Designing and developing OM research – from concept to publication

Purpose: Our purpose is to identify similarities and differences between qualitative-based and quantitative-based research, and to present recommendations for designing and conducting the research so that the possibilities of publishing it in leading OM Journals are improved.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes it outset in contributions made at the 2016 European Operations Management Association Young Scholars Workshop. The theme of the workshop was “Designing and developing research projects in Operations Management – from concept to publication”. Taking the perspectives of the case researcher, the survey researcher and the editor/reviewer, we present and discuss our views on and experiences with designing research for publication.

Findings: We identify a number of recommendations that researchers should use when designing, conducting and presenting their research for publication. The recommendations include the need to clearly and concisely establish relevance, account for choice of methodology as well as the operationalization, sampling, analytical and validation methods used, and demonstrate the contribution of the paper in the discussion section. Furthermore, we draw attention to the importance of developing a publication strategy as early as possible. Other important aspects include the title of the paper, keywords selection and rejection criteria. Finally, we stress the importance of “total quality management” in designing and executing OM research. Originality/value – Going beyond the standard author guidelines found at journal web sites, we present a collection of viewpoints, which are based on our experiences as reviewers, editors and evaluators of OM research projects and their designs