brycewang-stanford Workflow Router (ors-workflow)
When to trigger
- You are starting an Operations Research manuscript and want the right order of operations.
- You finished one stage (e.g., the optimization model is formulated) and ask "what next?"
- You received a decision letter from the handling Area Editor and need to route to revision.
What Operations Research expects
Operations Research is the flagship methodology journal of INFORMS. It prizes mathematically rigorous OR/MS contributions — optimization, stochastic/probabilistic models, simulation, decision analysis — with provable results (theorems and proofs) alongside increasingly data-driven and applied work. Methodological novelty and rigor are valued over purely empirical work. The lifecycle below reflects OR's distinctive norms: an equation-free introduction, a mandatory contribution statement (since 1 June 2023, in the cover letter, fewer than 500 words), area-editor routing at submission, soft double-anonymous review, and the ORJournal GitHub code/data reproducibility workflow.
Default order
ors-topic-selection (is the problem an OR/MS methodological contribution? right area?)
▼
ors-theory-development (formulate the model; state assumptions, theorems, propositions)
▼
ors-literature-positioning (place against the OR canon; what is genuinely new?)
▼
ors-methods (proof technique / algorithm design / simulation protocol)
▼
ors-data-analysis (computational study, reproducible experiments, instances)
▼
ors-contribution-framing (the <500-word contribution statement + significance)
▼
ors-tables-figures (theorem layout, computational tables, convergence plots)
▼
ors-writing-style (equation-free intro, INFORMS author-year house style) — polish
▼
ors-submission (Author Portal/ScholarOne preflight; area, AEs, reviewers)
▼
ors-review-process (soft double-anonymous; reading the decision)
▼
ors-rebuttal (point-by-point response; reproducibility review)
Routing table
| You are here | Go to |
|---|---|
| Have a problem, unsure it fits OR vs. MS/M&SOM/INFORMS J. Comp. | ors-topic-selection |
| Need to formulate the model / state results | ors-theory-development |
| Reviewers will ask "what is new vs. prior work" | ors-literature-positioning |
| Need a proof strategy or algorithm guarantee | ors-methods |
| Have a model and need a computational study | ors-data-analysis |
| Writing the contribution statement / discussion | ors-contribution-framing |
| Building exhibits | ors-tables-figures |
| Final language polish, intro has equations | ors-writing-style |
| About to submit | ors-submission |
| Decision letter arrived | ors-review-process → ors-rebuttal |
The OR value arc the router protects
Every stage exists to keep one chain intact — the arc an Operations Research area editor mentally traces when deciding fate: model → analysis → algorithm → computational study → decision insight. A manuscript that breaks any link routes to a referee complaint downstream. The router's job is to surface the weak link early.
| Arc link | Owning skill | Snaps when... | Area-editor reads it as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | ors-theory-development |
object too general to prove or too narrow to matter | "no theorem-grade core" |
| Analysis | ors-methods |
a proof gap or unestablished rate | "rigor not at OR's bar" |
| Algorithm | ors-methods |
a guarantee-free heuristic carries the paper | "INFORMS J. Comp., not OR" |
| Computational study | ors-data-analysis |
benchmarks/baselines missing | "claims not corroborated" |
| Decision insight | ors-contribution-framing |
structure never reaches the application | "elegant but no OR payoff" |
Operations Research is the INFORMS flagship: it wants both a theorem-grade result and a credible computational/decision study. M&SOM, POM, or Journal of Operations Management would route an empirical-OM survey through a different door; OR will not. Whenever a stage is "done," ask whether its arc link can survive the next referee.
Methodology-area vs. application-area routing
A second routing axis OR authors miss: every submission carries a methodology
identity (optimization / stochastic / simulation / game-theory / ML-for-OR) and an
application flavor (revenue management, healthcare, logistics). The editorial area
is chosen on the methodology, not the application headline — a revenue-management
paper whose engine is a queueing analysis routes to Stochastic Models, not a
"pricing" bucket. Misreading this axis is the most common re-route cause; resolve it in
ors-topic-selection before formulating.
Worked routing vignette (illustrative)
A team has a stochastic-inventory control problem, a proved threshold-policy optimality
result, and an approximation algorithm with a claimed 1.5-factor guarantee (numbers
illustrative). Router trace: they think they are ready for ors-submission, but the
arc shows the computational-study link is empty — no benchmark instances, no solver
baseline. Route order corrected to ors-data-analysis first, then ors-tables-figures
for a performance-profile plot, then ors-contribution-framing to tie the threshold
structure to the decision payoff, then ors-submission. Skipping straight to submit
would have drawn a "computational study lacks benchmarks" desk-stage flag.
Output format
【Where you are】...
【Arc link at risk】model / analysis / algorithm / comp-study / insight
【Next skill】ors-...
【Why】... (OR-specific reason)