INFORMS is pleased to announce its Third Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition. This competition is jointly sponsored by INFORMS Education Committee, INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Initiative and INFORM-ED. It is designed to encourage the creation, dissemination and use of new, unpublished cases in operations research and the management sciences. All submissions and supporting documentation are due by August 15. All cases will be blind reviewed in August and September 2002 by a panel of judges familiar with the case method.

Up to four finalists will be selected and notified by the judging committee by the end of September 2002. Finalists will give 30-minute presentations of their entries at a special open session of the 2002 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Jose, Calif. The panel of judges will select the winning entry from these finalists based on these presentations. The winner will be announced at the INFORM-ED Business Meeting at the 2002 INFORMS Conference. Finalists must present their cases at the Fall 2002 INFORMS Meeting to be eligible to win.

Guidelines for submitted cases are:

• no more than 10 pages (8.5˛ x 11.0˛) single-spaced (maximum of approx. 3,000 words); shorter cases are acceptable,
• exhibits are in addition to page limit,
• teaching notes of length as necessary to meet content expected,

All submitted cases must be previously unpublished. Cases should be essentially new in their entirety. If the case contains material drafted originally by individuals or groups other than the author(s) submitting the case, then the intellectual history and ownership of these portions should be made absolutely clear. Contestants are responsible for assuring that this guideline is strictly met.

A complete submission package will consist of the following:

• six hard copies and one electronic copy of a short (250 -500 words) abstract, the case and teaching notes. The title should appear on the first page, but the name of the author and other indicators of authorship should be eliminated in the text of five copies to permit blind review. The abstract should appear by itself on the second page and identify the industry, business issues, technical issues, pedagogical objectives, and suggested uses of the case. The case, any exhibits, and then the teaching notes should follow.
• a completed Case Competition Submission Form (available on the Web). Evaluation criteria to be used in the judging process include:
• relevant application of one (or more) of INFORMSą constituent disciplines,
• substance of application,
• quality and organization of exposition,
• value and content of teaching notes, and
• quality of session presentation (for finalists).

Prizes include $500 and plaque to the best case and $100 and plaque for up to three runners-up.

For more information, visit http://www2.hpu.edu/jkrosinforms_case_comp_2002.html or contact Christopher J. Zappe at (570) 577-3495 or zappe@bucknell.edu.