Problem pages

Operational Research was originally concerned with research into real (operational) problems. As many of the techniques used involved mathematical models OR was hijacked by university mathematics departments. OR courses became little more than applied mathematics courses and OR lost its broad interdisciplinary appeal. The emergence of computers and computer science did not help OR to be maintained as a separate and identifiable discipline. More recently due to the interest from the social sciences OR is now seen as a mixture of "hard" and "soft" methodologies and its boundaries are somewhat amorphous. The consequences are that research into operational problems is associated with the application area rather than the discipline of OR. But there is a place for OR journals, as it is inevitable that some worthwhile papers will otherwise fall through the net.

The content of International Transactions in Operational Research is comparable to the contents of the typical academic journals in other academic fields. That is, any particular article is likely to appeal to a narrow and specialised readership. But the issues are leavened by the inclusion of more general papers discussing and taking stock of the state of particular aspects of OR. The source of papers reflects the international make-up of the editorial board, which is drawn from over 20 countries. The editor-in-chief is based in Canada and the guest editor for volume one, Rolfe Tomlinson, is from the UK. The papers are as topical as can be expected in a reviewed journal as given that OR is not a subject prone to topicality.

The journal is of interest to OR practitioners and should be held by libraries covering the discipline.

Lionel Carter is a research fellow, Brunel University.