Announcing the establishment of QREI Best Paper Award

Abstract

The very first volume of QREI was published in 1985. I first read the journal in 1987 when I was doing my master degree by research, working on reliability of components subject to mechanical wear. Since then, QREI has been on my watch list. In fact, I always refer my graduate students and Six Sigma trainees who are interested in practical statistical methodologies to look up QREI for useful applications. For more than 30 years, QREI has served as an excellent resource for practitioners of the international quality and reliability community. We are indebted to authors and reviewers who have contributed their ideas and time. It is time to give due recognition to authors who have chosen QREI as the outlet for their outstanding work. Today, QREI has doubled its volume from a quarterly publication to eight issues a year making it one of the most prolific journals in the QRE community. On one hand, it is an indication of its popularity as one of the preferred outlets for practice-oriented papers related to quality and reliability; on the other hand, we also need to assure our readers and contributors that the growth does not compromise the quality of the journal. We are pleased to note that QREI received about 600 submissions annually which, with the help of the editorial team and reviewers, has translated into a strong pipeline of high-quality research papers. We are confident that given the long history of the journal and the high selectivity among larger pool of papers published, the Best Paper Award from QREI will be one of the iconic achievements for researchers in the international QRE community. It will serve as an impetus for more researchers to consider submitting their best work to QREI. In line with the publication objective of QREI, the evaluation criteria will be on relevance and impact to practice, new insights for decision making, novelty of ideas, and last but not least, rigor. While QREI does not emphasize on theoretical development, innovative extension of current methodologies and development of new methodologies will also be highly valued. With about 150 papers published annually, selection of potential papers for the best paper award could be a daunting task. A more efficient process is for reviewers and editors to identify potential papers at the point of acceptance and form a preliminary pool of nominated papers. Each editor will then shortlist up to 5 to 8 papers annually so that there will be about 20 nominations annually. A panel, comprising some editorial board members, will be formed to select the best paper out of the pool of nominated papers. Besides selecting the best paper, up to two honorable mentions will also be selected as this will give due recognition to papers that come close. It also serves as an encouragement for authors who just missed the top spot. Finally, the prize for the award. A 1-year online subscription to the journal and an official Certificate of Award will be awarded to all authors of the best paper. Certificates will also be presented to honorable mentions. Announcement of the 2019 Best Paper Award will be made in an editorial of QREI in 2020. We look forward to your continued support and receiving your good work. The best is yet to be!