Institute For Operations Research and The Management Sciences - Overview

Overview

According to INFORMS constitution, the Institute's purpose is to improve operational processes, decision-making, and management by individuals and organizations through operations research, the management sciences, and related scientific methods. The constitution provides that the mission of INFORMS is to lead in the development, dissemination and implementation of knowledge, basic and applied research and technologies in operations research, the management sciences, and related methods of improving operational processes, decision-making, and management. To those ends INFORMS declared that it would strive to: a. support efforts to extend, unify and integrate related branches of knowledge and practice; b. support the free interchange of information relevant to the purposes of the Institute; c. promote greater use of this knowledge by all organizations and the general public; d. encourage the education of students and the continuing education of practitioners in these fields of knowledge; e. promote high professional standards and integrity in all work done in the field.

Legal Status

INFORMS is organized, and must operate, exclusively for scientific or educational purposes as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The Institute serves the scientific and professional needs of operations research educators, investigators, scientists, students, managers, and consultants, as well as the organizations they serve.

Activities

INFORMS publishes 12 scholarly journals about operations research, including the first and second journals in their class, according to Journal Citation Reports (2005).

The Institute organizes national and international conferences for academics, professionals, and members of the society's special interest groups. It also serves as a focal point for OR professionals by facilitating communication among members of the society, with members of other professional societies, and with their clients.

INFORMS is a member of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies and the host of the open-source initiative for operations research, COIN-OR. Operations research applies advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.

Trivia

Before ORSA and TIMS merged, there was a contest to coin a name for the new organization. Robert Saltzman and Richard Bradford came up with the acronym.