The motivation for this paper was the desire to undertake an ontological analysis of information systems research literature. The product of this analysis would constitute the starting point for a categorial scheme for that domain. In his books The Literary Work of Art (1965) and The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art (1968), Roman Ingarden developed a framework from a comprehensive high level ontological analysis of literary work, including scientific works. Our examination of the research literature failed to identify any efforts to develop a tool with which to rigorously apply his framework to scientific works and this paper has attempted to address that lack. Techniques from the grounded theory method have therefore been adapted to work with Ingarden’s framework.
The grounded theory method and the adaptation of this method to information systems research has been successful over a number of years. The grounded theory method was considered appropriate in the context of the research discussed in this paper due to its similar philosophical heritage compared to Ingarden’s ontological framework. They are both from the realist tradition and share assumptions about the world and the ways in which it may be understood. Importantly for this research, they both explicitly provide for the accommodation of differences in perception of states of affairs by individuals. The proposed tool therefore conforms to the definition of a method as a ‘coherent and systematic approach, based on a particular philosophy’ (Fitzgerald et al, 2002 cit Lings and Lundell, 2005).
The adaptation of the grounded theory method is expected to provide a number of additional benefits. The application of the method may be novel, but the method itself is approaching its 40th anniversary and, since it has had a presence in the information systems literature for the past 15 years, it should not be unfamiliar to information systems researchers. This last point is seen as significant because we see this tool as having applications beyond the immediate project for which we are developing it.
The use of this tool by a number of researchers for the purpose of this project would provide a consistent analysis that would reflect the intentionality of the researchers using it. This could begin to capture the diversity of perspectives that exists in information systems.
The tool may also be applicable for e-research in other interdisciplinary subject domains such as health informatics as well as other forms of literature intended for transmission of cognitive knowledge in the same way as scientific works (e.g. systems and user manuals, requirements specifications etc). Journal editorial boards could use it from time to time as a check on whether what was being published actually reflected their stated aims and scope.
What remains is to see if the approach is practically feasible. Hence, the next step is to apply the approach to a significant sample of papers from the top five information systems journals. We will then be able to comment on the practicality of the approach rather than simply addressing its theoretical feasibility, as we have done here.