Information Systems’ Diverse Origins Coming Together

Abstract

The diversity of IS programs and research has been of interest to various professions. It has been argued that IS has developed to the extent where it does not have to rely on other reference disciplines, but should rather serve as a reference discipline for other disciplines. While IS may have developed its own discipline, its location in different academic units may influence the venue of faculty publications. The understanding of the relationships between venue of publication and location of IS programs will influence curriculum development especially at the doctoral level and inform faculty placement decisions. In this paper, the authors examine IS research that falls into the professional categories of business, engineering, education, and library science for faculty from information systems programs. They examined the research publications of the faculty from the twenty-four IS programs accredited by ABET Inc. The data shows that irrespective of the location of the IS program, over 50% of the faculty publications are in the Engineering venue. Further, the results indicate that the location of the IS program influences the publication venue. The authors also suggest that the tenure and promotion requirements also influence the venue of the publications of IS faculty. This research contributes to both professional practice and scholarly research. (Contains 8 tables.)