School of Information Systems & Technology

 

IS 360: Principles of IS&T Research

 

Course Syllabus – Fall 2007

 

Revised: Sep 10, 2007

 

Meetings

Instructors

 

Day: Mondays

Name:  Terry Ryan

Name:  Lorne Olfman

Time: 7:00-9:50 PM

Office: ACB 220

Office: ACB 216B

Place: ACB 205

Phone: (909) 607-9591

Phone: (909) 607-3035

 

FAX: (909) 621-8564

FAX: (909) 621-8564

 

E-mail: terry.ryan@cgu.edu

E-mail: lorne.olfman@cgu.edu

 

Office hours: Mondays, 3:00-3:50 PM,
or by appointment

Office hours: by appointment

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Course Overview

 

To get the most from a Ph.D. in IS&T, one must participate in the community of IS&T research.  This means that one must understand what other IS&T researchers expect of research.  The good news is that a broad range of efforts—from quantitative to qualitative, from technical to behavioral, from theory generating to theory testing—have been accepted as IS&T research in recent times.  The bad news (perhaps) is that anyone who wishes to be an IS&T researcher must be able to conduct and comment on research of many different types.  This course intends to introduce students to the community of IS&T research: its participants, the topics they investigate, and the approaches they use. 

 

Grades in IS360 will be based on students’ performance in course components: participation (60%), midterm paper (20%), and final paper (20%). 

 

 

Participation

 

Students must comment on assigned readings, both online and face-to-face.  To do well at online comments, students must use a blog to comment on weekly course readings.  (Access to blogs will be explained at the first class session.)  To do well at face-to-face comments, students must take an active and appropriate role in discussions during class.  Inadequate online or face-to-face comments will result in a low grade in the course.

 

Students must make two entries each week in the course community blog and comment on the entries for the week of at least four fellow students.  Entries should be 100-200 words long; comments may consist of only a few sentences.  Entries and comments should provide “talking points” for in-class discussion.  They should be intelligible and consistent with the spirit of the course.

 

The first entry each week should review—but not repeat—the assigned journal reading for the next class session.  It must be posted no later than Thursday night preceding the session—12:01AM Friday is late—to allow enough time for classmates to comment on it.  An article review form, http://ist.cgu.edu/ryant/ArticleReview.htm, is available as a model.  (Note: an entry should not merely repeat a reading through quotation or paraphrase; it should express the writer’s understanding of one or more important points related to the reading.)

 

The second entry each week should comment on the assigned book reading.  It may consist of a reaction to some aspect of the book or it may be a more substantial observation or question.  Whatever it is, the entry must be constructive and express something of substance.  Comments may say anything related to entries made by other students, assuming civility.  The second entry and comments are due no later than Sunday night preceding the session.

 

 

Papers

 

Students must write two papers in the course.  The first requires students to develop a research question that might be answered in one study; the second requires them to design a study that might answer the question.

 

Papers should be long enough to explain the research question (first paper) and the study’s design (second paper).  Typically, the first paper would be 7-9 pages long.  The second paper, which includes a corrected version of the first paper as its first section, runs about twice as long.   Papers must be word-processed in 12-point font, with 1 in. margins all around, double-spaced, and saved in Word 2003 or pdf format.  Papers should be submitted to both instructors as email attachments.  The student’s name should be in the header of the first page; page numbers should be in the footer of every page after the first.  Provide a descriptive title at the beginning of the document.  Follow APA editorial style (see: http://apastyle.apa.org/).

 

The research question must be related to the core issues of information systems and technology.  (Refer to the Benbasat and Zmud (2003) paper for clarification.) For example, a student may be interested in personal health records (PHR).  The student should try to identify an issue related to PHR (for example, adoption has been slow).  Having an issue, the student should attempt to identify existing theory and research relevant to the issue. Following this, the student should formulate one question, the answer to which would advance our understanding of the issue.  The question should be specific enough that it could be addressed in one study.  On the other hand, the question should be one with theoretical implications; its answer should be of interest to the community of researchers.  Asking the question, justifying it, identifying the variables involved, and specifying expected relationships among these variables is what constitutes the first paper. Explaining in detail how to conduct a study that might answer the research question, along with improving the first paper, is what makes up the second paper.

 

The first paper should clearly explain the question the student would like to research.  It is important in stating the question to adopt a narrow focus.  It is a common mistake for students to ask questions that are too broad to become workable research projects.  For example, it would be too broad to ask why, in general, technologies like PHR are not adopted.  Better research questions are likely to concern at least some of the realist concerns of action, context, mechanism, and outcomes.

 

A thorough and relevant literature review is essential.  It is not enough to cite the required books and articles from the class.  Each student must establish that they know what has been written on the issue they choose for their proposed study.  This will require extensive searching of databases that cover academic literature related to IS&T.  Contact the IS&T reference librarian at Claremont’s library (http://libraries.claremont.edu/) for help, if necessary.

 

The second paper should clearly explain, in detail, how the student would go about conducting research to answer the question posed in the first paper.  The beginning of the second paper will be a corrected version of the first paper, reflecting responses to feedback from the instructor.  The rest of the second paper will consist of an explanation of what research the student would do. (Note: the student is not required to do the study described by the paper, merely to create a detailed plan for how to do it.)

 

Correct expression—spelling, grammar, argument, etc.—is required.  Students who do not have strong writing skills should seek help from the CGU Writing Center as soon as possible.

 

 

Academic Honesty

 

It is understood that each student is subject to rules related to academic honesty.  In no case is plagiarism accepted in academic endeavors.  If you use someone else’s work, you must provide a citation about that use (direct quotes must be identified by quotation marks and page references), whether it comes from a published paper, an unpublished paper or assignment, or any other source.  Failure to meet this ethical standard will result in disciplinary action, which can range from receiving a failing grade on an assignment, to automatic failure of the class, to a withdrawal from your academic program.  In order to ensure that all quotations and references to other work have been properly cited, we will use a service called Turnitin.  Each student will have a Turnitin account; details will be provided in the first class session.

 

 

Required Texts

 

The following texts should be available in the Huntley (Claremont Colleges) Bookstore, but the best deals (including used copies) are probably to be obtained from online and other vendors.

 

Title

Authors

Publisher, Year

ISBN

The Craft of Research (2nd Ed.)

Booth, W.C., Colomb, G.G., Williams, J. M.

University of Chicago Press, 2003

0226065685

A Primer in Theory Construction

Reynolds, P. D.

Allyn & Bacon, 1971

0205501281

Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

Godfrey-Smith, P.

University of Chicago Press, 2003

0226300633

Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioners (2nd Ed.)

Robson, C.

Blackwell Publishers,
2002

0631213058

Writing the Doctoral Dissertation (Revised)

Davis, G. B., Parker, C.A.

Barron’s, 1997

0812098005

 

 

Optional Text

 

The following text may be available in the Huntley (Claremont Colleges) Bookstore, but certainly can be obtained from online and other vendors.

 

Title

Publisher, Year

ISBN

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed.

American Psychological Association, 2001

1557987912

 

 

Required Readings

 

The journal articles listed in the class schedule and bibliography below are all from MIS Quarterly, which has been regularly identified as the top IS&T research journal in the world.  AIS members can access these articles via the eMISQ Website: http://emisq.isworld.org/.  The Claremont library also has a hardcopy subscription to MISQ, and e-copy access to some/all of the articles.  Contact the library if you need more information about accessing full-text e-copies.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Albert, T. C., Goes, P. B., & Gupta, A. (2004). GIST: A model for design and management of content and interactivity of customer-centric Web sites. MIS Quarterly, 28(2), 161-182.

 

Benbasat, I., & Zmud, R. W. (2003). The identity crisis within the IS discipline: Defining and communicating the discipline’s core properties. MIS Quarterly, 27(2), 183-194.

 

Bhattacherjee, A., & Premkumar, G. (2004). Understanding changes in belief and attitude toward information technology usage: A theoretical model and longitudinal test. MIS Quarterly, 28(2), 229-254.

 

Bock, G.-W., Zmud, R. W., Kim, Y.-G., & Lee, J.-N. (2005). Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: Examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly, 29(1), 87-111.

 

Dubé, L., & Paré, G. (2003). Rigor in information systems positivist case research: Current practices, trends, and recommendations. MIS Quarterly, 27(4), 597-635.

 

Gallaugher, J. M., & Wang, Y.-M. (2002). Understanding network effects in software markets: Evidence from Web server pricing. MIS Quarterly, 26(4), 303-327.

 

Hevner, A. R., March, S. T., Park, J., & Ram, S. (2004). Design science in information systems research. MIS Quarterly, 28(1), 75-105.

 

Kohli, R., & Kettinger, W. J. (2004). Informating the clan: Controlling physicians’ costs and outcomes. MIS Quarterly, 28(3), 363-394.

 

Lee, A. (1999). Editor’s comments. MIS Quarterly, 23(4). Retrieved, July 13, 2007, from: http://www.misq.org/archivist/vol/no23/issue4/edstat.html.

 

Pawlowski, S. D., & Robey, D. (2004). Bridging user organizations: Knowledge brokering and the work of information technology professionals. MIS Quarterly, 28(4), 645-672.

 

Saunders, C.  (2005) Editor’s comments: Looking for diamond cutters. MIS Quarterly, 29(1), iii-viii.

 

Speier, C., & Morris, M. G. (2003). The influence of query interface design on decision-making performance. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 397-423.

 

Swanson, E. B., & Ramiller, N. C. (2004). Innovating mindfully with information technology. MIS Quarterly, 28(4), 553-583.

 

Walsham, G. (2002). Cross-cultural software production and use: A structurational analysis. MIS Quarterly, 26(4), 359-380.

 

Webster, J., & Watson, R. T. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS Quarterly, 26(2), xiii-xxiii.

 

Zmud, R. W. (1998). Editor’s comments. MIS Quarterly, 22(3). Retrieved, July 13, 2007, from: http://www.misq.org/archivist/vol/no22/issue3/edstat.html#overview.

 

 

Class Schedule

 

Date

Book Reading

Article Reading

Instructor

Due

Sep 10

Booth (1-148)

Webster & Watson

Ryan/Olfman

Email to terry.ryan@cgu.edu

Sep 17

Booth (149-258)

Benbasat & Zmud

Ryan

1st blog entries
(see instructions)

Sep 24

Reynolds (1-82)

Speier & Morris

Olfman

 

Oct 1

Reynolds (83-165)

Dubé & Paré

Olfman

 

Oct 8

Godfrey-Smith (1-74)

Hevner et al

Ryan

 

Oct 15

Godfrey-Smith (75-162)

Albert et al

Ryan

 

Oct 22

(No class session)

 

 

 

Oct 29

Godfrey-Smith (163-231)

Pawlowski & Robey

Ryan

 

Nov 5

Robson (1-94)

Bock et al

Olfman

Midterm Paper
(due 7:00 PM)

Nov 12

Robson (95-200)

Bhattacherjee & Premkumar

Ryan

 

Nov 19

Robson (201-308)

Gallaugher & Wang

Olfman

 

Nov 26

Robson (309-454)

Kohli & Kettinger

Olfman

 

Dec 3

Robson (455-523)

Walsham

Olfman

 

Dec 10

Davis & Parker (1-73)

Swanson & Ramiller

Ryan

 

Dec 17

Davis & Parker (1-140)

Zmud
Lee
Saunders

Olfman/Ryan

Final Paper
(due 7:00 PM,
Dec 17)