[IRIS] Information Systems Journal: Special Issue Call for Papers Information Systems and Sustainable Development

[Petter Nielsen]

Please consider submitting a paper to our Special Issue in the Information Systems Journal on: Information Systems and Sustainable  Development

Special Issue Guest Editors 
** Barney Tan, The University of Sydney (barney.tan at sydney.edu.au) 
** Petter Nielsen, University of Oslo (pnielsen at ifi.uio.no)

Sustainability is widely acknowledged as the existential and moral imperative of our time (Sachs et al. 2019). The global focus on sustainability can be traced to the United Nations (UN) Brundtland committee in 1983, and even though the emphasis of this initiative at the time was very much centered on environmental issues, the committee defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (see Brundtland Commission 1987, p. 41). The broad scope implies sustainability is not merely environmentalism, but also includes concerns over economic development and social equity (Hart and Milstein 1999). This extended focus is the basis of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, which presents 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 associated targets to be achieved by 2030 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2015).

Since the formalization of the SDGs, the academic community has responded to some extent, as evidenced by the articles and special issues published on the topic across a variety of disciplines ranging from operations management (e.g., Besiou et al. 2020) to ethnic studies (e.g., Holliday et al. 2019). Within the field of information systems (IS), however, the response has been disappointing (Gholami et al. 2016), and plans for special issues have devolved into two or three sustainability articles in a regular issue. The need to explore how the attainment of the sustainability may be facilitated by IS has been articulated by numerous scholars (Ketter et al. 2020; Medaglia and Damsgaard 2020; Pan and Zhang 2020), but given the immensity of this global problem, the response is dismal and the IS contribution at best marginal.

Notwithstanding the emerging studies on the topic, there is growing recognition that the relationship between IS and the SDGs is more complex and multi-faceted than previously conceived (Corbett and Mellouli 2017). On the one hand, the effect of IS on sustainable development may be double-edged as IS can enable or inhibit the attainment of certain SDGs simultaneously (Vinuesa et al. 2020). On the other hand, the sustainability impact of any IS in isolation is likely to be limited as collective action on a global scale is "necessary to ensure effective, efficient and equitable responses on the scale required" (Elliot 2011, p. 208). When taken together, these considerations suggest that a holistic, calculated, and orchestrated approach to the design, implementation and use of IS for sustainable development is required. The objective of this special issue is threefold. First, we aim to provide thought leadership to the IS community on how to tackle the varied and complex sustainability challenges. Second, we want to spur relevant, rigorous, and critical research in this domain that underscores the role of IS as a source of solutions and applicable knowledge for the attainment of the SDGs. Third, using the words of Geoff Walsham, our goal is to develop a stronger ethical agenda in IS research by focusing on how we can help "making a better world" (Walsham 2012). 

For the special issue, there is an emphasis on completed empirical studies that contribute to the attainment of sustainability by investigating interventions to mitigate climate change, advance sustainable business models, and encourage adoption of behaviors that reduce environmental impact Examples of topics that would be appropriate include, but are not limited to, the following:

. The influence of IS on the SDGs (e.g., environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, improving health and education, etc.) 
. The relationships between the SDGs and the process and nature of systems innovation 
. Organizational strategies for leveraging IS toward environmental, economic and social sustainability 
. Theories and concepts related to IS-enabled forms of sustainable development that have been applied successfully 
. The role of the SDGs on Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) research and practice 
. The formation of digital ecosystems for sustainable development 
. The design of sustainable information systems and information services 
. The development of smart cities and their implications for sustainable development 
. The role of social media and digital channels in promoting the awareness and adoption of SDGs and sustainability lifestyles 
. Applications of emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, etc.) in sustainable development 
. New ICT-enabled or platform-based business models that contribute toward sustainability 
. Critical perspectives on the SDGs and the role of IS towards achieving them

** Review Process 
An order of magnitude increase in research on IS and sustainable development is needed if IS to contribute to resolving the most important problems of our time. For this reason, we want to receive innovative submissions presenting novel ideas, with the potential to primarily make a significant contribution to practice since this is a problem that needs immediate solutions. This special issue solicits papers based on an open call. The formal submission deadline is November 30, 2021 and will not be extended. All manuscript submissions will go through an initial round of screening by the special issue editorial board to ensure that they fit the objectives of the special issue and the Information Systems Journal, and can be reasonably improved during the stipulated time frame. For formatting criteria, authors should refer to the Information Systems Journal website. Manuscripts that pass initial screening will go through the Information Systems Journal review process. It is expected that a manuscript will go through a maximum of three rounds of revision. 

** Indicative Timeline 
Submission of manuscript: November 30, 2021 
First round of reviews due: February 28, 2022 
Revision due: May 31, 2022 
Completion of second round of reviews: August 31, 2022 
Final revisions due: November 30, 2022 
Final decision: Jan 31, 2023 


** Editorial Panel  
Special Advisor 
- Richard T. Watson, University of Georgia 

Associate Editors 
- Chunmian Ge, South China University of Technology 
- Daniel Veit, University of Augsburg 
- Devinder Thapa, University of Agder 
- Eivind Engebretsen, University of Oslo 
- Haifeng Xu, Shanghai Jiaotong University 
- Jacqueline Corbett, Université Laval 
- Rony Medaglia, Copenhagen Business School 
- Silvia Masiero, University of Oslo 
- Sundeep Sahay, University of Oslo 
- Vanessa Cooper, RMIT University 
- Viet Dao, Shippensburg University 
- Yenni Tim, The University of New South Wales 
- Yingqin Zheng, Royal Holloway

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/assets/13652575/ISJ_Information%20Systems%20and%20Sustainability_Call%20for%20PapervFINAL-1624624029707.pdf 

- Regards 
Petter Nielsen

Associate Professor
Head of Information Systems Research Group
Department of Informatics
University of  Oslo
Ole-Johan Dahls Hus
Gaustadalleèn 23B
N-0373 Norway

+47 41506058
pnielsen at ifi.uio.no
http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/people/aca/pnielsen/index.html
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Petter_Nielsen