A Systematic Review of Social Networks Research in Information Systems: Building a Foundation for Exciting Future Research

Social networking applications such as blogs, instant messengers, podcasts, social networking websites (e.g., Renren in China, Vkontakte in Russia, Facebook), professional networking websites (e.g., LinkedIn), Twitter, and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life) have become increasingly popular in the last few years. Because these applications have substantial implications for users, organizations, and society, social networks (SNs) have gained attention from information systems (IS) researchers and grown steadily as a research area since 2004. However, to organize the accumulated research and encourage researchers to examine new and pressing issues in SNs, available knowledge needs to be synthesized and research gaps need to be addressed (Bandara et al., 2011). Therefore, we systematically reviewed publications about SNs published in major IS journals between January 2004 and August 2013 and, in this paper, overview the state of IS research regarding SNs. We show the evolution of the existing IS research on SNs to build a common nomenclature and taxonomy for this area of research, to identify theories used, and to provide a useful roadmap for future research in this area

The Sphere of Influence of Information Systems Journals: A Longitudinal Study

The paper examines the issue of the information systems (IS) discipline’s influence as represented by its key journals. We examine the well-studied topics of cumulative tradition and reference disciplines from two unique perspectives: cohesion and stability. We demarcate journals into “IS journals” and “non-IS journals that are receptive to IS work” and examine the sphere of influence of these journals based on citations over time. Specifically, we compute a log-multiplicative model to identify subareas in the IS discipline and assess journal influence using the index of structural influence based on citations from a basket of 42 IS and IS-related journals over four periods: 1999-2000, 2004-2005, 2009-2010, and 2013-2014. Results indicate that the IS discipline has established a stable and cohesive knowledge underpinning, which converges with emerging (newer) journals and diverges with non-IS journals during the late period. These results suggest that the discipline has developed boundary conditions and a strong cumulative tradition. Furthermore, based on our analysis, pure IS journals gradually gained dominance in their own network and even started to exert influence in the broader network of journals. These findings provide a unique complement to other recent studies that signify the IS discipline’s influence

Using Social Network Analysis to Analyze Relationships Among IS Journals

Social network analysis (SNA) offers a richer and more objective way of examining individual journal influence and relationships among journals than studies based on individual perceptions, since it avoids personal biases. This article demonstrates how SNA can be used to study the nature of the IS discipline, by presenting results from an exploratory SNA of 125 previously ranked journals from IS and allied disciplines. While many of the most prominent journals in the network are still associated with IS’s foundational disciplines, we identify several IS journals that play important roles in disseminating information throughout different subcomponents of the network. We also identify related groups of journals based not only on patterns of information flow, but also on similarity in citation patterns. This enables us to identify the core set of journals that is important for “pure IS” research, as well as other subsets of journals that are important for specialty areas of interest. Overall, results indicate that the IS discipline is still somewhat fragmented and is still a net receiver, as opposed to a net provider, of information from allied disciplines. Like other forms of analysis, SNA is not entirely free from biases. However, these biases can be systematically researched in order to develop an improved, consistent tool with which to examine the IS field via citations among member journals. Thus, while many challenges remain in applying SNA techniques to the study of IS journals, the opportunity to track trends in the discipline over time, with a larger basket of journals, suggests a number of valuable future applications of SNA for understanding the IS publication system

A citation analysis of the ACSC 2006 - 2008 proceedings, with reference to the CORE conference and journal rankings

This paper compares the CORE rankings of computing conferences and journals to the frequency of citation of those journals and conferences in the Australasian Computer Science Conference (ACSC) 2006, 2007 and 2008 proceedings. The assumption underlying this study is that there should be a positive relationship between citation rates and the CORE rankings. Our analysis shows that the CORE rankings broadly reflect the ACSC citations, but with some anomalies. While these anomalies might be minor in the larger scheme of things, anomalies need to be addressed, as the careers of individual academics may depend upon it. Rankings are probably here to stay, and this paper ends with some suggestions on how the rankings process should now evolve, so that it becomes more transparent. Copyright © 2009, Australian Computer Society, Inc

Distinguishing Citation Quality for Journal Impact Assessment

2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journa

Does “Evaluating Journal Quality and the Association for Information Systems Senior Scholars Journal Basket…” Support the Basket with Bibliometric Measures?

We re-examine “Evaluating Journal Quality and the Association for Information Systems Senior Scholars Journal Basket…” by Lowry et al. (2013). They sought to use bibliometric methods to validate the Basket as the eight top quality journals that are “strictly speaking, IS journals” (Lowry et al., 2013, pp. 995, 997). They examined 21 journals out of 140 journals considered as possible IS journals. We also expand the sample to 73 of the 140 journals. Our sample includes a wider range of approaches to IS, although all were suggested by IS scholars in a survey by Lowry and colleagues. We also use the same sample of 21 journals in Lowry et al. with the same methods of analysis so far as possible. With the narrow sample, we replicate Lowry et al. as closely as we can, whereas with the broader sample we employ a conceptual replication. This latter replication also employs alternative methods. For example, we consider citations (a quality measure) and centrality (a relevance measure in this context) as distinct, rather than merging them as in Lowry et al. High centrality scores from the sample of 73 journals do not necessarily indicate close connections with IS. Therefore, we determine which journals are of high quality and closely connected with the Basket and with their sample. These results support the broad purpose of Lowry et al., finding a wider set of high quality and relevant journals than just MISQ and ISR, and find a wider set of relevant, top quality journals

Trends in Mobile Computing within the IS Discipline: A Ten-Year Retrospective

We analyze mobile computing trends in research and practice between the years 2000–2009 with an inductive categorization of 806 articles in nineteen leading academic, crossover, and practitioner outlets. We integrate this categorization with previous research in mobile commerce and e-business in order to provide the most comprehensive categorization to date. Using this categorization, we next investigate trends in the discussion and research on mobile computing. From these trends, we develop a comprehensive framework that addresses both where mobile computing research has been over the past ten years, but also areas of opportunity for future research. Results indicate research is required in the areas of: (a) IT value stream proposition (both within and outside the firm), (b) human-computer interaction (designing usable mobile computing systems), (c) legal/ethical issues surrounding mobile computing-enabled activities, and (d) organizational/societal impact and change precipitated by mobile computing technologies