Writing Style (jmis-writing-style)
When to trigger
- The mechanism, identification, and contribution are settled and the prose is the remaining gap
- The abstract or introduction buries the contribution under setup or method
- The paper reads like a reference-discipline manuscript (pure econ/CS) wearing an IS label
- The abstract exceeds 150 words or quietly slips in citations
Lead with the IS-management contribution
A JMIS reader is method-literate but management-minded. The introduction should reach the contribution fast: the technology, the managerial/economic question, what was not known, and what you show — stated for an IS audience, not buried under literature. The recurring failure is an intro that spends pages on background before the "we show that…" sentences. Get the IT artifact and the managerial stake on the first page.
Write the 150-word, citation-free abstract last and tight
JMIS requires an abstract of up to 150 words with no citations, plus a set of keywords indicating the paper's content. Draft it after the intro is stable. It should name the technology/setting, the question, the method and data, the headline result with magnitude, and the contribution — in plain sentences a busy editor can scan. Do not pad it with background or cite prior work. (检索于 2026-06;以官网为准.)
Keep the technology and the managerial payoff visible throughout
Because JMIS sits at the technology–organization–economics nexus, the prose should keep the IT artifact load-bearing and surface the managerial/economic implication as a first-class thread, not an afterthought paragraph. Translate statistical findings into managerial language where it helps (what a firm/platform should do), without overclaiming past the evidence. Define IS constructs precisely and use them consistently; explain reference-discipline machinery for an IS reader rather than assuming it.
Match prose to JMIS's numbered-reference house style
JMIS uses numbered bracketed citations [9] with an alphabetized reference list, not author-date. Write so the argument reads cleanly with numeric cites (avoid "as Author (2020) argued" constructions that assume author-date), and confirm references are formatted to JMIS's numbered style before submission. (检索于 2026-06;以官网为准.)
Tighten the prose
- Prefer the active voice and concrete subjects ("the platform redesign raised…") over nominalized passives.
- Cut hedging stacks ("it may possibly suggest") to a single calibrated claim.
- One idea per paragraph; topic sentence carries the point.
- Make every "implications for practice" sentence say something a manager could act on.
A first-page test for the introduction
Read only page one and ask: can a JMIS editor name the technology, the managerial/economic question, the gap, and what you show? If any is missing, the intro is too slow. A reliable JMIS opening moves in four beats: (1) a concrete IT/management phenomenon a reader cares about; (2) the tension or gap in the IS conversation; (3) "in this paper we show that…" with the contribution and its magnitude; (4) why it matters for IS theory and for managers/firms/platforms. Save the extended literature for the positioning section — do not make the reader earn the contribution.
Worked fix: an abstract that overruns and under-delivers (illustrative)
Before: a 190-word abstract that spends three sentences on background, cites two papers, and ends "implications are discussed." After: a 140-word, citation-free abstract — "Using the staggered redesign of a marketplace's ranking algorithm, we show that personalization reduced marginal-seller retention by 6 percentage points, shrinking buyer-side variety; the effect is concentrated among supply-constrained categories, implying platforms should temper personalization where seller supply is thin" — plus four keywords. It states setting, method, result with magnitude, and the managerial contribution, and it obeys the ≤150-word, no-citation rule.
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