Abstract
This chapter reports a longitudinal study that explores the state of information systems (IS) research in Australia. A series of surveys was distributed to the heads of all IS discipline groups in Australian universities in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The study highlights the current state of IS research in Australia from the 2006 survey and analyses the trends in IS research in the past few years. The study revealed a wide range of topics researched (with rapid growth in electronic commerce and knowledge management), a range of foci, a balance between positivist and interpretive research, surveys as the most frequently used research method and the fact that most research was directed at informing IS professionals. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis identified the growing importance of industry relevance and collaboration. Research performance, measured by publication output and research grant income, is shown to be improving, but is dominated by universities from the ‘Sandstone/Redbrick’ and ‘Unitech’ sectors, and overall does not compare favourably with other disciplines.
Table of Contents
The first academic programs in IS appeared in Australia in the late 1960s and have grown steadily to be available in almost all Australian universities. While the teaching of IS has grown, the growth of IS research has been slower and few studies have examined its progress. Ridley et al. (1998) studied publication performance over a seven-year period, but there has been no longitudinal study of the research profile of IS in Australian universities.
This chapter explores the Australian IS research field along lines similar to part of the study conducted by Avgerou et al. (1999) in Europe, except that it focuses only on research, and is based on an earlier study by Pervan and Cecez-Kecmanovic (2001). The study targeted the views of the heads of discipline from Australian IS groups and was conducted on behalf of the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS).