jmis-review-process

Review Process (jmis-review-process)

When to trigger

• Before submitting, to understand who decides and how long it takes at JMIS
• A decision letter arrived and you need to read its severity correctly before responding
• You are weighing JMIS against MISQ/ISR/JAIS on process and turnaround
• You want to know what a desk-reject vs. a review-and-reject signals

How JMIS review actually runs

JMIS is an Editor-in-Chief-led journal: founding and current EIC Vladimir Zwass receives submissions directly by email and steers the process. Papers are refereed in a double-anonymized process by internationally recognized expert referees and by Associate Editors on the Editorial Board. Practically, this means:

• The EIC is the first gate. A paper that is out of scope (not an IS-management/economics question), over length, or not anonymized can be returned or desk-rejected before external review. Fit is judged against JMIS's management/economics-of-IS identity, not generic IS breadth.
• AEs and referees carry the substantive review. Expect method-literate referees who will press on identification (empirical), assumptions and insight (analytical), measurement and CMB (behavioral), and utility-vs-baselines (design-science) — and on whether the contribution matters for IS management.
• Decisions typically span reject, major revision, minor revision, and (rarely on a first round) accept. A major revision is an opportunity, not a soft reject; a reject-and-resubmit is distinct from a revision and resets the clock. (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准.)

Read the decision letter for what it is asking

Signal in the letter	What it usually means	Posture
"Contribution to IS is unclear / incremental"	A framing problem, possibly fatal if the question is not IS-management-shaped	Revisit jmis-contribution-framing; consider fit
"Identification / endogeneity" (empirical)	Reviewers doubt the causal claim	Strengthen design/analysis before reframing
"Construct validity / common-method bias" (behavioral)	Measurement is not trusted	Fix measurement model; re-test CMB
"Robustness / generalizability"	Effect believed but not yet solid	Add robustness; bound the claim
Desk return for length/anonymization	Process, not substance	Fix and resubmit per jmis-submission

What the EIC-led model means for you, concretely

Because intake is the EIC's email and the EIC steers assignment, two things follow that a portal-driven journal would not surface. First, scope discipline is front-loaded: the EIC can return a paper that is not an IS-management/economics question before it ever reaches a referee, so the time you spend at jmis-topic-selection and jmis-contribution-framing is the cheapest insurance against a fast return. Second, the AE is your interlocutor on the substance: the AE synthesizes the referees and signals the editorial direction, so when you eventually respond (jmis-rebuttal) you are persuading the AE that concerns are resolved, not just answered. Read the AE letter as the decision; read the referee reports as the evidence the AE is weighing.

Match the review style to your evidence type

The substantive pressure differs by archetype, and anticipating it shortens the cycle:

Archetype	Where referees press hardest
IT-value / firm econometrics	endogeneity of IT investment; whether the design supports a causal verb
platform / e-commerce	selection on platform data; whether the network mechanism is identified, not assumed
behavioral survey / experiment	construct validity, discriminant validity, common-method bias, manipulation realism
analytical / economic model	the assumptions, and whether the insight survives relaxing them
design-science / ML	utility vs. credible baselines and managerial relevance, not algorithmic novelty

Calibrate timing and expectations

JMIS is a quarterly with a single EIC and a board of AEs; turnaround depends on referee availability, so plan for a multi-month first round and budget real time for a major revision. Exact current turnaround statistics are 待核实 — check the journal page or recent author reports rather than assuming. Treat a major-revision invitation as a genuine path to acceptance if you can answer the substantive concerns, and do not confuse it with a reject.

Checklist

• You know the decision type (desk return / reject / reject-resubmit / major / minor / accept) and what resets the clock
• The binding concern is classified (fit / identification / measurement / robustness / process)
• You have separated fatal framing problems from fixable evidence gaps
• Expectations on timing are realistic for an EIC-led quarterly
• Any quoted turnaround/acceptance statistic is marked 待核实 unless sourced
• The revise-vs-reroute decision rule has been applied to the binding concern
• The AE letter, not the raw referee reports, is read as the decision signal

Anti-patterns

• Reading a major revision as a polite rejection (or vice versa)
• Responding before classifying whether the core problem is fit, evidence, or process
• Assuming a fast portal-style turnaround — this is an EIC-led email process
• Treating a desk return for length/anonymization as a substantive rejection
• Quoting acceptance rates or review times as fact without a source
• Revising a paper whose core problem is fit, on sunk-cost grounds, instead of rerouting
• Treating the referee reports as the decision rather than the AE's synthesizing letter
• Underestimating how front-loaded scope discipline is in an EIC-managed intake

Decide whether to revise or reroute

Not every revision invitation is worth taking, and a clean reject sometimes signals a fit problem better solved by rerouting. Use a simple decision rule: if the binding concern is fit/contribution and the question is not really an IS-management/economics question, a revision will likely fail again — reconsider whether MISQ, ISR, JAIS, or an economics/CS venue is the true home before reinvesting. If the binding concern is evidence (identification, measurement, robustness) and you can plausibly produce the missing analysis within the revision window, a major revision is a genuine path to acceptance. If it is process (length, anonymization, scope-of-claims), fix and resubmit. Sunk-cost reasoning — "we already emailed it to JMIS" — is not a reason to revise a paper whose question belongs elsewhere.

Set author expectations before the wait

Tell coauthors what an EIC-led quarterly looks like so silence is not misread: a multi-month first round is normal, a major revision is the most common positive first-round outcome at a top journal, and the AE's letter — not the harshest referee — sets the agenda for the revision. Decide up front who will own which class of revision (identification, measurement, exhibits, prose) so that when the letter arrives the team moves into jmis-rebuttal without relitigating roles.

Output format

【Decision type】desk-return / reject / reject-resubmit / major / minor / accept
【Binding concern】fit / identification / measurement / robustness / process
【Fatal vs. fixable】[...]
【Timing expectation】realistic horizon (statistics 待核实)
【Next step】jmis-rebuttal (if revision) or revisit earlier skill (if framing/fit)