Research Quality Matters

This paper discusses issues that arise when considering what is meant by the expression ‘research quality’ in universities. Popular measures of research quality are often based on determining the quality of a published journal paper, or of using these to publish journal league tables based on the assumption that the journal quality represents the quality of the papers published by the journal. This paper argues that measuring the quality of a research publication cannot be done. Therefore a journal league table also has no meaning. The issue of the use of the surrogate of Journal League Tables is used to exemplify some of the issues that need to be addressed by the community to avoid the inequality quality trap. A number of suggestions are made to establish a sounder basis for dealing with real quality properly. This is not an information systems crisis paper or similar nonsense, but one possible positive way forward

Diversity in IS research : a fictive metaphor analysis

In striving to understand Information Systems phenomena Information Systems researchers frequently draw on a seemingly endless array of different disciplines to inform their studies. This act has drawn both the ire and admiration of those within the field as well as those outside its porous boundaries. On the one hand Information Systems researchers are berated for being chaotic and schizophrenic in their combined research endeavour - for producing a collective output that shows neither rhyme nor reason. On the other hand they are praised for being intellectually open and democratic in their approach. These reactions draw their strength from the many issues that stem from diversity in Information Systems research. These reactions are stimulated in part by the assertion that research in the Information Systems discipline is diverse. Despite this assertion not much is known or understood about diversity in Information Systems research. This thesis addresses this critical oversight by making research diversity the prime focus. The contributions it makes to current understandings of research diversity in Information Systems are philosophical, theoretical and empirical. Philosophically, this thesis relies on the novel approach of fictism - a blend of positivism and interpretivism. Theoretically, it explores diversity through the alternative lens of concepts. Empirically it examines the conceptual diversity of three key Information Systems concepts: organisations, technology and people. Grounded in Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) work with metaphors, the results show that Information Systems research may not be as diverse as was initially thought. Of the three primary views of key Information Systems concepts - machine, organism and culture - the study finds a distinct bias toward conceptualising these concepts as machines. This bias, one that exists at the very core of the Information Systems research endeavour, has important implications not only for individual researchers but the broader Information Systems community alike

An Historically-Grounded Critical Analysis of Research Articles in MIS

In order to explore scientific writing in Information Systems (IS) journals, we adopt a combination of historical and rhetorical approaches. We first investigate the history of universities, business schools, learned societies and scientific articles. This perspective allows us to capture the legacy of scientific writing standards, which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, we focus on two leading IS journals (EJIS and MISQ). An historical analysis of both outlets is carried out, based on data related to their creation, evolution of editorial statements, and key epistemological and methodological aspects. We also focus on argumentative strategies found in a sample of 436 abstracts from both journals. Three main logical anchorages (sometimes combined) are identified, and related to three argumentative strategies: 'deepening of knowledge', 'solving an enigma' and 'addressing a practical managerial issue'. We relate these writing norms to historical imprints of management and business studies, in particular: enigmafocused rhetorics, interest in institutionalized literature, neglect for managerially grounded rhetoric and lack of reflexivity in scientific writing. We explain this relation as a quest for academic legitimacy. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to address the discrepancies between these writing norms and more recent epistemological and theoretical stances adopted by IS researchers.argumentative strategies; history; academic writing; legitimacy

The Espoused Theories of IS: A Study of General Editorial Statements

In the IS field there has been the ongoing debate about a potential identity crisis, which has led researchers to study the output of the community in order to evaluate where IS research currently is and where it could potentially be. This has resulted in various proposals for IS research ‘in practice’. This research follows a different strategy and studies what IS research is claimed to be (the espoused theories of IS). The section of IS journals’ General Editorials Statements (GES), that is, the informative section offered by most journals where they position themselves with regard to potential authors, already contains the answer. Basing our study on the AISWorld journal ranking, we collected GES for a sample of 30 IS journals for the years 1997 and 2007. We applied thematic, lexicometric, and factor analyses to the datasets of the 1997 and the 2007 GES. The results of the analyses show how the institutionalized discourse about IS research has changed over the last decade

Transforming failure into success through organisational learning: An analysis of a manufacturing information system

This paper describes the idiosyncracies of a case study company, through highlighting issues and problems experienced during their attempts to evaluate, implement and realise the holistic implications of a manufacturing information system. Although the Information System (IS) was operational for a period of time, it was eventually deemed a failure. The reason for this was that a range of human and organisational factors prevented the organisation from embracing the full impact of the system. The eventual success of their information system was realised through a bespoke implementation, based upon a traditional systems development lifecycle that indirectly addressed learning issues following the earlier failed deployment. The paper highlights key issues relating to business success and failure, and then contrasts them alongside the presented case study. In doing so, the authors conclude by proposing methods through which manufacturing information systems can be transformed for business success. This is described achievable through both a realisation in the positioning of the organisation relative to technology management, and the related mapping of human and technological constructs that support information systems related succes

Charting diversity and change in IS publications: a tri-continental journal analysis

The past decade has seen enormous changes in the availability, use, and application of information systems. Information systems are no longer the preserve of business and the corporation but have become a routine part of everyday life. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which the increased diversity in application and use of information systems in the past decade has been reflected in increased diversity of the publications of three key journals of three continents – North America, Europe, and Australasia. The paper contributes to the debate on research diversity in Information Systems in three ways. Firstly, it describes four key underpinning dimensions for understanding Information Systems (IS) research diversity in the information age. Secondly, it details the results of a content analysis which examines the trends in research and methodological diversity within the journals MIS Quarterly (MISQ), European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) and the Australasian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS) during the years 2001-2010. Finally, the paper reflects on diversity within these journals and discusses the findings in relation to both exogenous and endogenous pressures on the discipline more broadly

ASSESSMENT OF GRAIN STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR EFFECTIVE MARKETING IN SUSTAINING FOOD SECURITY PROGRAMME BY TRADERS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Nigerian Food Security Programme is centred on three-tier grain storage with active participation of traders in storage of 85% of grain requirements through the On-Farm Storage Programme. The study assessed grain storage technologies to determine suitable ones for storage and marketing by traders in Southwest Nigeria. A pre-data survey of recommended grain storage technologies was followed by multi- stage sampling of Oyo, Ondo and Ogun States for 120 rural and urban traders. Data were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics at p = 0.05. Traders preferred recommended storage technologies except silo. Only sacks were preferred out of the indigenous storage technologies. Technology attributes and communication factors are essential for use of recommended storage technologies. There is no significant relationship between age (r = 0.86), income (r = 0.78) and use of recommended storage technologies while quantity of grains stored (r = 0.94), years of experience in grain storage (r = 0.93) and educational status (X2 = 9.51) were significantly related.  Rural and urban traders were not significantly different in their levels of use of recommended grain storage technologies (tc = 0.20). Traders’ storage extension through the use of various channels of communication, trainings and adult education programme were recommended. Key words: Recommended technologies, indigenous technologies, determinants, use

Citizen science in information systems research: Evidence from a systematic literature review

Citizen science refers to partnerships between scientists and the public in scientific research. Citizen science is considered as an emerging approach for conducting research in the field of information systems (IS). However, there is a fragmented understanding of citizen science in the IS community. As a result, we conducted a systematic literature review on citizen science in IS field aiming at understanding what and how IS scholars view and conduct their research related to citizen science. We searched papers from the database of the basket of eight senior journals, 47 SIG recommended journals by the Association for Information Systems, and the proceedings of five major conferences in IS including ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, PACIS, and AMCIS. Our findings provide the current status of citizen science research in IS field, such as how scholars view about citizen science, how to set up a citizen science project, or how citizen science is adopted in IS community. This research also contributes to the field by laying out suggestions for the future research of citizen science

A critical analysis of decision support systems research

This paper critically analyses the nature and state of decision support systems (DSS) research. To provide contest for the analysis, a history of DSS is presented which focuses on the evolution of a number of sub-groupings of research and practice: personal DSS, group support systems, negotiation support systems, intelligent DSS, knowledge management-based DSS, executive information systems/business intelligence and data warehousing. To understand the state of DSS research an empirical investigation of published DSS research is presented. This investigation is based on the detailed analysis of 1,020 DSS articles published in 14 major journals from 1990 to 2003. The analysis fund that DSS publication has been falling steadily since its peak in 1994 and the current publication rate is at early 1990s levels. Other findings include that personal DSS and group support systems dominate research activity and data warehousing is the least published type of DSS. The journal DSS is the Major publishing outlet, US 'Other" journals dominate DSS publishing and there is very low exposure of DSS in European journals. Around two-thirds of DSS research is empirical, a much higher proportion than general IS research. DSS empirical research is overwhelming positivism, and is more dominated by positivism than IS research in general. Design science is a major DSS research category. The decision support focus of the sample shows a well-balanced mix of development, technology, process, and outcome studies. almost half of DSS papers did not use judgement and decision-making reference research in the design and analysis of their projects and most cited reference works are relatively old. A major omission in DSS scholarship is the poor identification of the clients and users of the various DSS applications that are the focus of investigation. The analysis of the professional or practical contribution of DSS research shows a field that is facing a crisis of relevance. Using the history and empirical study as a foundation, a number of strategies for improving DSS research are suggested

Information Systems Scholarship: An Examination of the Past, Present, and Future of the Information Systems Academic Discipline

This dissertation investigates the topic of scholarship in the Information Systems (IS) discipline through a series of three papers. The papers, presented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4, each delve into a specific chronological period of IS scholarship which are delineated into the past, present, and future. Chapter 2 elucidates the IS discipline’s ‘past’ by categorizing the entire corpus of extant research in the Association of Information Systems Senior Scholars’ Basket of eight journals. Clusters derived from these mainstream journal publications represent a thematic identity of the IS discipline. After analyzing the corpus altogether, further analysis segments the corpus into shorter, 5-year periods to illuminate the historical evolution of the themes. Lastly, interpretations of the trends and a recommendation to curate an IS Body of Knowledge are discussed. Chapter 3 surveys business school deans and IS academics eliciting their ‘present’ social representations of the IS discipline. It then seeks the two groups’ feedback regarding their level of agreement with concerns attributed to the IS discipline as summarized in Ives and Adams (2012). Group responses are evaluated independently and are juxtaposed for between-group analysis. Then, additional concerns are gathered to ensure the full range of issues are represented. Network topic maps illustrate the findings, and interpretations are discussed. Group differences suggest that IS academics are more critical of the IS discipline than business school deans. In Chapter 4, an alternative research approach is offered for conducting ‘future’ scholarship efforts in the IS discipline. A framework that organizes discourse on the emergent crowdsourced research genre is constructed. Prior to building the framework, a crowdsourcing process model is developed to conceptualize how problems and outcomes interact with the crowdsourcing process. The internal process components include task, governance, people, and technology. Then, the crowdsourcing process model is applied to eight general research process phases beginning with the idea generation phase and concluding with the apply results phase. Implementation of the crowdsourced research framework expounds phase-specific implications as well as other ubiquitous implications of the research process. The findings are discussed, and future directions for the IS crowd are suggested