Starting in 2022, the Finance Section of INFORMS has sponsored The Best Paper Award on Financial Engineering in the Journal “Operations Research” (the Best OR Paper Award)
Papers will be evaluated based on their contributions to financial engineering regarding theory, modeling, methodology, computation, and empirics.
The chair of the Finance Section is responsible for initiating and leading the selection process for the award-winning paper, which consists of two stages as outlined below.
Determine the set of qualified papers
The qualified papers consist of all papers published by the Financial Engineering Department of the journal “Operations Research” (for the Best OR Paper Award), including special issues.
To be considered for the award, papers must have been published in the prior three years and not already have won the Best Paper Award. For example, for the 2022 award, only papers published from 2019 to 2021 would qualify. The journal publication date is used for this determination rather than the Article-in-Advance publication date.
A paper that previously won the award is not eligible for future awards.
Stage 1 – Associate Editors select a set of finalists
Each associate editor can nominate one paper for the award by writing a short statement highlighting the reasons behind the nomination. An associate editor can also opt for a null nomination. Self-nominations are allowed.
The set of finalists, consisting of all nominations, will be forwarded to the chair of the Finance Section.
Stage 2 – Department Editors and the Officers of the Finance Section make a final selection
The chair of the Finance Section will call for a committee to vote on the final selection. The committee members eligible to vote in Stage 2 include the Officers of the Finance Section of INFORMS (which consists of the chair, vice-chair, treasurer, and the board members of the section) and the eligible editors of the Financial Engineering Department (OR Journal). The eligible department editors must either be a member of the Finance Section of INFORMS or have a special invitation from the chair of the Finance Section.
The committee is provided with the list of the finalists from Stage 1 to vote. `No award’ is also a choice in the voting. One vote per voter is given.
The paper receiving the most votes is given the Best Paper Award. No award is given if the `no award’ choice receives the most votes (including a tie). If there is a tie for the most votes and the `no award’ choice is not in the tie, the tied papers will share the award.
Timeline
The following timeline will be followed:
Stage 1. The result shall be delivered to the chair of the Finance Section by June 30th.
Stage 2. The voting process will be finished by July 30th, and the chair of the Finance Section will announce the final result to both INFORMS and the awardees.
The award will be given during the annual business meeting of the Finance Section of INFORMS.
Awards
The award winner receives $500, distributed equally among the co-authors of the awarded paper. The INFORMS Finance Section provides funding for both awards.