[AISWorld] Policy-Relevant Matters on AISWorld [Was: Research opportunity?]

[Roger Clarke]

Everyone's agreed that the original posting on the climate change 
topic failed to demonstrate that it was clearly enough related to the 
purposes of the list.

(It's very easy for anyone, when composing a message, to jump to the 
conclusion that other people can see what you can see.  So we 
shouldn't be harping on about that mistake;  and the mistake has been 
corrected, with the due apologies).

This posting is about a more general point.

IS/MIS has been lurching into the cul de sac of 'rigour at all costs'.

A critical corollary of that is:  'to the extent that relevance and 
rigour are mutually exclusive, relevance has to be sacrificed'.

I recently prepared a paper on 'an eCommerce Perspective on Carbon 
Trading', and was appalled that I couldn't find anything that was 
worth citing in the AIS eLibrary, nor in the broader IS literature 
disclosed by Google Scholar.

A colleague reported the same problem when he was working on Green IT.

I agree that:
-   IS researchers mustn't rush headlong into research domains that
     are at least to some extent fashion-driven
-   rigour matters
-   it takes time for relevant theory to be found and thought through,
     and for relevant techniques to be applied, and for ideas to mature
     sufficiently for articles to gain acceptance in A and A+ journals.
     (And we're all dismayed about the ongoing delays that are still
     occurring after acceptance and before appearance)

But, in relation to matters of policy significance:
-   one-hit postings must be regarded as relevant to the discipline list
-   reasonable-quality papers must be acceptable for publication, at an
     early stage in the maturity cycle, in at least B and C journals,
     in IS, in cognate disciplines and in relevant research domains


ACHTUNG!  -----------  Send responses TO ME, NOT TO EVERYONE  -----------


[I believe that the policy-relevance vs. rigour issue is very 
important to the future of the discipline.  Others may as well - but 
many might disagree with the point of view I've expressed, so 
discussion could be lively.  I'll post a consolidated set.  If there 
are lots of messages, I'll do it sooner;  and if response is muted, 
I'll do it later.]


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University