Submission Guidelines
Although this journal is only partially sponsored/supported by the Service Science Section of INFORMS, we aim at eventually rolling this journal back to INFORMS entirely. So we chose the INFORMS’ publication style for authors to prepare their manuscripts.

Highlights of Service Science:
By taking advantage of the new Internet technology, Service Science will be substantially different from any current journals. For example, it has the following unique characteristics:

1. A quick review and publication process (e.g., 3 months).
2. Free public access to promote fast diffusion and dissemination.
3. Wiki capability to promote timely discussion and research collaboration.
4. Editorials from the editorial board to stimulate the debates around the "hot and emerging" topics.
5. More contributions from practitioners. As practitioners would have more insightful information on the service-led economy and understand better the underlying issues, the challenges facing the developed and developing economies can be understood and accordingly addressed in a timely manner.

Author Guidelines
Service Science is dedicated to publishing papers of the highest quality and the broadest significance that scientifically address the problems, interests and concerns of people who are involved in service research, education, and practice.

Wiki authors contribute, share, and exchange ideas and thoughts faster. You might come across some discussions with other scholars in a real time fashion.

Length and Style Requirements

1. Papers should not exceed 40 pages, including all references, tables, graphs and appendices (except material intended for publication as an on-line supplement to the paper, which does not count in the 40 page total).
2. Double-spacing should be used throughout, including abstract, references and footnotes.
3. Papers should have one inch margins on all sides and use 11 point font.
4. Manuscripts should include a non-mathematical abstract of not more than 200 words that communicates the contribution of the paper to general readers as clearly as possible.  It is important that your abstract not contain mathematical notation that may be difficult to properly present in Web browsers.  The abstract is not only part of the full article (print and online) but, more importantly, it might be reused and remapped by a variety of online portals and metadata databases, some of which are text only.  Please provide a text-only abstract, or, if that is absolutely impossible, try to minimize the use of math symbols and please completely avoid accented variables.
5. References should be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper in conformance with journal style. In-text citations should be indicated by the authors’ last name and year of publication, e.g., (Normam 1977) or Norman (1977).
6. Figures should be submitted in black and white.  In some situations, an exception may be made for publication of color figures or artwork.  The editor in chief's office must approve any color publication at a paper's acceptance, prior to publication.  The author is responsible for color publication fees and must pay them prior to publication.
7. All submissions should be accompanied by a list of three potential referees, including area of expertise, title, full mailing address, phone, fax and email. These suggested referees should not have a conflict of interest with the author(s). An author has a conflict of interest with: (a) his/her major professor or a student for whom the author served as a major professor, (b) people working at the same institution, (c) co-authors on work completed or in progress during the last four years.

Ethical Guidelines
Submission of a paper to Service Science for review means that the author certifies that:

1. The manuscript is not copyrighted and is not under review, has not been accepted for publication and has not been published by any refereed journal.
2. If the manuscript, or any similar version if it, has appeared or will appear in a non-refereed publication, the details of such publication must be made known to the Editor-in-Chief at the time of submission.
3. The results reported in the submitted manuscript are substantially new and do not include significant repetition of results reported in other submitted or published papers by the authors or other scholars (to the authors' best knowledge).
4. Any previous work by the author(s) that is relevant to the results of the submitted paper is properly cited.
5. If this manuscript, or an earlier version of it, was previously rejected by Service Science, this fact and the justification for resubmission has been clearly communicated to the Editor.

Manuscript Submission
All submissions must be made electronically at http://www.sersci.com/ServiceScience.

1. Log in: If you have not registered, you will have to register yourself first. Please fill in the entire registration form; the email address is used for all correspondence related to your submission.
2. Submit your paper on line: Once logged in, the site walks you through step by step for submitting a paper. The system accepts MS Word or PDF files. Papers written in Latex must be converted to PDF before submission, because the system does not convert Latex to PDF.  In addition to uploading your manuscript, you will be asked for an abstract, key words and a list of suggested referees who do not have any conflict of interest with you or your co-authors. All submissions to Service Science are expected to comply with the above Ethical Guidelines and Copyright Guidelines (see the copyright form below).

Review Process

1. Review for fit is made by the Editor. Only if the paper is deemed consistent with journal and objectives is it sent on for further review. This step should take less than two weeks.
2. Review for significance is made by the Editor. If the paper is not judged to have the potential to make a significant contribution to the literature, it will be returned to the authors. This step should take less than two weeks.
3. Detailed review will be made by at least two qualified reviewers. Based on Referee and Associate Editor recommendations, the Editor will decide whether the paper should be accepted as is, revised or rejected.
4. Timeline: Our goal is to provide feedback to all authors within 90 days. If the paper goes beyond 3 months in the review process it is considered LATE. You are within your rights to inquire of the Editor concerning the status of a late paper.

Decision

1. Email notification will be sent to the corresponding author announcing that a decision has been made. The possible decisions are: Reject, Major Revision Required, Minor Revision Required, and Accept. All feedbacks will be emailed to the corresponding author.
2. Authors should promptly act on the feedbacks from reviewers if a Revision-type decision is recommended.

Post Acceptance

Final submission: If the paper is conditionally accepted for publication you will be requested to submit the final version of your manuscript in Word or PDF, along with a signed copyright form (word or pdf).

More Information: If you have any questions, are unable to access the Web site, or are having trouble getting information on the status of your paper, please contact the Managing Editor (sseditor@sersci.com).