| name | misq-submission |
| description | Use for the final pre-submission preflight of a MIS Quarterly manuscript — confirming the ScholarOne workflow, Word-file format, double-anonymous compliance, the correct manuscript category and its page limit, the pluralistic transparency commitment uploaded at Step 2, and the reviewer-service agreement. Verifies submission readiness; it does not polish prose (misq-writing-style) or interpret decisions (misq-review-process). |
Submission Preflight (misq-submission)
When to trigger
- You are ready to submit and need a final compliance pass
- You are unsure which category to declare or whether you are within its page limit
- You need to prepare the transparency commitment uploaded during submission
- You want to avoid an administrative return before review
Submission channel and file
- ScholarOne Manuscripts is the only accepted submission method. Submit the manuscript as a Word (.doc/.docx) file following the MISQ Style Guide.
- No fee to submit a manuscript for review.
Declare the right category and check the page limit
Self-select the manuscript category and confirm the page count — which includes all content (text, tables, figures, references, appendices):
- Research Article — 50 pp (primary category)
- Research Notes — roughly half a Research Article
- Theory Development — 55 pp
- Theory-Generative Research Synthesis — 65 pp
- Issues and Opinions / Design Science — verify exact limits at misq.umn.edu/categories-lengths (待核实)
Over-length submissions and revisions are returned to authors, and supplementary materials are generally discouraged — all primary evidence and main claims must fit inside the page limit.
Double-anonymous compliance
MISQ uses double-anonymous review: the manuscript must contain no identifying information. Remove author names, affiliations, self-identifying citations, acknowledgements, grant numbers, and identifying site/dataset names from the main file. (Identities are known to the EIC, Senior Editor, Associate Editor, and editorial staff — never to reviewers.)
Upload the transparency commitment
MISQ's pluralistic research-transparency policy requires a transparency commitment declared/uploaded during submission (Step 2: Upload Files, under Miscellaneous). Prepare genre-appropriate documentation of the study's design, data, and analysis, plus procedures and/or code sufficient to permit replication. Consider replication badges and the AIS Transactions on Replication Research collaboration.
Accept the reviewer-service obligation
By submitting, authors agree to review up to three papers per year for the journal if invited. Be ready to honor it.
First-page and formatting check
- First page: title, abstract, and 5–10 specific keywords.
- APA 7th references; in-text citations lead with the information, not the author.
- Major heads bold/all caps/centered; subheads title case.
Checklist
Anti-patterns
- Planning an online appendix to dodge the page limit (supplements are discouraged).
- Leaving self-identifying citations or acknowledgements in a double-anonymous file.
- Treating the transparency commitment as optional or generic rather than genre-appropriate.
- Declaring a category whose page budget the manuscript exceeds.
Submission readiness pass for MIS Quarterly
Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the IS phenomenon, artifact/platform, theory mechanism, design or empirical warrant, and managerial implication; then test whether the manuscript addresses information-systems reviewers who expect strong IS theory, digital artifact or platform grounding, and evidence with organizational consequence.
- Primary move: Verify portal, article type, anonymity, declarations, files, data/code, and current source-map facts; return blockers before formatting advice.
- Decision ledger: return
claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
- Neighbor test: compare against Information Systems Research for quantitative IS, Journal of Management Information Systems for applied systems, Management Science for broader OR/MS; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
- Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open
resources/official-source-map.md for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.
Output format
【Channel/file】ScholarOne + Word: ready
【Category/length】declared category within limit (counts all): yes/trim
【Anonymity】no identifying info: yes/fix
【Transparency commitment】procedures/code package for Step 2: ready/gaps
【First page/style】title+abstract+5-10 keywords; APA7/MISQ: pass
【Next step】misq-review-process
