purpose and format of the course

B_AD 6/74007 was designed to familiarize the student with the environment of refereed journal research in the field of Information Systems/Information Technology. “Technology” is understood here in the sense that the Information Systems function in the business world is as often refereed to as IT as it is referenced as IS. We are still talking about the design, management, and use of computerized information systems for organizational objectives.

To this end, we will read and discuss a number of papers published in refereed journals, in order to understand several ways in which one can conduct some research that will fall successfully into some category that a reviewer and an editor regards as meriting publication. We will look for various papers published in refereed journals that are examples, respectively, of controlled laboratory experiment, survey, field study, case study, executive interviews, literature review coupled with theoretical model building, actual system development with testing and described usefulness. We will also read and discuss good examples of papers from both practitioner and academic journals. Finally, we will look for papers to read and discuss that are good examples of today’s hot topics, such as Wireless Applications and Security.

Since the course is being offered this year with combined sections of Master’s and Doctoral students, we will take advantage of that fact in order to promote a dialogue between the interests of managers and information systems professionals on one hand and the interests of university researchers on the other. We will also read and discuss an interesting argument among the editorial staff of MIS Quarterly, concerning “rigor versus relevance.”

We will have four and one half class sessions (two and one half hours long each time) focusing on discussion of papers we have read. The rest of our class meetings will focus on our both writing for and performing editorial services for an imaginary new journal in information systems. Based on shared interests, the class will be divided into two groups of approximately equal size. Collectively each of the two groups will function as groups of editorial reviewers. The instructor for the course will act as Senior Editor, a role that includes guiding the discussion of submitted papers when it gets off course. Each of the two groups will elect an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor will assign papers submitted for publication to the various members of the group in whatever manner seems effective. Thus, the members of the group will function as reviewers. This is an imitation of the refereed journal process. When someone submits a paper for possible publication, it is given a review by knowledgeable professionals who recommend accepting the paper, rejecting it, or suggesting a number of changes to the author.

The papers that each of the two editorial groups will be reviewing come from the other half of the class. Group 1 submits, individually, their papers to Panel 1. At the same time, the individuals in Group 1 are also the editorial members of Panel 2 and as such they review the papers submitted by the other half of the class.

Each student in the class will submit work to the reviewers in the other half of the class in three stages – outline, mid-semester working draft, and final draft of the paper. Note that the student as researcher will be required to submit to the board of reviewers both the outline in electronic form and either an electronic or a hard copy version of the notes that he/she has made on a number of articles. See examples of these notes elsewhere on this web site.

At each stage the student will receive a critique from the reviewers and incorporate the recommended changes in her or his ongoing work. At each stage the work of every student will be posted on this web site and everyone will have the opportunity to follow the progress of everyone’s work. Each time an editorial board of reviewers presents their critique of what they have received, we will all have had the opportunity to read the work that is being discussed.

Early in the semester, each of the two boards of reviewers have the responsibility to present to the class (1) the topics that they will accept as suitable for their issue of this new journal, and (2) the standards by which they will judge each submission. Also, before the two editorial boards present their first critiques, the class will agree on a set of standards by which the editorial boards will be judged in the performance of their duties.

At the end of our class on 7 October, for example, Panel 1 will be graded by the other half of the class on how well they have done their jobs. As Senior Editor, the instructor’s ratings will count equally with the average of those of the class, and the two resulting ratings will be further averaged. Then Panel 1 will receive a total number of points to divide among themselves towards their grades depending on how the group rates each member’s performance.

Similarly, in addition to giving good comments offering guidance to the author for further work on the paper, Panel 1 will give a grade, in points, to each author in Group 1, and similarly for Panel 2 and Group 2. Again, the instructor, as Senior Editor, has a vote equal to that of each Panel and the resulting two assignments of points earned will be averaged.

Each of the two boards of reviewers will be composed of both Master’s and doctoral students. We will come as close as we can to dividing the groups evenly. Each of the two boards will address themselves to the dual interests of practitioner material and university material. Master’s students will be expected to write practitioner articles and doctoral students are expected to write more theoretical articles. But, it is strongly hoped that our rather special journal will make some progress in learning how to creatively inter-relate the two kinds of articles.

Finally, Master’s students will work in two person teams, as co-authors, while doctoral students are required to write single author pieces.

The final result of the class will be two completed issues of our journal on the course web site, complete with editorial introductions.