A proto-paradigm for information science research

Abstract

The lack of a commonly accepted research paradigm for information science has been noted in the field and is the focus of this paper based on a plenary speech given at the Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS) conference in Oslo on May 30, 2022. The paper revisits the originating definition of the field in the 1960’s, with particular attention to the requirements for an adequate definition and understanding of the core concept of information. Starting with the author’s definition of information, aspects of a proto-paradigm are developed in some detail, including a range of ancillary concepts that describe information of certain types and in certain contexts. Information in both living and non-living contexts is discussed and embedded in the same framework, so as to cover all manifestations of information. Research approaches in relation to human beings and information are also analysed. The paper models information through four channels and in both carbon and silicon forms. Information in relation to human beings is modelled in six frameworks—self, body, ecology, society, discourse, and documentation. Fifteen methodological and theoretical metatheories are placed in relation to the six frameworks. With the core conceptualization of information of all types and in an all contexts, coupled with the theoretical groupings of research approaches to the study of humans in relation to information, we have the interconnected initial elements of a research paradigm for information science.