Call for Papers—Interfaces Special Issue: Analytics in Sports

Abstract

Sports-related business activities constitute a multibillion dollar industry in which difficult decision-making problems exist at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Fostered by increasing availability of data and advances in computational power, the use of quantitative analysis to improve decision making in sports has enjoyed growing popularity. In this special issue of Interfaces, we seek to highlight the role of analytics in the sports industry. Appropriate papers will analyze decision making in one or more aspects of the sports industry, such as scheduling, in-game strategy, business operations, personnel decisions, marketing, logistics, and sports economics. All varieties of methodological approaches are encouraged. Possible methodologies include (but are not restricted to) optimization, simulation, statistics, data mining, econometrics, game theory, artificial intelligence, decision analysis, and applied probability. We invite the development and utilization of mathematical models, both prescriptive and descriptive, that provide insight for practitioners in the sports industry. An important challenge facing model builders is the implementation and incorporation of technical analysis by sports-management personnel. Therefore, ideal papers for this issue of Interfaces should demonstrate an impact on decision-making practice in the sports industry. Papers describing applied sports research must include letters from relevant organizations verifying the implementation of the analysis and subsequent benefits. Novel sports studies that do not have commercial or industry application are also encouraged, with preference given to those papers that maintain relevance to sports-industry practice. For guidance on paper preparation, please review the Interfaces Instructions to Authors at http://interfaces.pubs.informs.org/guidelines.htm. Papers must be submitted online using Manuscript Central at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/inte. In the Author Center of Manuscript Central, please designate the “Manuscript Type (1—“Type, Title, and Abstract”) as “Special Issue in the dropdown list; in 4—“Details & Comments,” respond “Analytics in Sports” to the question, “This paper is for which special issue?” All papers will be refereed. The deadline for submission has been extended to May 1, 2010. Papers will be processed as they are submitted, so please submit as soon as possible.