Review Processes
| Review Process | Nominating Reviewers and Editors | Revision Process |
Review Process
The author submits the paper electronically, where the cover letter/e-mail includes nominations (see above). Articles are first screened by a senior editor. Then an associate editor is selected. This associate editor applies a second screening. (On occasion, the senior and associate editors may screen the submission in parallel.) Submissions are frequently returned to authors (as inappropriate or rejected submissions, or with instructions for necessary revision prior to a formal review) after these initial screenings. Papers are then sent to a panel of reviewers, which normally consists of academicians but that might include practitioners if the submission warrants such perspectives. Once review comments are returned, the associate editor pulls them together and makes an editorial recommendation regarding publication, revision, or rejection. This recommendation will be used by the senior editor in his or her final decision. A full review process currently takes approximately four months from receipt of manuscript to the first editorial decision. Authors can access the status of their manuscripts, as these manuscripts pass through the review process, from the Manuscript Tracking page.
Please note that all submissions received in the month of December will be logged upon receipt, but the processing of such a submission (involving the selection of senior and associate editors for the submission, the screening of the submission, the selection of reviewers, and so forth) will officially commence only in January. Similarly, MIS Quarterly will not impose its standard three-week deadline on reviewers during the month of December. This is to acknowledge the reality of the time constraints imposed by the end-of-the-semester responsibilities, the International Conference on Information Systems, and the holidays on most members of the Editorial Board and the scholars on whom MIS Quarterly relies to serve as reviewers.
Submissions received during the summer months in the northern hemisphere, when there is another seasonable and sizeable drop in the availability of editors and reviewers, will be logged upon receipt, but the processing of such a submission might sometimes also require additional time before officially commencing.
The review process for Issues and Opinions submissions differs slightly from the above. These manuscripts will be reviewed by the editor-in-chief, who will act as senior editor, and a small review panel, usually selected from the Editorial Board.
For additional observations on the review process, see the Editor's Comments in the December 1999 issue and the June 2000 issue.
Reviewer Nominations
Authors should offer nominations for the senior editor and the associate editor to handle their manuscript. Note that the editor-in-chief may play the role of a senior editor in this process. Authors should also nominate possible reviewers, as explained below.
Authors should nominate at least two choices for each position. Subject
to the exception noted in the next paragraphs, nominees for the senior
editor and associate editor must be current members of the Editorial Board.
A listing of the members of the Editorial Board can be found in the inside
cover of the latest issue of MIS Quarterly as well as at http://www.misq.org/archivist/editor/index.html
(addresses can be found at http://www.misq.org/archivist/misqadds.pdf).
On rare occasions, the editor-in-chief may consider an author's nomination of a senior editor emeritus (or an editor-in-chief emeritus) to serve as the senior editor for the author's manuscript. A key condition in assigning a senior editor emeritus to handle a manuscript is that he or she must possess the highly specialized knowledge to evaluate the manuscript and the opinions of the associate editor and reviewers. The editor-in-chief will not approve such a nomination if a current member of the senior-editor board is deemed to be able to handle the manuscript effectively.Of course, the approval of such a nomination also depends on the availability and approval of the senior editor emeritus.Authors who would like to nominate a senior editor emeritus must submit their manuscript electronically -- via attachment to a cover letter that is in the form of an e-mail and that provides a justification for the nomination -- to the editor-in-chief, not to the senior editor emeritus; a copy should also be sent to the MIS Quarterly office at misqreviewadm@csom.umn.edu.The names of senior editor emeriti can be found in the inside covers of past issues of MIS Quarterly.
The editor-in-chief may exercise his or her discretion to choose any person (including a current associate editor) to be an acting senior editor, who would serve as the senior editor for a given manuscript. No nominations by authors are allowed in this situation. A senior editor, upon receiving a manuscript from an author, may forward it to the editor-in-chief with the recommendation that an acting senior editor be considered. Because a person should already be familiar with the MIS Quarterly ethos and reviewing culture in order to serve satisfactorily as an acting senior editor, such appointments will be rare.
Authors should also offer reviewer nominations. Authors are encouraged to nominate up to four candidates for reviewers. A nominee for reviewer should be knowledgeable about the topics or methods found in the paper. An attempt will be made to select at least one of the reviewer nominations.
The nominees for senior editor, associate editor, and reviewers must
have no conflict of interest with any of the authors of the paper being
submitted.
A conflict of interest includes, but is not limited to, situations where
the nominee is any of the following:
- An author's student or former student.
- An author's academic advisor or former advisor.
- Someone who has co-authored with an author during the past five years.
- Someone located at the same institution as an author at the time of the paper's submission.
All nominations should be given at the same time that the manuscript is submitted. The author's cover letter (preferably, in the form of an e-mail) should mention:
- The names of the nominated senior editors (at least two).
- The names of the nominated associate editors (at least two).
- The names of the nominated reviewers (up to four).
For each nominated reviewer, provide:
- Electronic mail address
- Institutional affiliation
The cover letter should also contain the following statement:
"The nominees for senior editor, associate editor, and reviewers have no conflict of interest with any of the authors of the paper being submitted."
MIS Quarterly will strongly consider the nominees for reviewers and editors. A senior editor may decline a manuscript and pass it to another senior editor. The selection of an associate editor is always at the discretion of the senior editor, and the selection of reviewers is always at the discretion of the senior and associate editors.
For first-time authors, a sample cover letter is available at http://www.misq.org/roadmap/covlet.htm.
Revision Process
Revision procedures can take two routes. If the revision is moderate or slight, the manuscript will be returned to the associate editor to see if the recommended changes were made satisfactorily. If the revision is extensive, the paper may be sent out for rereview (normally to a subset of the original reviewers). The process described above will be repeated as necessary.