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Voting with Your Feet: Reformation for IS Publishing

Learn how to influence the future of IS publishing through strategic voting and support for journals that cater to practitioners and students, embrace new technologies, and adopt innovative approaches. Take action now!

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Voting with Your Feet: Reformation for IS Publishing

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  1. Voting With Your Feet For IS Publishing Reform Ralph Westfall Cal Poly, Pomona rdwestfall@csupomona.edu www.csupomona.edu/~rdwestfall/relevance.ppt

  2. Problem Statement • leading IS journals are not responsive to needs of constituents • publications in top IS journals not adequate for tenure in some leading universities • practitioners feel our research is irrelevant • over half of SIM members canceled MISQ when subscriptions unbundled

  3. Problem Statement - 2 • some leading IS journals have a narrow view of appropriate content • emphasize management issues, avoid technology • limited interest in IS teaching/use of IT in teaching

  4. Problem Historical Development • IS publishing model based on past, not future • physical science academic publishing started in 1665 (Phil. Trans. Royal Society) • to develop credibility, social sciences followed same model in 20th century • MISQ founded in 1977 • mimicked social sciences' approach to achieving respectability

  5. Historical Development - 2 • historical publishing model developed in a very different environment • designed to meet needs of fields that were quite different from IS • long publishing cycles inconsistent with rapid changes in IT and applications • Moore's law, "Internet years," e-commerce

  6. For Example: MISQ • leading IS publication • highest score on citations/papers • currently trying to be a social science academic journal • in contrast to early issues which balanced practitioner and academic interests • a "follower," not a leader or innovator

  7. MISQ - 2 • emphasis is away from our primary strengths in technology • content itself • management and social science perspective • mode of delivery of content • paper based • exposes us to increasing competition from researchers in management, social sciences, etc.

  8. Implications of Current System • very large time investment required for publishing in leading IS journals • extended review cycles • need to keep up with reference disciplines • comes at the expense of keeping current with newer technologies • leads to lack of respect from practitioners • makes it difficult to meet needs of students

  9. Potential Threats if Don't Reform • schools of information, communications, and technology • UC Irvine, DePaul, several in Australia • schools of information, with library science roots • UC Berkeley • other business disciplines • Northwestern's e-commerce program head is from Marketing, not IS

  10. Solution: Voting with Your Feet • we have the "grass roots" power to influence our destiny • despite power asymmetry, people who control the journals are dependent on • the people who publish in their journals • other members of the field who are not associated with top-tier outlets • subscriptions • votes for organizational offices

  11. Vote For Journals That • are relevant to interests of our students • are relevant to practitioners • publish material on technologies themselves • not just on IT management

  12. Vote For Journals That - 2 • have fast publishing cycles • have a strong commitment to electronic publishing • increases citations of your papers • are innovative and willing to experiment with non-traditional approaches • have a more open review process

  13. How to Vote for Such Journals • submit high quality work to them • review for them • subscribe to them • cite their publications • recommend them to your library • scale down support for journals that are not reforming (fast enough)

  14. Opportune Time for Reform • impacts of e-commerce/e-business • increasing demand for education • "Tidal Wave II" • more continuing education required to help people keep up with technology

  15. Opportune Time for Reform - 2 • increasing competition in education • for-profits e.g. University of Phoenix • "corporate universities" • technological progress in education and declining public funding • distance learning and extension programs offered by top-tier schools

  16. Implications of Current Ferment • impacts on people who are in control at the institutional level • deans • tenure committees • could be persuaded to be more receptive to publications, service, etc. related to non-traditional outlets

  17. Conclusion • we should put more effort into developing and promoting new publishing paradigms • this is consistent with strengths of our field • defending an outdated paradigm is not an area of competitive advantage for us

  18. Call to Action • we have the power to change the course of this field • in a direction that is more favorable than the current one • so let's do it!

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