Suvrajeet Sen presented a compelling view for the proposed Optimization Society journal at the business meeting of IOS 2016. Stepping out of the frame of ‘Analytics’ being a trend that would risk making the journal dated soon if incorporated to the title, he embraced it as a keyword for how academia and industry perceive and react to the abundant data now available.
Suvrajeet argued that this journal should be thought for the upcoming generation of researchers in the field. In his words, people with half of his age. As an example of the change that he meant, he pointed out to classic textbook examples that would solve production and distribution problems while ignoring that past sales data can be used to forecast demand. Going further, he questioned what should be the ‘diet problem’ of the new millennium. Indeed, it seems to me that optimization can only remain relevant if we qualify the next generation to leverage available data when using it.
From past online discussion, I felt inclined to the name Journal on Optimization as revived by Jon Lee, or else something involving prescriptive analytics as suggested by Marco Luebbecke. However, the tone of the meeting made me an enthusiast of a suggestion then made by Ted Ralphs: New Dimensions in Optimization. Among the people that spoke, I felt that there was a general agreement on having a journal with areas changing through time, in an attempt to keep identifying and promoting the current research frontiers.
I am not sure how optimization and analytics can be put smoothly together as a title, but I believe that evidencing in whatever title is chosen the ever-changing nature of the journal would make a big difference. That would be the definitive answer to why having yet another optimization journal: for capturing what is hot and yet full of potential for new developments – not the mature areas.
I hope we move in this direction because one day I do want to publish at a journal like that!
Thiago Serra 