INFORMS Open Forum

2025 RAS Student Paper Competition Announcement

RAS (Railway Applications Section), a subdivision of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences), is sponsoring our student paper research contest on innovative analytics and fact-based decision making in railway applications with three cash prizes totaling US$1,400. Papers accepted as submissions may include academic works fit for journals as well as reports fit for PhD student case studies.

First Prize: $800
Second Prize: $ 400
Third Prize: $200

Rules:

1. The paper must be written by one or more BSc/MSc/PhD students enrolled in an academic institution at any time during the year ending on the submission deadline. For example, a student now employed who graduated earlier in the year is acceptable.
2. One or more advisers may appear as co-authors of a paper, but the student(s) must be the "primary author" and the content must be at least 80% attributable to the student authors. Advisers of finalist papers will be contacted to verify this information.
3. The paper must demonstrate a subject area of OR/MS that is representative of INFORMS subjects, and may apply to any passenger or freight railway operator, or any supplier of technology or services to a railway operator.
4. The paper must represent original research (not literature reviews) and have not been previously published in a peer-reviewed journal, book, or published conference proceeding.
5. If the paper has been submitted to a journal and is currently under review by any publishers, please let us know where and when it was submitted, and at what stage of the review process it is. Please consider that the paper is eligible if not published before the deadline of the competition, which is June 20, 2025.
6. The paper is expected to follow a general structure and length suitable for a high-impact study. The judges may reject papers that are excessively long or inappropriately formatted.
7. The judges reserve the right to reject papers at an early stage in the competition due to irrelevant subject matter or fundamental errors in composition.
8. Papers must be written in US or UK English, as deemed appropriate for scientific works.
9. In the event of any disagreement over the enforcement of the rules, the decision of the judges is final.
10. RAS student paper award recipients must present their paper at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
11. The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the manuscript under human supervision Authors must not list or cite AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author.

Special Encouragement:
Students engaged in internships or research projects with rail companies are strongly encouraged to submit case study-based research highlighting the application of Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) methods. Submissions that demonstrate the translation of academic knowledge into industry practice are highly valued and will be recognized as an important contribution to the competition.

How to enter:

Deadline for submission is June 20, 2025

Submit your application to the competition chairs: Marcella Samà (marcella.sama@uniroma3.it) or Pengling Wang (pengling_wang@tongji.edu.cn)

Your submission should include full contact information, supervisor's name and contact, affiliations, manuscript and cover letter describing its merits.

Please refer in the subject of your email to 2025 INFORMS RAS Student Paper. 

Manuscript formatting: The manuscript length should not exceed 10,000 words including tables and figures (figures and tables would be counted as 250 word each). Therefore, the suggested paper length is less than 30 pages, including references. Additional relevant material can be submitted as an appendix file. The line spacing should be double-spaced. First page: paper title, authors' name(s) and affiliation(s). Second page: paper title and abstract (max 300 words). Third page through the final page: paper title and the main text.


Important dates:

• April 30, 2025 Competition announced
• June 20, 2025 Paper submission deadline
• September 26, 2025 Winners announced
• October 26-29, 2025 Presentation at 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

More info:

Chair:

Marcella Samà (Roma Tre University, Italy), marcella.sama@uniroma3.it 

Co-chairs:

Pengling Wang (Tongji University, China), pengling_wang@tongji.edu.cn 

Erick Wikum (Wikalytics, United States), erick@wikalytics.com 

Nikola Markovic (University of Utah, United States), nikola.markovic@utah.edu

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Peiran Han
Public Relations Officer, Railway Applications Section
Beijing Jiaotong University
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