Editorial

Over the last year the journal has moved steadily forward. We have published 30 Case-Oriented Papers in Volume 55 and this is up on the corresponding figure for the previous volume and only slightly lower than the figure for 2 years ago. While we are pleased with this, we continue to be concerned that there is still a lack of papers reporting all of the exciting real-world uses of Operational Research that we hear about at conferences and from practitioners at meetings. More case-oriented papers are always welcome. In addition we have published five Practice Notes, short case study papers. In our opinion, a true OR contribution balances theory and practice; and the publication of papers of this type is a special feature of the Journal of the Operational Research Society and helps distinguish it from other OR journals.

There have been one Special Issue and three Part Special Issues in Volume 55. The topics covered in Volume 55 were OR in Defence (full issue) and Intelligent Management Systems in Operations, Local Search and Data Envelopment Analysis (part issues). The special issue on defence had the support of a distinguished general. This year a Special Issue on the topic of Meeting Health Challenges with OR will be appearing soon. Other Special Issues are planned and in many cases are at an advanced stage, including Problem Structuring and Credit Scoring. We have also published Invited Reviews on Heuristic Solution Methods and OR in the UK Ministry of Defence and more reviews will be appearing this year.

UK research assessment exercise

It was pleasing for us that in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in UK universities many academics chose to put forward papers published in this journal as part of the four pieces of output each person had to submit. The assessment period covered the years of publication 1995–2000. It is even more pleasing to note that in an analysis of universities making submissions to be considered by the Business and Management Panel Journal of the Operational Research Society scored particularly highly. According to research by Geary et al¹Journal of the Operational Research Society was the third most highly cited journal across all submissions and for the most highly rated departments the journal was the most frequently cited of all. This is particularly encouraging, especially given that the journal, in this situation, is competing not just against OR journals but against all business and management journals.

KMRP

The year 2004 saw the launch of the new journal Knowledge Management Research and Practice. Initially this journal has been bundled in with Journal of the Operational Research Society, in the way that the European Journal of Information Systems was launched, but will in due course become completely independent. Under the stewardship of John Edwards this journal is already making great strides.

Advanced online publication

During 2004 papers began to appear in a new mode—advanced online publication. Although the journal has a relatively short gap between acceptance of a paper and its appearance in print, there is always a gap while an issue is being printed during which a readership could become aware of a paper. It is now our practice that almost all papers appear in an online form prior to appearing in an issue of the journal.

Changes in style of submitted papers

In common with many journals we wish to present references in papers in Harvard Style (ordered alphabetically), replacing our existing use of Vancouver Style (ordered in citation order). We are requesting authors of all papers submitted from now on to use Harvard style. This change will make revising papers easier for authors and will increase flexibility. There will, however, be a period where we will have to ask authors to switch styles in order to achieve consistency in a particular issue. We hope that you will be patient with the editors. At the same time we are introducing section numbering, which makes cross-referencing easier. It is intended that papers published in 2006 will conform to these style changes. The Information for Contributors section of the issues will give fuller details.

We hope that you have enjoyed the journal over the last year and will continue to do so for the papers to be published in 2005. We thank all our authors and referees for their continued support, and of course the readership who continue to regard Journal of the Operational Research Society as a leading OR journal in the international domain. We offer our thanks to all our authors and referees, and staff of the Operational Research Society, in particular the Editorial Administrator, Sarah Parry who works very hard to keep up with increasing demands from authors, referees and editors. We also thank staff at our publisher, Palgrave, particularly Jane Torr and Rachel Young (who has now moved on and has been replaced by Mariam Hasan). Thanks also go to the members of the International Advisory Board who have given us much important and useful advice based on their own extensive experience as editors, authors, referees and OR specialists. All these people contribute to the day-to-day running of the journal and ultimately to its success with the readership.