Msom Review Process

---
name: msom-review-process
description: Use to understand how Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM) review and decisions work — the author-routed six-department structure, the Department Editor / Associate Editor / referee chain, double-anonymous review, special tracks (OM Forum, Practice Platform, OM Grand Challenges), and how to read a decision letter — before or after submitting.
---

# Review Process (msom-review-process)

## When to trigger

- You want to set realistic expectations before submitting to M&SOM
- You received a decision letter and need to understand the roles behind it
- You are deciding whether a special track (OM Forum, Practice Platform, Grand Challenges) fits
- You are unsure how department routing shapes who handles your paper

## The editorial chain: department routing decides your fate

M&SOM uses an **author-driven version of departmental routing**. You choose a primary **Department** and name **two preferred Department Editors**; the manuscript is then handled by a **Department Editor (DE)**, who assigns an **Associate Editor (AE)**, who recruits **referees**. The journal is organized into **six departments**: (1) Manufacturing & Supply Chain Operations, (2) Services, Platforms & Revenue Management, (3) Environment, Health & Society, (4) Operational Innovation, (5) Analytics in OM, and (6) a **Practice Platform**. Because the AE board is large (~119) and routing is by department, *matching the right department is as consequential as the paper's quality* — a misrouted paper meets the wrong expertise.

## Double-anonymous review

Review is **double-anonymous**: authors and referees are blind to each other. Author identities are known only to the **Editor-in-Chief**, the DE, the AE, and editorial staff, and remain confidential to referees. This is why anonymization (see `msom-submission`) is strictly enforced.

## Decision criteria and special tracks

Decisions weigh **importance, originality, clarity, validity, and relevance**, gated by the **operations-centrality** requirement. Beyond standard research articles, M&SOM institutionalizes practice and perspective:

- **OM Forum** — thought-leadership/perspective pieces under an identifying banner.
- **Practice Platform** — a dedicated department for field-driven, practice-based OM.
- **OM Grand Challenges (2026)** — SDG-aligned academic-practitioner proposals; accepted proposals presented at the 2026 MSOM Conference (12–14 July 2026) automatically advance into a second review cycle for a dedicated M&SOM special issue — a conference-to-journal fast-track.

> Editor context: Georgia Perakis (MIT) is Editor-in-Chief since January 2021; her final term expires 31 December 2026 (successor to be named by 1 July 2026). Department-editor rosters rotate — verify the live editorial-board page. Acceptance rate is **待核实**.

## Reading a decision letter

- **Reject / desk reject:** often an operations-centrality or fit miss — reassess venue and department.
- **Major revision:** the DE/AE see a path; the referee points are the contract for the next round.
- **Minor revision:** address precisely; do not reopen settled modeling choices.
- Identify which comments come from the **DE/AE** (binding priorities) vs. **referees** (must be addressed or rebutted).

## Checklist

- [ ] Primary Department and the role chain (DE → AE → referees) understood
- [ ] Double-anonymous expectations clear; manuscript fully anonymized
- [ ] Special-track fit assessed (OM Forum / Practice Platform / Grand Challenges)
- [ ] Decision letter parsed into DE/AE priorities vs. referee points
- [ ] Realistic timeline and multi-round expectations set

## Anti-patterns

- Picking a department by prestige rather than fit, drawing the wrong expertise.
- Treating all reviewer comments as equal weight, ignoring DE/AE signals.
- Assuming a perspective piece will be judged as a standard research article (it is OM Forum).

## Output format

```
【Department / role chain】DE → AE → referees ...
【Review model】double-anonymous; anonymization OK? ...
【Track】standard / OM Forum / Practice Platform / Grand Challenges ...
【Decision parsed】DE-AE priorities vs. referee points ...
【Next step】on R&R → msom-rebuttal
```