The beginnings of a new era: time to reflect on 17 years of the <i>ISJ</i>
Authors: Avison, David E; Dwivedi, Yogesh K; Fitzgerald, Guy; Powell, Philip
Journal: Information Systems Journal (2008)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00282.x
<jats:p><jats:bold>Abstract. </jats:bold> In this paper we reflect on the first 17 years of the Information Systems Journal (ISJ). The reflections are considered under three headings: origin of papers (authors, geographical period, gender and departments), research paradigms (positive/interpretive, qualitative/quantitative, non‐empirical/empirical, espoused theories and research method) and finally, topics. We find that throughout the period, the published papers evidenced a greater internationalization of the journal. On the other hand, some regions and countries are poorly represented. Another imbalance concerns the lack of practitioner papers along with an author‐gender imbalance. Qualitative research exceeds quantitative research by a factor of more than 2:1. Interestingly, papers classified as descriptive/conceptual/theoretical have been largely superseded in the period by those that have some empirical evidence to illustrate the points made. Sometimes it is argued that the discipline of information systems lacks theory and thinking pieces but the <jats:italic>ISJ</jats:italic> suggests that this is far from the truth. Further, our analysis has revealed around 250 topics disc…