent throughout
Anti-patterns
- Submitting with self-identifying language or an un-anonymized proceedings citation.
- Selecting the wrong Department so the paper routes to the wrong desk.
- Forgetting the fee/waiver step, or assuming the waiver needs justification (it does not).
- A disclosure package that does not actually regenerate the reported results.
Output format
【Anonymization】pass / fix: [...]
【Format & style】author-year, 250-word abstract, 3–5 keywords, 11-pt: pass/fix
【Department & ScholarOne】department selected; seven steps complete: yes/no
【Fee/waiver】paid or waiver claimed: which one
【Disclosure】package or approved disclosure plan ready; AsCollected URL supplied: yes/no
【Next step】await decision → mgsci-review-process; on R&R → mgsci-rebuttal
Resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— analytical (Gurobi/CPLEX/JuMP, Mathematica) and empirical (Stata/R/Python, oTree/Prolific) tooling plus the disclosure-package recipe../../resources/official-source-map.md— official INFORMS/Management Science URLs behind current process facts (accessed 2026-06-20)