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)