College of Service Operations: Best Student Paper Competition

The POMS College of Service Operations invites submissions to the 2027 College of Service Operations Best Student Paper Competition. We welcome paper submissions related to Service Operations Management.

The first prize is accompanied by a $1,000 honorarium, and up to 2 runner-up prizes are accompanied by a $500 honorarium. The winner and runners-up will be announced at the 2027 College of Service Operations Business Meeting during the 2027 POMS Annual Conference in Orlando, FL (USA) in April 2027.

Eligibility Conditions

• Entrants must have been a student on or after May 1, 2026, and the research presented in the paper must have been conducted while the entrant was a student.
• Entrants must be planning to attend the 2027 POMS Annual Conference in Orlando, FL.
• Entrants must submit an abstract of their submitted paper to the 2027 POMS Annual Conference by the POMS conference deadline of November 8, 2026. If selected as a finalist, they must present your paper in person at the 2027 POMS Annual Conference. Presenting is an integral component to this competition and must be done in person at the conference. If not selected as a finalist, applicants may choose to withdraw their abstract or not register for the conference.
• The submitted paper must present original research conducted primarily by the entrant. Some assistance by other individuals (such as the entrant's faculty advisor) is permitted; however, the entrant's primary research advisor must certify that the entrant's share of contribution to the paper exceeds 50%.
• Entrants must be a member of the POMS College of Service Operations on the date of submission. (The POMS website provides information on how to become a POMS/College of Service Operations member.)
• Entrants may only submit one paper.
• Entrants CANNOT submit the same paper to ANY other POMS College Best Paper Competition for the 2027 POMS Annual Conference.

Submission Requirements

A complete entry consists of:

1. A cover letter (in PDF format) completed by the entrant stating: a) their contact information, b) the contact information of their primary research advisor, c) the paper title, and d) appropriate keywords for the submitted paper.
2. The paper in completely anonymous form (in PDF format), with a length of at most 32 pages including tables, figures, and references but excluding the appendix, and strictly compliant with all submission formatting standards of the POM journal (see http://www.poms.org/journal/author instructions/). The file name should be a short-form title of the paper. For the purposes of this competition the appendix content cannot exceed 10 pages.
3. An attestation letter (in PDF format) signed by both the entrant and their faculty advisor confirming that the entrant and the paper satisfy the eligibility conditions.

Entrants should send their submission containing the above three files to Liana Victorino (lianav@uvic.ca).

Complete entries must be received on or before November 8th, 2026. It is the entrant's responsibility to allow for the appropriate time to enroll as a new member of the POMS College of Service Operations.

Selection Procedure

Upon receiving the submission, the paper will be processed through the following procedure:

1. All papers will go through the screening process to check for the eligibility and anonymity.
2. Papers that pass the screening process will be sent to at least two reviewers for review and evaluation on four aspects: (1) Contribution to Academia and Practice; (2) Theoretical and Managerial Insights; (3) Rigor of Methodology and Analysis; and (4) Presentation / Writing.
3. Finalists will be selected based on reviewer evaluations. All finalists must present their work in person at the 2027 POMS Annual Conference in a set of special invited sessions within the Service Operations Track.
4. The first prize and runner-up prizes will be determined based on the evaluations of a judging panel that will review the finalist papers and observe the presentations. The winner and runners-up will be announced and the finalists will be celebrated during the 2027 College of Service Operations Business Meeting during the 2027 POMS Annual Conference.

Any questions regarding the 2027 POMS College of Service Operations Best Student Paper Competition should be sent to the 2027 POMS College of Service Operations Awards Chairs:

Guillaume Roels (INSEAD), guillaume.roels@insead.edu
Liana Victorino (University of Victoria), lianav@uvic.ca