Decision Sciences Institute (DSI): Membership, Conferences and Journals

The Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) is a scholarly professional association for researchers, educators and academics who work on decision making in business and management; it was founded in 1968, publishes the journal Decision Sciences, and holds an annual conference every autumn plus regional meetings. As described on its official pages on 2026-11-15, joining is by paid annual membership (free for full-time PhD students), and membership is also the condition for attending the annual conference.

This guide is for a researcher or research administrator who needs to know what DSI is, who can join, what it requires of someone who wants to present, and how its journals, awards and regional meetings fit together. Everything below is taken from decisionsciences.org as it read on 2026-11-15; membership rates, conference rules and award cycles change, so treat the official pages as the final word for a decision you are about to make.

What the Decision Sciences Institute is and who runs it

DSI describes itself as a multidisciplinary association that connects and supports working scholars, educators and academics. Its About page calls it a scholarly professional association that creates, develops, fosters and disseminates knowledge. It began in 1968, when a group of faculty met in Atlanta; its first annual meeting was held in 1969 in New Orleans.

Governance is documented publicly. Members approved a Constitution and Bylaws in 2018, the Board last updated the Policies and Procedures in February 2024, and the association publishes a Code of Conduct. Members are organised in three divisions (Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe) and in chapters. The association held its first virtual global conference in 2020.

The three publications

DSI lists four titles on its publications page. Three are current:

• Decision Sciences Journal (DSJ), the flagship research journal, launched in 1970. The journal page describes interdisciplinary examinations of managerial decision making across areas such as accounting, analytics, economics, finance, information systems, international business, logistics, management, marketing, operations, production and supply chain, with a particular interest in analytics. Manuscripts go through the DSI Manuscript Submission Site, and author guidance links to the journal’s Wiley Online Library page.
• Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education (DSJIE), launched in 2003, which covers teaching and learning in decision sciences.
• Decision Sciences Insights, a magazine launched in 2021 and described as a professional-development publication issued four times a year.

The fourth title, Decision Line, is an archive: issues from 2004 to 2020 are available online.

Eligibility: who can join and what it costs

The membership page describes three categories. Regular membership is priced from $50 to $190 depending on the member’s country, with the country categories based on gross domestic product per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity. Student membership is free for full-time PhD students at an accredited institution, although a verification fee applies. Emeritus membership costs $25 to $90 and is intended for people retired from full-time teaching. Membership is valid for one year from the date a member joins, and a renewal notice is emailed at least 30 days before it lapses. The data table below sets the three categories side by side.

The membership page lists these benefits: networking, placement and mentoring, discounts on regional conference fees, professional-development resources and members-only databases. Joining is done through the association’s member portal, linked from the membership page, and the current-year rates are published there as a PDF.

What DSI membership requires and what it opens up

DSI does not fund projects or award research grants in the way a funder does; it is a membership association, so what it “requires” is membership itself and the conditions attached to participation. The 2026 annual conference registration page states two of these rules:

• You must be an active member to attend the annual conference or its consortia.
• For a paper to appear in the program, at least one author of each submission must be registered by September 15, and no refunds are given after October 31, 2026.

The home page announces the 57th Annual Conference for November 21 to 23, 2026 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, with a call for papers open on the day it was read. If you are unsure how a conference paper differs from a journal article, see the dictionary entries for conference abstract and conference proceedings, and for peer review in general.

Awards administered through the association

The awards page lists competitions for papers, teaching, dissertations and instruction. The page content on the day it was read described the 2023 cycle, so the dates, deadlines and amounts on it should not be assumed current; the categories and eligibility rules below are what it states.

Award	Who it is for	What it asks for
Best Paper	Authors of conference papers	Full papers only
Best Teaching Case Studies	Teaching-case authors	Listed as a separate competition; see the awards page for its rules
Elwood S. Buffa Doctoral Dissertation Award	Recent doctoral graduates	A dissertation accepted within the prior calendar year, an advisor letter and an executive summary
Instructional Innovation Award	Instructors	Listed as a separate competition; see the awards page for its rules
Doctoral Research Showcase Award ($300)	Doctoral students	Full papers
Emerging Economies Research Award ($300)	Researchers from emerging economies	A paper of 8 to 15 pages

Application and participation steps

There is no single application to DSI. Taking part is a sequence of separate steps, each with its own official page:

1. Choose a membership category on the membership page and join through the member portal. Full-time PhD students use the free student category and complete the verification step.
2. Prepare a submission in response to the annual conference call for papers, or for a regional meeting listed on the home page.
3. Register at least one author for the conference by September 15 so the paper is placed in the program, remembering that only active members can attend.
4. Enter an award competition if you qualify, using the awards page for the category’s own rules; full papers only for Best Paper and the Doctoral Research Showcase.
5. Renew within the one-year membership term, after the emailed notice.

For a journal rather than a conference, the route is different: manuscripts for DSJ go through the DSI Manuscript Submission Site, not through conference registration.

Typical timeline phases

The official pages describe phases rather than a fixed calendar, and dates shift from one year to the next. In order, the pattern is: membership is joined or renewed for a one-year term; a call for papers opens before the annual conference; at least one author registers by the stated September deadline; refunds close at the end of October; and the conference itself takes place in November. Regional meetings run on their own spring or summer schedules (see the table below). Award entries follow the cycle of the year’s awards page, which is separate from the registration deadlines.

Common mistakes

• Treating the awards page as current. The page text describes a past cycle. Confirm the present year’s rules and any deadline before preparing an entry.
• Submitting a paper without a registered author. The program includes only papers for which at least one author registered by September 15.
• Attending without membership. Active membership is required for the annual conference and its consortia, so lapsed members should renew first.
• Assuming a single rate. Regular dues range from $50 to $190 by country category; the student and emeritus categories have their own eligibility conditions.
• Waiting for a refund after October 31, 2026. The registration page states no refunds are given after that date.
• Entering an abstract where full papers are required. Best Paper and the Doctoral Research Showcase accept full papers only.

Related programs and meetings

Besides the annual conference, the DSI home page lists regional conferences and a special interest group. Where the page gives a place or season, it is shown here; the others are listed there without details.

Meeting or group	What the official page says
Annual Conference (57th)	November 21 to 23, 2026, San Francisco Marriott Marquis; call for papers open
MWDSI	Regional US conference, spring 2027
EDSI	June 2027, Belfast
SEDSI, SWDSI, NEDSI, WDSI	Listed as regional conferences on the home page
DASI	Listed as a special interest group

For comparison with other research societies, see CASRAI’s guides to the International Statistical Institute and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, which describe how those bodies are organised.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Decision Sciences Institute?

It is a scholarly professional association, founded in 1968, that supports scholars and educators working on decision making in business and management through journals, conferences and awards.

Who can join DSI?

Regular membership is open on a country-based rate scale; full-time PhD students at accredited institutions can join free (a verification fee applies); retired full-time teachers can join as emeritus members.

How much does DSI membership cost?

As listed on 2026-11-15: regular $50 to $190 by country category, emeritus $25 to $90, student free with a verification fee. Membership lasts one year from the join date.

Do I need to be a member to present at the annual conference?

Active membership is required to attend the annual conference or its consortia, and at least one author per submission must be registered by September 15 for the paper to be in the program.

What journals does DSI publish?

Decision Sciences Journal (since 1970), Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education (since 2003) and the magazine Decision Sciences Insights (since 2021), plus the archived Decision Line.

Where is the next annual conference?

The 57th Annual Conference is listed for November 21 to 23, 2026 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

Sources

• Decision Sciences Institute, About: https://decisionsciences.org/about/, read 2026-11-15.
• Decision Sciences Institute, home page: https://decisionsciences.org/, read 2026-11-15.
• Decision Sciences Institute, Membership: https://decisionsciences.org/membership/, read 2026-11-15.
• Decision Sciences Institute, 2026 Conference Registration: https://decisionsciences.org/conference/2026-annual-conference/2026-conference-registration/, read 2026-11-15.
• Decision Sciences Institute, Award Competitions and Coordinators: https://decisionsciences.org/award-competitions-and-coordinators/, read 2026-11-15.
• Decision Sciences Institute, Publications and Decision Sciences Journal: https://decisionsciences.org/publications/, https://decisionsciences.org/journal/, read 2026-11-15.