<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">19^th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS
2013)</span></b></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Chicago Illinois, USA</span></b></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">15-17 August 2013</span></b></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Mini-Track: </span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Paradigmatic Diversity in IS Studies and its Implications
for Research Quality</span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Track</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">: <a href="http://amcis2013.aisnet.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=58">Research Methods</a><b> </b></span></font></p>
<font>



</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""></span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""></span><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Description</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><br></span></font></p><font>



</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">The IS community has become more receptive to multiple research
approaches after such seminal works<span>  </span>as
Allen Lee’s (1999) essay on integrating positivist and interpretive approaches
and Minger’s (2001) emphasis on the value of the plurality of paradigms.<span>  </span>While all IS researchers share the intent to conduct
high quality research, what exactly constitutes high quality research is not
without controversy.<span>  </span>Determining
research quality can vary greatly based on the ontological and epistemological
assumptions of the perspective (Burrell and Morgan 1979) and IS research best
practices and standards are still being debated (Straub and Ang 2011). This
increased diversity and lack of shared perspectives on quality represents a
risk to the IS field.<span>  </span>Research that
represents a contribution to the IS field is subject to the risk of inappropriate
rejection (essentially a type II error) if reviewers apply an inappropriate
standard to determine the quality of the research.<span>   </span>The IS field which is still struggling for
identify, risks not publishing research contributions or missing out if the
research is published under a different discipline. </span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""> </span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">The need to examine and debate what constitutes research quality
and best practice, particularly across approaches, motivates this mini-track.<span>  </span>This mini-track intends to
foster discussion related to difficult and controversial issues related to
determining research quality. We encourage authors to submit conceptual or
empirical research related to a wide variety of related issues.<span>  </span>These issues can be conceptual in nature such
as how to integrate interpretivist and positivist approaches or detailed
methodological discussions such as the recent exploration into the
appropriateness of formative and reflective constructs in quantitative
modeling.<span>  </span>We encourage any submission
that fosters discussion and understandings of research quality, best practices
and appropriate use of methods.</span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><span></span><span></span></span></font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><br></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">General Examples
of Relevant Topics</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">

</p><ul><li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Assessment of research rigor in IS.</span></font></li><li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">The evolution of evaluative criteria in different IS research paradigms.</span></font></li>
<li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Level of consensus on research quality standards across different
IS paradigms.</span></font></li><li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Agreement and disagreement of best practice in different
circumstances</span></font></li><li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Authors’ responsibilities for providing guidance on how to judge
research quality.</span></font></li><li><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Ontological positioning and its implications for reviewing and
publishing IS research.</span></font></li></ul><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><font>I</font>mportant Dates</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">:</span></font><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><br>
<br>January
4, 2013: Paper submissions open on Bepress</span></font><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:0in"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">February
22, 2013: Deadline for paper submissions at 11:59 p.m. CST</span></font><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:0in">
<font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">April
17, 2013: Notification of paper acceptance</span></font>

</p><font></font><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:0in"><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">May 9,
2013: Camera-ready copy due</span></font></p><font>



</font><p class="MsoNormal" style><font><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Instructions for authors can be found at
AMCIS website: <a href="http://amcis2013.aisnet.org">http://amcis2013.aisnet.org</a>
</span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style><font><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mini-Track
Chair</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">:
</span><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Dr. Kerry W. Ward, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Nebraska, USA. </span></font></p><font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Email: <a href="mailto:kwward@unomaha.edu">kwward@unomaha.edu</a> </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></font></p>
<font>

</font><p class="MsoNormal" style><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><b>Mini-Track Co-chair</b>: Ruba
Aljafari, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Nebraska, USA</span></font></p><font>

</font><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif"">Email: <a href="mailto:raljafari@unomaha.edu">raljafari@unomaha.edu</a></span></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font>



</font></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style><font><font><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>·<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal">   </span></span></span></font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""></span></font></p>
<font></font><font><b><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""></span></b></font><font><span style="font-family:"Times","serif""><a href="mailto:raljafari@unomaha.edu"></a></span></font><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span>

<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in"><b style><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times","serif""> </span></b></p>