Time to stop researching the important things?

Abstract

From 2010 government funding for UK research will be based partly on metrics. One of the key metrics will be citations, with research income and postgraduate student numbers also assessed. While citation metrics seem sensible, there is a serious issue of what topics one researches, the methods used and the way in which a move to the use of citations will induce a change in research behaviour – especially a move to the dull middle ground. This paper investigates the potential impact of such a move on niche areas of IS research – here research on small- and medium-sized enterprises. However, the arguments hold for any new, emerging, or non-mainstream research area. The impacts of citation metrics on publication outlets and research method choice are assessed.

Keywords:

• IS
• small- and medium-sized enterprises
• citations
• research method

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Philip Powell

About the authors

Philip Powell is Deputy Dean in the School of Management at the University of Bath. He is also honorary professor of Operational Information Systems at the University of Groningen. Formerly, Professor of Information Systems, University of London, and Director of the Information Systems Research Unit at Warwick Business School, he has worked and taught in Australia, Africa, U.S. and Europe. Prior to becoming an academic he worked in insurance, accounting and systems analysis. He is the author of six books on information systems and financial modelling. He has published numerous book chapters and his work has appeared in over 90 international journals and at over 100 conferences. He has been Managing Editor of the Information Systems Journal for over a decade, and is on a number of other journal editorial boards. He is a past President of the U.K. Academy for IS.

Maria Woerndl

Maria Woerndl holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bath where she is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Information Management. Her research interests are firmly rooted within the ‘business & technology’ domain with a focus on information systems (IS) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Presently, she is studying the impact of e-business on European firms and economies as part of her occupation as senior analyst for empirica, Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, in Germany. Prior to engaging in research activities, Maria studied and worked in Germany, the U.S., Spain and Mexico. She has published papers about IS issues in SMEs in various journals and conferences.