You spend a lot of time doing research, writing and (endlessly) revising your articles, and hope some of them will be published in top journals.   After an arduous journey, do you know how many people will actually read your article appearing in M&SOM (or other research journal)? 

I do not know the answer, but I suspect the number is probably (very) small.  How small?   Let us evaluate the readership of any OM research article appearing in top OM research journals such as M&SOM.  Suppose each active OM researcher belongs to at least one OM academic society (MSOM (1,600 members), POMS (1,900 members), and Euroma (750 members) and suppose s/he has easy access to M&SOM through direct subscription (or university subscription).  Then the maximum exposure of any M&SOM article is much less than 4,250 if we take overlapping memberships into consideration.  Now, suppose that only OM researchers with similar interest (in terms of topic and research method) would have potential interest in reading your M&SOM paper.  Then, by accounting for the fact that there are 6 special (topic) interest groups and 4 research methods (empirical, analytical (OR / economics), behavioral), the "effective" maximum exposure of your M&SOM article is much less than 177 = 4,250/24. (I know this number is not based on "hard science," but I am using this to make a point.  So, please do not argue whether it is 177 or 178 or a larger or a smaller number.) 

This is depressing and it will not get better unless we change ourselves. Can we change without the pain?  Yes, we can and here is how!   We must promote our OM research to a broader audience via free online access so that the knowledge and insights developed in various M&SOM articles can influence research and practice. 

To make this happen, I need your help to do "two" little things (without pain):

1. Crowd-sourcing.  All authors of M&SOM articles (accepted after January 1, 2015) are invited to distill the essence of their respective articles into online blogs (say, 1000-1500 words) without any technical jargon or analysis.   These free online M&SOM review blogs are intended to engage a broader audience: they must be self-contained and readable by OM practitioners and MBA students. 

   To ensure your blog is engaging and accessible, I would urge you to ask the communication staff writer at your school to assist you.  This is also a good way to get your school to issue press releases about your articles, which will certainly get your Dean's attention.  For example, Michael Lim, Ho-Yin Mak and Ying Rong published an article that examines the adoption of electric vehicles.  Their M&SOM journal article is technical, but their M&SOM review blog is not.   Check it out!

2. Crowd-distributing.   For those M&SOM review blogs posted on our journal website, please distribute them to your colleagues, friends, and industry contacts through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Email.  All you need to do is click on the "button" that is located on top of each MSOM review blog.  Just one click!  

Through Crowd-sourcing and Crowd-distributing, the online M&SOM review blog is an open access platform for us to promote M&SOM articles to a broader audience.  Also, by allowing others to "like" and post comment about your M&SOM review blog, we can create a more vibrant OM community that engages academics, practitioners, and graduate students.  Through this kind of interaction, our OM research community can learn more about issues arising from practice and the practitioners can benefit from our academic research.  

Can I count on you to help me with these two little things so that we can promote your research and MSOM at the same time?  

Little things can make big things happen--  "the legendary UCLA basketball coach" John Wooden