Submission Requirements
General Information
Submission of an article to Communications of the Association for Information Systems implies the authors’ certification that the manuscript is not copyrighted and is not currently under review by any other journal or conference proceedings.
Members of AIS must adhere to the AIS Code of Research Conduct in their work. Members who believe their work has been plagiarized or subjected to other scholarly misconduct are urged to consult Guidelines for a Victim. AIS Council's process for dealing with allegations of scholarly misconduct in the Association's journals and proceedings is detailed in AIS Research Conduct Committee Process Guidelines.
Submission Review Mode
Manuscripts submitted to Communications of the Association for Information Systems are subject to one of two types of review: Traditional peer review or editorial review. Peer review is in procedure similar to most academic journals: The Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor to a paper who solicits at least two peer reviewers and makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief based on a single-blind peer review process. This type of review process is appropriate for regular research paper submissions as well as tutorials.
In addition, the Communications of the Association for Information Systems also offers the option of editorial review. Editorial review involves reviews by an Associate Editor and the Editor-in-Chief. The Associate Editor serves as the expert reviewer and makes the recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief. Editorial review is generally faster because decisions are made based on one report only. This type of review process is often appropriate for panel reports, workshop reports, debates, or commentaries.
Authors decide which review process is appropriate for their submission by indicating the review type within ScholarOne at the time of submission. The default mode is set to peer review. If an alternative review mode is preferred, authors must provide explicit justification for their choice in their cover letter.
Cover Letter
Authors are strongly encouraged to provide a cover letter with their submission. This cover letter should outline contributions of the article, justification for review mode (where appropriate), any previous submission history (if any) and the authors’ preference for Associate Editor (see here).
CAIS Policy on Generative AI and AI-assisted Technologies
CAIS encourages the use of novel technologies. This policy is in place to ensure submissions to CAIS are done in full transparency. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.
Authors submitting to CAIS are asked to declare the use of GenAI or any of its variants in the data analysis, writing, composition, or revision process of their submission to CAIS.
The declaration should appear in the submission form, cover letter, and in the manuscript in the section following the Acknowledgments titled Declaration of AI. The declaration should refer to the extent of the use of AI in the data analysis, writing, composition, or revising process. This should be updated as the paper moves through review if AI was used in the revision process.
Refer to this example model statement from ScienceDirect; authors are free and encouraged to include additional information in their statement in the interest of full transparency:
Declaration of AI
During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON].
During the revision of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON].
ORCID iD
Authors are encouraged to use their ORCID iDs when submitting and publishing in CAIS. Instructions on how to link your ORCID iD with your ScholarOne account can be found here.
To create an ORCID iD go here.
Format Requirements
The official language of the Communications of the Association for Information Systems is English.
All manuscripts submitted to Communications of the Association for Information Systems should be submitted in Word format. Authors are encouraged to follow CAIS style guide (opens in a new window) and use the CAIS author template for submission of their manuscripts. Submissions must be made to CAIS ScholarOne site. If you do not have an account already, you will need to create one.
Once you have logged in, and you begin the submission process, you will have the opportunity to submit the manuscript as a Regular paper, or else choose to submit your manuscript to a particular department. The Communications of the Association for Information Systems has the following departments. Please click on the links below to access information about the departments and associated editor(s), possible submission topics and relevant submission instructions specific to that department:
If you have questions, ScholarOne has excellent help facilities for the process. Please also upload a cover letter with your submission, mentioning which of our editorial board members you feel would be best suited for handling your paper.
The body of articles may include text, tables, and figures only in order to ensure the widest accessibility even in less technologically endowed environments. The body of the article should represent a stand-alone document. Links and multimedia supplements may be included in one or more appendices. Readers will have the option of downloading articles with such appendices as HTML documents.
As an electronic journal, the Communications of the Association for Information Systems does not have definitive page limits; however, authors are encouraged to submit a condensed manuscript without excessive length. In general, CAIS accepts papers of a length that typically falls between 12-22 pages total, single spaced, with a total word count of approximately ~8,000-12,000. CAIS routinely considers short papers, those with a total word count of approximately ~4000-6000. Long papers are also considered, however, those over 22 pages with a total word count of over ~15,000 require strong justification for length and such justification should be noted in the cover letter. Authors are encouraged to submit backup material at their discretion (such as detailed data, explanatory appendices, screen images, survey measures, and programs) to create a richness in the articles that can usually not be found in conventional printed journals because of their limited space.
