Research as an information systems domain - Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising - page 148

ICT is most active at the personal level, with the adoption of tools for individual tasks.
Research infrastructure is a feature of the organisational level where there is finance and
ongoing structures to manage the assets. Technology is an instrumental component of
the IS approach to human activity systems; one that offers opportunities and limitations.
At the foundation of the IS approach, however, are the very significant human, social
and use aspects of technologies, and IS as a discipline has the role of systematising a
range of ICT breakthroughs that, combined, can address a problem more effectively
than can individual technologies. In the research human activity system there is plenty
of technology push, but little systems-pull.
Information systems in research
The possibilities of systems-pull (or, inversely, the problem of 'systems failures') in the
research domain are rampant. The fact that data sets are typically not warehoused and
re-used is an example of failure at the data level .
At the information level , McDonald (2003) argued that current methods of organising
and mobilising this research are flawed. Considered as a whole, the applied science liter-
ature is:
1. Dispersed: It is scattered across different kinds of literature such as topics, period-
icals, research papers, technical reports, proceedings, which are located all over
the globe. It is possible that research is unwittingly being duplicated because the
original was not found in the literature review.
2. Dated: Some knowledge, created long ago, has been superseded by more recent
work but still remains in the literature with a corresponding potential to mislead.
3. Underutilised: Studies indicate that no more than 20 per cent of the knowledge
available in research institutes is really being put to use. Therefore, the full weight
of current human knowledge is not being brought to bear on problem solving.
4. Expanding rapidly : The quantity of knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate.
5. Variable in quality: The reliability of public knowledge is complex. 'Textbook Sci-
ence' is more reliable than primary (e.g. research papers) and secondary literature
(e.g. review articles). Furthermore, knowledge that is reliable in one context may
not be so reliable in another.
6. Inconsistent: Considerable contradictions have been found within published
knowledge, and between the published knowledge and expert opinion.
7. Incomplete: There are considerable gaps in published knowledge.
8. Slow to be published and applied: The path from applied science research to decision
making in the field can be long and inefficient. Publication in scientific journals
can take 12 to 18 months after acceptance, which itself may have taken a year to
achieve.
Clearly, there is a large knowledge management problem to be addressed here, even if
the information management systems (document collection, indexing, bibliographic and
full-text databases that store and deliver papers) were effective. We are stuck in a very
outmoded system that serves neither researchers nor practitioners adequately.
There are attempts to address these problems. The Cochrane Collaboration has successfully
adopted 'systematic reviews' or meta-analyses as a method for getting the best scientific
results to practitioners and other researchers. Meyers, in the Communications of the AIS
has papers that are regularly revised, and WIKI systems allow multiple people to con-
tinuously contribute to and revise a paper.