Based on submissions to the Journal of Operations Management, the most popular topics in 1997 were supply chain management, operations strategy and quality management. The abrupt popularity of papers on supply chains (distribution, etc,) came out of nowhere, this topic not even being among the top three in the last two years. Operations strategy, in contrast, has been the first or second most popular topic in each of the last three years. Quality, of course, has been receiving a lot of attention for many years now. Other topics with much higher popularity in 1997 than previously were globalization and service operations.