Research as an information systems domain - Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising - page 147

logy, organisational behaviour, ethics, and so on inform IS practice. Information techno-
logy and infrastructure are a driving force in the IS process, having a particular effect
on representational techniques and the systems specification possibilities.
Looked at from an IS practice perspective, research is a human activity and the research
world a human activity system. As such, it is susceptible to IS intervention. Just as we
have e-business, e-learning or health informatics, so we can have e-research.
Using this model, we can examine research as a human activity system, and look at the
current technologies in use.
Research, human activity systems, and ICT
A human activity system can be analysed at different levels of granularity, from the
most fine-grained, personal level to the societal level.
Research at the personal level involves issues of motivation, personality, knowledge and
skill that the individual researcher brings to their work. The kinds of activities researchers
undertake include literature work, research design, data collection and analysis and re-
search reporting. The technologies they use are:
1. document management technologies, which are used for document access and re-
trieval (the Web, library databases), document tracking (Endnote and Procite), and
document generation and publication;
2. data collection and management tools, including data loggers of various kinds, Web
surveys and focus groups, data mining and the recording of laboratory records in
image, text, recordings and video;
3. analytic tools, for dealing with quantitative data (SPSS) and qualitative content
analysis (NVivo and Leximancer), and visualisation and simulation software, which
are examples of special purpose technologies used in particular kinds of projects.
The social level of human activity consists of the personal networks, the public beha-
viours, norms and culture that are exhibited by research groups and collaborations.
These are supported by communication technologies, email, videoconferencing and
collaborative tools such as Sharepoint, Yahoo and CommunityZero.
The organisational level of human activity systems concerns the processes, accountability
and power structures in organisations such as universities, the Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Defense and parts of industry. Typically,
ICT infrastructure is owned at this level. Systems like ResearchMaster are well established
in universities to help manage the flow of research projects, publications, and so on,
but such systems are probably not part of the research human activity system as they
are not concerned with research content.
The s ocietal level addresses questions about who pays for, and who benefits from, re-
search.
These levels are not hierarchical. For example, a social network exists independently of
organisations and societies. Nor is it necessary that human activity systems are purposeful.
In fact, from an IS perspective, we are often more interested in the 'metabolism' of these
systems than their justification. The ways people act are what IS contributes to, and
social, political and cultural factors are always active in all human activity systems
(Checkland and Scholes, 1990) .
As demonstrated above, the research human activity system, like all data, information
and knowledge systems, can make effective piecemeal use of information technologies.