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Voting With Your Feet For IS Publishing Reform

Voting With Your Feet For IS Publishing Reform. Ralph Westfall Cal Poly, Pomona rdwestfall@csupomona.edu www.csupomona.edu/~rdwestfall/relevance.ppt. Problem Statement. leading IS journals are not responsive to needs of constituents

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Voting With Your Feet For IS Publishing Reform

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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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