---
name: misq-submission
description: Use for the final pre-submission preflight of a MIS Quarterly manuscript — confirming the ScholarOne workflow, Word-file format, double-anonymous compliance, the correct manuscript category and its page limit, the pluralistic transparency commitment uploaded at Step 2, and the reviewer-service agreement. Verifies submission readiness; it does not polish prose (misq-writing-style) or interpret decisions (misq-review-process).
---

# Submission Preflight (misq-submission)

## When to trigger

- You are ready to submit and need a final compliance pass
- You are unsure which category to declare or whether you are within its page limit
- You need to prepare the transparency commitment uploaded during submission
- You want to avoid an administrative return before review

## Submission channel and file

- **ScholarOne Manuscripts is the only accepted submission method.** Submit the manuscript as a **Word (.doc/.docx)** file following the MISQ Style Guide.
- **No fee to submit** a manuscript for review.

## Declare the right category and check the page limit

Self-select the manuscript category and confirm the page count — which includes **all content (text, tables, figures, references, appendices)**:
- Research Article — **50 pp** (primary category)
- Research Notes — roughly **half** a Research Article
- Theory Development — **55 pp**
- Theory-Generative Research Synthesis — **65 pp**
- Issues and Opinions / Design Science — verify exact limits at misq.umn.edu/categories-lengths (待核实)

Over-length submissions and revisions are returned to authors, and **supplementary materials are generally discouraged** — all primary evidence and main claims must fit inside the page limit.

## Double-anonymous compliance

MISQ uses **double-anonymous review**: the manuscript must contain **no identifying information**. Remove author names, affiliations, self-identifying citations, acknowledgements, grant numbers, and identifying site/dataset names from the main file. (Identities are known to the EIC, Senior Editor, Associate Editor, and editorial staff — never to reviewers.)

## Upload the transparency commitment

MISQ's pluralistic research-transparency policy requires a **transparency commitment declared/uploaded during submission (Step 2: Upload Files, under Miscellaneous)**. Prepare genre-appropriate documentation of the study's design, data, and analysis, plus **procedures and/or code sufficient to permit replication**. Consider replication badges and the AIS Transactions on Replication Research collaboration.

## Accept the reviewer-service obligation

By submitting, **authors agree to review up to three papers per year** for the journal if invited. Be ready to honor it.

## First-page and formatting check

- First page: title, abstract, and **5–10 specific keywords**.
- APA 7th references; in-text citations lead with the information, not the author.
- Major heads bold/all caps/centered; subheads title case.

## Checklist

- [ ] Submitting via ScholarOne as a Word (.doc/.docx) file
- [ ] Correct category declared and within its page limit (limit counts everything)
- [ ] No supplementary materials relied on to carry main evidence
- [ ] Manuscript fully anonymized (no identifying information)
- [ ] Transparency commitment prepared for Step 2 (procedures/code for replication)
- [ ] First page has title, abstract, 5–10 keywords; APA 7 / MISQ style applied
- [ ] Aware of the up-to-three-reviews-per-year service obligation

## Anti-patterns

- Planning an online appendix to dodge the page limit (supplements are discouraged).
- Leaving self-identifying citations or acknowledgements in a double-anonymous file.
- Treating the transparency commitment as optional or generic rather than genre-appropriate.
- Declaring a category whose page budget the manuscript exceeds.


## Submission readiness pass for MIS Quarterly

Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the IS phenomenon, artifact/platform, theory mechanism, design or empirical warrant, and managerial implication; then test whether the manuscript addresses information-systems reviewers who expect strong IS theory, digital artifact or platform grounding, and evidence with organizational consequence.

- **Primary move:** Verify portal, article type, anonymity, declarations, files, data/code, and current source-map facts; return blockers before formatting advice.
- **Decision ledger:** return `claim / evidence / blocker / next edit` rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
- **Neighbor test:** compare against Information Systems Research for quantitative IS, Journal of Management Information Systems for applied systems, Management Science for broader OR/MS; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
- **Verification floor:** before submission-ready advice, re-open `resources/official-source-map.md` for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

## Output format

```
【Channel/file】ScholarOne + Word: ready
【Category/length】declared category within limit (counts all): yes/trim
【Anonymity】no identifying info: yes/fix
【Transparency commitment】procedures/code package for Step 2: ready/gaps
【First page/style】title+abstract+5-10 keywords; APA7/MISQ: pass
【Next step】misq-review-process
```