MIS Research and Disciplinary Development by Alavi and Carlson - Article Example

 "For an article to be included in the study, it had to address an aspect of research, management, design, implementation, operation, use, or impact of MIS or MIS components. It was felt that analysis of a number of leading or core journals would provide a good understanding of the priorities and issues of interest to the MIS community." (Alavi and Carlson, 1992, 47). The authors were especially careful in adopting the methodology of the study and they would include only those journals which directly deal with these topics.

Therefore, the authors' selection of the articles as well as the method of analysis was significantly superior and the study offered one of the most valuable reviews on the development of MIS as a field of research and inquiry as well as its intellectual evolution. In comparison, "Research in Information Systems: An Empirical Study of Diversity in the Discipline and Its Journals" by Vessey, Ramesh, and Glass make use of a more all-embracing and effective research methodology in order to reveal the diversity in IS research as well as to expose the extent to which diversity is universal across journals that publish IS research.

Thus, the authors "developed a classification system that comprises five key characteristics of diversity (reference discipline, level of analysis, topic, research approach, and research method) based on a review of prior literature. [They] then examined articles over a five-year period, from 1995 to 1999, in five journals acknowledged as the top journals of the field, at least in North America. Analyses reveal considerable diversity in each of the key characteristics. Perhaps not surprisingly, the research approach used is more focused with most studies being conducted using approaches, whereas reference discipline is perhaps the most diverse of the characteristics examined.

" (Vessey, Ramesh, and Glass, 2002). Therefore, the authors have been able to make use of a very effective research methodology in order to arrive at a very logical conclusion and significant findings in IS research. Similar to the Alavi and Carlson study, Vessey, Ramesh, and Glass also makes use of a thorough review of fundamental journals that deal with their topics. However, they make use of a better strategy in classifying and analyzing the journals and articles.