Research as an information systems domain - Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising - page 145

12. Research as an information
systems domain
Craig McDonald, School of Information Sciences and Engin-
eering, University of Canberra
Abstract
There is growing interest in the use of ICT in the domains of science and research. Little
of that interest is currently focused on the systems aspects of those domains, but instead
looks piecemeal at the way they may make use of particular ICT tools. Two important
opportunities exist here for the information systems discipline; firstly, to analyse it as
a human activity system to see how ICT can be systematically employed in its activities,
and secondly, to view the deployment and adoption in society of knowledge created by
research as a matter of information systems inter-operation. This paper looks at how the
foundation ideas of IS might be mobilised to improve the vital domain of research.
Introduction
Information systems is a discipline that interests itself in the interaction of information
technologies with human activity systems. The purpose of this paper is to examine some
aspects of research as a human activity system and the role information systems might
play in it.
e-Science and e-Research
Both the Chair of the ARC and Australia's Chief Scientist have spoken recently about e-
Science and e-Research. Cram's (2003) 'A Roadmap for e-Research' and Batterham's (2003)
'E-Science: A Frontier Technology for Achieving the National Research Priorities' set
the scene for the section on e-Science in the 'Smart Use of Information Technology Sys-
tems' (SUITS) bid. Both of these sources, from peak government advisors, emphasise the
use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the way research and innov-
ation will be conducted in the future.
The terms e-Science and e-Research are not well differentiated. E-Science is usually un-
derstood to be related to the use of ICT in scientific research, particularly that needing
high computing power and vast data sources in a highly distributed grid environment
(e.g. the National E-Science Center). Typical domains include astronomy, physics, geology,
and so on. The Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC), Australasian
Workshop on Grid Computing and e-Research (AusGrid) and, presumably, National ICT
Australia (NICTA), are the kinds of organisations involved in e-Science. The technologies
they are developing and promoting include broadband, middleware, repositories of
scientific data, sensors and instrumentation, distributed computational power, and so
on.
The UK e-Science Grid conceives of:
an e-Scientist's workbench ... [that] aims to support: the scientific process of
experimental investigation, evidence accumulation and result assimilation;