A Text-mining Approach to Evaluate the Importance of Information Systems Research Themes

Abstract

This study combines text-mining techniques and exploratory factor analysis to identify significant research themes in the information systems (IS) field during the last decade. We analyzed 483 papers that have been published in the Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ) journal since 2010. We found that the most published themes in the MISQ are: (1) the impact of information systems and digital innovation on organizational performance, (2) the influence of computer-mediated communication and social media within individuals and groups, (3) information systems development and project management, (4) design science, and (5) decision making and information Systems. We also perform econometric analysis to study the effect of these research themes on the number of downloads, citations and reads in Google Scholar (SC), ResearchGate (RG), and the Association for Information Systems (AIS) library. This study shows that “the impact of information systems and digital innovation on organizational performance" and “the influence of computer-mediated communication and social media within individuals and groups” are positively associated with the number of reads, downloads, and citations. However, “information systems development and project management” is negatively associated with the number of reads, downloads, and citations. The methodology used here can be implemented in other areas of research by journal editors and research institutions to identify the most sought-after areas of future research. Also, understanding the most relevant themes of IS research can help universities revise their IS doctorate curriculum to better meet the needs of today's academic workforce.