Decision Sciences

Author Guidelines

All manuscript submissions for consideration for publication in Decision Sciences must be made electronically. The editorial team, including Editor Xenophon Koufteros, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

We can also be reached by mail or telephone at:

Decision Sciences Journal
Attn: Xenophon Koufteros, Editor
Information and Operations Management
Mays Business School - Texas A&M University Business
College Station, TX 77845
Telephone: (979) 845-2254 (best to use e-mail at [email protected])
  

Attn: Sri Talluri, Editor
Supply Chain Management
Broad College of Business – Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Telephone: (517) 432-6430 ([email protected])

Submissions

Decision Sciences Journal is a business journal and its audience is primarily business school faculty. Although we welcome contributions from affiliated fields, authors are asked to write their manuscripts with our audience in mind. Furthermore, it is expected that authors thoroughly review the relevant literature, including current and preceding publications at Decision Sciences Journal, prior to submission.

Submissions to Decision Sciences are handled through our Research Exchange submission site: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/DECI. If you have not submitted through this site before you will need to register as a new user. After logging in, navigate to the "Corresponding Author Center" and follow the instructions for submission.

Preparing the elements of your submission ahead of time will make the submission process easier to navigate. Manuscript Preparation Guidelines can be found here.

It is imperative that authors read the instructions carefully in order to avoid delays in processing. The failure to follow instructions may result in a Desk Rejection decision.

During submission, authors will be asked to choose several topic and methodological areas that describe their paper. We recommend that authors view this list prior to submission and discuss choices with co-authors. The complete list is available here.

Questions about the submission process should be directed to [email protected].

Submission of a manuscript certifies that none of the contents are copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication in another journal, under review by another journal, or submitted to another journal while under review by Decision Sciences.

Decision Sciences will be moving to a new submission system on July 8^th, 2025.

Decision Sciences Journal's Mission

Editorial Statement of Purpose

Decision Sciences Journal (DSJ), the premier journal of the Decision Sciences Institute, publishes peer-reviewed scholarly research about decision-making within the boundaries of an organization (individual, group, and firm), as well as decisions involving inter-firm coordination and collaboration. 

In reviewing the historical focus of the journal and categorizing published manuscripts in the past ten years, it is apparent that DSJ is the publication of choice for established and emerging researchers in Operations/Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Information Systems/Technology (IT). Thus, research papers which address contemporary business problems and simultaneously provide novel managerial and/or theoretical insights in the broad areas of SCM and IT and their interface are ideal for publication in the journal. This will enable the journal to focus its research contributions and provide a differentiated grounding for DSJ in comparison to other respected business journals with a decision making focus (e.g., Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Decision Analysis). Additionally, research articles with a strong interface with Operations/Supply Chain Management (SCM) and/or Information Systems/Technology (IT) that address problems in established and emerging interdisciplinary fields (such as Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Healthcare Systems, New Product Development, Network Security, and Project Management) are also encouraged.

The problem of interest can be addressed using one or more methodological research tools (analytical, conceptual, and/or empirical). We strongly encourage authors to deploy multiple methodologies in order to triangulate and validate findings more effectively. Articles which extend existing and established approaches are appropriate, provided they demonstrate superiority over extant methods and a substantial impact on current practice and/or theory. Thought-provoking and controversial research efforts which propose new paradigms, and/or conceptual frameworks are especially encouraged. The journal will also publish comprehensive reviews of prior research within a specific domain and continue to publish notes focusing on technical issues. The journal welcomes conceptual manuscripts that advance theoretical development in the areas of Operations/Supply Chain Management (SCM) and/or Information Systems/Technology (IT). Furthermore, new and substantive methodological advancements are also welcome. Research notes are generally submitted as full-length manuscripts, but become notes at the recommendation of the review team. All papers accepted for publication must meet high scholarly research standards, demonstrate managerial and theoretical relevance, and facilitate and enhance decision making practice.

Decision Sciences Departments

The Decision Sciences Journal has a departmental structure and includes the focal areas listed below. Department mission statements can be found on the DSJ overview page, and bios of the respective department editors can be found here.

• Analytical Studies in Supply Chain Management
• Behavioral Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Business Analytics
• Empirical Studies in Sourcing Procurement/Purchasing
• Empirical Studies in Supply Chain Management
• Fast Track
• Healthcare and Service Operations
• Humanitarian Operations and Supply Chains
• Information Systems
• IS/OM/Finance/Accounting Interface
• Logistics
• Marketing with OM or IS Interface
• Methodologies
• Product, Service, and Process Innovations
• Retail Operations
• Replication Studies
• Revenue Management and Pricing
• Socially Responsible Operations and the Circular Economy
• Theories in Decision Making

Editorial Policies

As noted in the editorial statement of purpose, Decision Sciences distinguishes itself as a business journal with an explicit focus on decision making primarily in the areas of Operations/Supply Chain Management and Information Systems/Technology. While this focus may appear to encompass a broad-based spectrum of articles, the implementation of the journal's aims will be directed toward the needs of its research community.

To identify the focus of a submitted manuscript, Decision Sciences maintains a key word reviewing system. Currently the key words are grouped under two broad categories: Topic Areas and Methodological Areas. Author(s) submitting a manuscript for potential publication in the journal are encouraged to review the current set of Topic and Methodological areas by reviewing the lists.

Motivation

In general, all submitted manuscripts must address a well-known or emerging problem that is of interest and concern to practicing decision makers. It is the responsibility of the authors to demonstrate the managerial relevance of the problem being addressed and to explain the managerial implications of the research results whether the paper is analytical or empirical in nature. We believe that the best way to acquire information about the salience or magnitude of a topic/problem is through direct interaction with practitioners or the industry. Such direct interaction can inform research across many facets including but not limited to model assumptions, conditions, or model inputs. Direct interactions can also furnish important insight that otherwise may not be available. Authors are strongly encouraged to document their interactions with practitioners or the industry in the Introduction section of their manuscript and elsewhere as necessary. Papers that lack strong and substantive motivation and insight via direct interactions with relevant constituents are typically rejected.

Manuscript Policies

Decision Sciences strives to provide constructive and developmental reviews to authors within two months of the submission date of the manuscript. To accomplish this goal, the journal maintains strict policies for manuscript submissions and the review process.

In order to ensure that as many worthy papers as possible appear in each issue, manuscripts submitted to Decision Sciences should not exceed more than 40 double-spaced pages including references, appendices, tables, and figures. Supplementary documents such as example surveys may be published online at the time of publication. Preparation guidelines containing required style guidelines should be reviewed before submission of a manuscript. All manuscripts for publication consideration must be submitted electronically through Manuscript Central. As a rule, Decision Sciences does not accept resubmissions of rejected manuscripts, unless the revised manuscript represents a substantially different research contribution.

Authors submitting their manuscript to Decision Sciences for publication consideration must certify that: (a) none of the contents of their manuscript has been copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication by another journal, or is under review by another journal; (b) authors whose manuscripts utilize data that are reported in any other manuscript, published or not, are required to inform the editor at the time of submission in a cover letter explaining the duplication; (c) the manuscript uses appropriate citations for the reproduction of someone else's original words or expression of ideas; (d) the manuscript has not been previously submitted to Decision Sciences for review; (e) all working papers, prior drafts, and/or final version of submitted manuscripts that are posted on a Web site will be taken down during the review process.

We reiterate once more that authors should pay particular attention to two items in our Guide for Manuscript Preparation:

• Plagiarism and Degree of Similarity
• Acquisition of Data via Scraping or other means.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policies

DSJ, along with a group of peer journals, has endorsed a set of Shared Editorial Policies on AI, in line with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines (under Artificial Intelligence), and in accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools. In short, Generative AI tools should not be listed as an author, and any use must be disclosed and described in detail. Editors or peer reviewers should not upload manuscripts (or any parts of manuscripts including figures and tables) into GenAI tools or services, as this could violate the confidentiality of the peer review process, privacy of authors and reviewers, and the copyright of the manuscript under review. Please see the full guidelines linked above for more detail.

Since the publisher requires the submission of an electronic copy (in MS Word or TeX/LateX) of a paper accepted for publication, author(s) are strongly encouraged to use one of these two word processing programs.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript. 

Review Process

Decision Sciences considers it to be the highest honor to receive a manuscript for publication consideration from prospective authors. As such, the review process is designed to promote expedited reviews, developmental feedback, and a service culture of professionalism and collegiality.

Each manuscript submitted to the journal undergoes an initial screening by the Editor and a selected Department Editor (DE) as to whether the paper fits the editorial purpose and addresses a problem of interest to the research community served by the journal. An appropriate Associate Editor (AE) then receives all information on the paper (including the identity of author(s)) and will select and obtain an assessment from at least two referees (this will be a blind review – i.e., referees will not know the identity of the author(s)). Based on the referee reports, the AEs will prepare their summary assessment (including his/her own comments) which will include a recommendation for the paper. Finally, the referee reports and the AE summary assessment are reviewed by a Department Editor (usually the same person initially screening the manuscript) who provides a final recommendation to the Editor. In communicating the decision on a manuscript, author(s) may not know the identity of the DE, AE, or the reviewers.

The Editorial Team strives to respond to all authors within three months of an initial submission and within three weeks for an invited revision. If a second revision is necessary, the expected turnaround time should be less than one week. Typically, submissions get desk-rejected within three business days in order to allow the authors to redirect their papers or get an early start on a revision.

Early View

The Decision Sciences Journal is covered by Wiley's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article.

Print-on-Demand

Print subscription and single issue sales are available from Wiley’s Print-on-Demand Partner. To order online click through to the ordering portal from the journal’s subscribe and renew page on WOL.

Effective with the 2015 volume, this journal will be published in an online-only format.

Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors must declare any conflict of interest caused by financial support or relationships by disclosing at the time of submission any arrangements they have with an organization whose conduct figures prominently in the submitted manuscript. Such information will be treated confidentially while the paper is under review. If the journal accepts the article for publication, the editor will usually discuss with the authors the manner in which such information is to be communicated to the reader.

Copyright

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they are required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal's standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License. 

For authors signing the copyright transfer agreement

If the Open Access option is not selected the corresponding author will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to sign. The terms and conditions of the CTA can be previewed in the samples associated with the Copyright FAQs.

For authors signing a Creative Commons License

If the Open Access option is selected, the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA):

• Creative Commons Attribution License OAA
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License OAA
• Creative Commons Attribtuion Non-Commercial - NoDerivs OAA

Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; to check this, please click here.

Note to Contributors on Deposit of Accepted Version

Authors are permitted to self-archive the peer-reviewed (but not final) version of the Contribution on the Contributor’s personal website, in the Contributor’s company/institutional repository or archive, and in certain not for profit subject-based repositories such as PubMed Central subject to an embargo period of 12 months for scientific, technical and medical (STM) journals and 24 months for social science and humanities (SSH) journals following publication of the final Contribution. For more infomation on self-archiving, click here.

There are separate arrangements with certain funding agencies governing reuse of this version as set forth on Wiley's Funder Agreements page.

The Contributor may not update the accepted version or replace it with the published Contribution.

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