---
name: misq-writing-style
description: Use when polishing the prose of a MIS Quarterly manuscript — front-loading the IS contribution, writing for an interdisciplinary IS audience that spans four traditions, applying APA 7th / MISQ Style Guide conventions (including MISQ's lead-with-the-information in-text citation style, heading format, and 5–10 keywords), and keeping the manuscript inside its page limit. Late-stage polish; do not invoke while the contribution is unsettled.
---

# Writing Style (misq-writing-style)

## When to trigger

- Prose is jargon-heavy, passive, or buries the IS contribution
- Citations/headings do not match APA 7th or the MISQ Style Guide
- The manuscript exceeds the category page limit
- You are finalizing the first page (title, abstract, keywords)

## Write for an interdisciplinary IS audience

MISQ readers come from all four traditions — behavioral, design science, economics, and organizational. A behavioral reader may not share an econometrician's vocabulary, and vice versa. Define tradition-specific terms on first use, state the IT artifact and the contribution in plain language up front, and avoid in-group jargon that only one subfield will parse. Front-load the argument: by the end of the introduction the reader should know the IS phenomenon, the artifact's role, the approach, and the contribution.

## Apply the MISQ Style Guide and APA 7th

- **Citations/references:** APA 7th edition. Note the MISQ convention that **in-text citations lead with the cited information, not the author name** — e.g., "... the best team in the nation (Smith & Jones, 1997)" rather than "Smith and Jones (1997) found...". Reconcile your reference manager's output to this.
- **Headings:** major heads bold, all caps, centered; subheads in title case.
- **First page:** title, abstract, and **5–10 specific keywords**. (The exact abstract word cap is 待核实; keep the abstract tight and concrete.)
- **File:** prepared as a Word (.doc/.docx) document per the submission guidelines.

## Respect the page limit while editing

The page limit counts everything (text, tables, figures, references, appendices) and over-length manuscripts are returned. Editing for style here doubles as editing for length: cut redundancy, fold overlapping paragraphs, and tighten methods boilerplate so the contribution — not filler — fills the budget.

## Keep anonymity in the prose

MISQ uses double-anonymous review and the manuscript must contain no identifying information. While polishing, scrub self-identifying citations ("in our prior work [Author, 2021]"), acknowledgements, grant numbers, and identifying dataset/site names from the main file.

## Checklist

- [ ] Contribution and IT artifact stated plainly in the introduction
- [ ] Tradition-specific jargon defined; readable across the four IS traditions
- [ ] APA 7th references; in-text citations lead with the information, not the author
- [ ] Major heads bold/all caps/centered; subheads title case
- [ ] First page has title, abstract, and 5–10 specific keywords
- [ ] Within the category page limit; no identifying information in the file

## Anti-patterns

- A buried contribution that surfaces only in the discussion.
- Author-led citation phrasing throughout, against MISQ's lead-with-the-information style.
- Subfield jargon that locks out three of the four IS traditions.
- Trimming substance instead of redundancy to meet the page limit.


## Style execution 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:** Rewrite the opening and transitions so the venue-level claim, evidence object, and contribution are visible before technical detail.
- **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

```
【Front-loading】contribution + artifact in intro: yes/fix
【Audience readability】jargon defined across traditions: yes/fix
【APA7 / MISQ style】citations/headings/keywords: pass/issues
【Length & anonymity】within limit; no identifiers: yes/fix
【Next step】misq-submission
```