Mid-term review & open access granted

Mid-term review

On January 1, 2024, I began my term as Editor-in-Chief of SIM, based on a project that aimed to reaffirm the prestige and centrality of the journal for the French-speaking scientific community in information systems management. This project focused and continues to focus on three main areas:

1. Increasing the number of articles published;

2. A new governance;

3. Shifting towards open science - open access granted.

Increase in the number of articles published

One important area of action aims to increase the number of articles published per year to 16, without compromising quality. Currently, we are still publishing 12 articles per year, as we have been doing for more than five years. To increase the number of submissions, several possible actions have been identified. Below are some of the pursued actions:

• Reduce article publication times by tightening up the evaluation and review cycles. From January 1, 2025, to July 9, 2025, the “Days to First Editorial Decision” indicator averaged 8 days. Last year, in 2024, it was still 31 days on average. We have achieved our goal of deciding within a maximum of 15 days. We have also improved the indicator “Days to Accept” which has averaged 399 days since January 2024. Improvements are still needed on this overall indicator.

• Improve communication about the journal, its visibility, and readability. The journal's website is now fully bilingual (French and English).

• Present the SIM journal at conferences in related disciplines (strategy, marketing, etc.) in France and internationally. I presented the journal at a Meet the Editors session at the IAMOT technology management conference in Montreal, Canada, in June 2025. I also presented the journal in Grenoble, Toulouse, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, and Quebec City, Canada, at various seminars and workshops.

• Promote special issues. We have published a special issue on digital finance, and three other special issues are in progress on plasticity, health, and logistics.

• Create new submission categories. In addition to creating new categories such as “Registered Reports,” we have improved the presentation of existing categories to make them more attractive.

New governance

A new SIM governance structure has been proposed and implemented to ensure collegiality and timely processing of submissions and publications, while maintaining the high quality of the process and published articles. We are currently improving our knowledge of the reading committee, which includes potential reviewers of articles submitted to SIM. In this regard, you recently received an invitation to update your profile on the journal's website to help us identify your areas of expertise in order to assign you articles to review.

Shift towards open science - open access granted

In line with international and national guidelines and the AIM strategy, the SIM journal will move towards open science in all its facets. A very important first step has been accomplished, as we have signed a new contract with our publisher Eska. Starting with issue 3, Volume 30, in 2025, all published articles will be freely accessible to authors and readers alike. AIM will cover the associated costs, and a funding request has been submitted to the National Fund for Open Science to help the association maintain this diamond model of publication in the long term.

 

All of this has been made possible thanks to the teamwork of all the members of the editorial board, first and foremost the deputy editors-in-chief, the members of the AIM board of directors, and in particular its previous and current presidents.

A big thank you to the entire IS community.

Yours scientifically,

Claudio Vitari