[AISWorld] Call for Nominations: Editor in Chief, MIS Quarterly

[Jan DeGross]

Nominations. The Policy Committee of the MIS Quarterly (MISQ) invites 
nominations in writing from the Management Information Systems research 
community during the period February 1 to February 28, 2012, for the 
position of Editor-in-Chief (EIC) for a three-year term from January 1, 
2013, to December 31, 2015. Based on the policy committee’s 
deliberations on the state of the journal, extension to the EIC’s term 
could be considered at the end of the first term. A nominator should 
determine in advance of forwarding a nomination that a candidate is 
willing to be considered, and explicitly note this in his or her letter. 
The current EIC, Professor Detmar Straub, Georgia State University, will 
complete a successful term of editorial service with the journal as of 
December 31, 2012. MISQ is widely recognized as a premier academic 
journal in the field of Management Information Systems. The journal is 
published four times each year. It is published by the University of 
Minnesota, which makes it available by subscription in print or 
electronic form, and in electronic form via EBSCO and the Association 
for Information Systems (AIS).

Responsibilities. The MISQ EIC is responsible for setting the editorial 
vision for the journal, in consultation with the Editorial Board and 
MISQ’s key stakeholders. Other primary responsibilities include managing 
the MISQ Editorial Board; selecting Associate and Senior Editors in 
consultation with the current Senior Editors; developing Associate 
Editors; planning for the contents of special issues and identifying and 
approving Special Issue Editors; serving as Senior Editor on Issues & 
Opinions articles and other submissions where appropriate; overseeing 
the selection of Best Paper and Best Reviewer Awards; overseeing the 
review process to ensure that papers are processed efficiently; 
maintaining a strong working relationship with MISQ Publisher’s Office 
at the University of Minnesota; and carrying out liaison and leadership 
work for the field of MIS with the global constituency of the journal in 
mind. The EIC also deals with all plagiarism cases brought to the 
attention of the journal. Another key responsibility is to serve as the 
international ambassador for the journal; this requires the EIC to 
travel domestically and internationally in response to invitations. A 
report on the current EIC’s responsibilities and accomplishments can be 
found at 
http://misq.org/skin/frontend/default/misq/pdf/MISQStats/EIC_Report.pdf

For each issue, the MISQ EIC also writes an editorial. The editing of 
published articles for the journal, the production of the printed 
journal issues, and financial budgeting and operations planning are 
handled by the Publisher and the MISQ Staff at the University of 
Minnesota. Oversight of the MISQ EIC’s activities is provided by the 
MISQ Policy Committee. The expectation is for the EIC to consult with 
the Policy Committee and the Publisher’s Office on all matters that 
deviate from the established policies and practices of the journal. In 
addition, the EIC is expected to be a major contributor to the decision 
making process on changes in the electronic reviewing system. The 
current EIC estimates the time per week on MISQ editorial work to be 
highly variable, but the average across the entire year would be 
something between 35 to 40 hours, including travel time.

Qualifications. The key qualifications for the MISQ EIC position include 
(1) senior editorial experience at one of the leading journals in the 
MIS field (e.g., MISQ preferred, but also Management Science, 
Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, 
Journal of the Association for Information Systems, etc.); (2) evidence 
of significant scholarship and research contributions to the field of 
MIS; (3) awareness of the state-of-the-art in MIS research, and a 
personal commitment to nurturing new ideas and supporting an agenda for 
research in the field that embraces the full scope of scholarship in the 
community; (4) a track record of working well with people, being a 
strong communicator, managing editorial work to deadlines, pursuing 
decisions in a consultative manner, balancing detailed and high-level 
issues in his/her work, and other management experience; (5) evidence of 
significant support from the candidate’s college or university in terms 
of course teaching releases, summer salary, and/or a budget for office 
staff and travel; and (6) the ability and commitment to sustain a heavy 
service workload in service to the MIS field for three years, in view of 
career, family, and personal considerations. An additional desirable 
characteristic is evidence of leadership in the IS discipline, for 
example, chairing AIS and INFORMS conferences, and elected or appointed 
roles in professional organizations related to the discipline.

Selection Process. The selection process will consist of two phases. The 
first phase is the nomination phase, in which the MISQ Policy Committee 
is requesting nominations for candidates. The nomination phase will 
conclude on February 28, 2012, with invitations made several days later 
to the most promising candidates to submit a current CV, a “Statement of 
University Support,” and “a Vision Statement” for their role as MISQ EIC 
no later than March 31, 2012. The second phase will involve the 
evaluation of candidates by the Policy Committee, based on the submitted 
information. During this phase, the Policy Committee will screen the 
nominees, conduct group telephone interviews, consult with senior 
research leaders in the field to determine the appropriateness of the 
candidates, and make a final decision, resulting in an invitation for a 
new EIC. The earliest completion date for this phase is May 30, 2012, 
with interviews to occur during last two weeks of April 2012. The 
overall goal is to make it possible for a new candidate to begin 
“shadowing” the current EIC in early July 2012, so that the incoming EIC 
has six months to establish an understanding of the journal’s operations 
and activities, and the people involved.

Statement of University Support. Given the extensive commitment of time 
that is required from the MISQ EIC, the Policy Committee requests a 
brief one-page “Statement of University Support” letter from nominees 
who pass the first screening phase for the MISQ EIC position. This first 
required statement should indicate any specifics for the support that 
the candidate’s Dean’s Office is willing to provide to them in this 
work. Nominees who pass the initial screening phase are welcome to 
consult with the current MISQ EIC or the Search Committee Chair about 
the kinds of support that he/she may be able to obtain.

Vision Statement. In addition, nominees who pass the first phase 
screening for the MISQ EIC by the Policy Committee will be invited to 
respond to the following four points in a “Vision Statement”: (1) your 
evaluation of the current state of the journal based on your knowledge 
of the MISQ; (2) the directions that you believe the MISQ should take 
during the coming three years; (3) how you see your role as EIC in 
identifying the critical operational and developmental issues for MISQ, 
and for moving research forward in the MIS field; and (4) any personal 
issues that you may have related to the EIC position, or personal 
requirements that need to be discussed. Nominees should present this 
second required statement in no more than 5 pages, with 11-point, 
1.5-space fonts.

Making the Nomination. Nominations for the next MISQ EIC should include 
a letter of support from the nominator to any of the members of the MISQ 
Policy Committee, with a copy to the following address: 
misq.eicsearch at gmail.com. Self-nominations are discouraged. The MIS 
Quarterly Policy Committee consists of

• Alok Gupta, Policy Committee & MISQ EIC Search Committee Chair, MISQ 
Publisher, University of Minnesota, alok at umn.edu
• Kalle Lyytinen, AIS VP for Publications, Case Western Reserve 
University, kjl13 at case.edu
• Allen Lee, AIS representative-at-large, Virginia Commonwealth 
University, aslee at vcu.edu
• Gautam Ray, University of Minnesota Representative , University of 
Minnesota, rayxx153 at umn.edu
• Detmar Straub, current MISQ EIC, Georgia State University, 
dstraub at cis.gsu.edu

The MIS Quarterly and the University of Minnesota are committed to 
achieving diversity in making appointments, relative to levels of 
professional experience, institutional types represented, gender and 
ethnicity, and geographic origin. The University of Minnesota is an 
equal opportunity educator and employer.