The George Nicholson Committee competition is held each year to identify and honor outstanding papers in the field of operations research and the management sciences written by a student.
The following conditions must be satisfied for eligibility:
- The entrant must have been a student on or after June 1 of the previous year under consideration;
- The paper must present original research results (a summary of multiple papers is not eligible);
- The research must have been conducted while the entrant was a student;
- One or more advisors may appear as co-authors of a paper, but the student's contributions must make up the majority of the paper. The advisor (or nominator) must explicitly comment upon and specify in a letter the percentage of contribution of the student;
- in defining the problem and initiating the research that resulted in the paper;
- in conducting the research itself that resulted in the paper;
- in writing the paper.
- An entrant can submit at most one paper to the competition, and the same paper cannot be submitted by multiple entrants. An entrant may appear as a co-author on another paper(s) submitted to the competition, as long as the other paper(s) is submitted by a different entrant(s);
- The paper must not have won a prize (1st-2nd) in a previous Nicholson Competition;
The paper is submitted in a blind format. Paper formatting requirements:
- The paper must use double spacing, 11 pt (or larger) font, and 1 inch (or larger) margins (left, right, top and bottom)
- The paper must be of standard letter size (A4 will not be accepted)
- The entire paper (including title, abstract, bibliography, appendices, figures, etc.) must not exceed 25 pages. The papers should be blind. That is there should be no authors names and affiliations, self citations should be done in a manner to not reveal the authors identity, no references to grants, full versions or other online versions should be present. Papers must be self-contained. In particular, references to ‘extended versions’ are not allowed and no credit will be given in the judging process for results that rely on such references. Apart from pages containing the bibliography, each page should contain no more than 30 lines of text.
A complete submission consists of:
- a blind paper in the specified format described above
- a letter signed by both a faculty advisor and the entrant attesting that the six eligibility conditions have been satisfied by the entrant and the paper.
- 600 character abstract for the conference program should the application be named a finalist
Note: the faculty advisor must explicitly comment upon and specify the percentage of contribution of the student in:
a. defining the problem and initiating the research that resulted in the paper;
b. in conducting the research itself that resulted in the paper;
c. in writing the paper.
The student must also state whether or not this paper (or its lengthened/shortened form) has ever been submitted for publication, is currently under review or has been published. If so, the journal(s) and the outcome of the review or the current review stage(s) should be provided
Prizes will be awarded and finalists will be invited to present their papers at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Submission Procedures for 2024:
All application materials must be submitted online.
Click here to submit your application
Submission Deadline: June 2, 2024
The student must also state whether or not this paper (or its lengthened/shortened form) has ever been submitted for publication, is currently under review or has been published. If so, the journal(s) and the outcome of the review or the current review stage(s) should be provided.
All entries must be submitted by June 2, 2024 (11:59 pm Eastern time).
2024 Committee Co-Chairs:
Siqian Shen, Michigan
Andrew Daw, USC