Application of latent semantic analysis in AIS academic research

Abstract

This study provides insights about the historical, intellectual structure, and trends of academic research themes in journals specifically dedicated to Accounting Information Systems (AIS) research—International Journal of Accounting Information Systems (IJAIS), its predecessor journal, Advances in Accounting Information Systems (AiAIS), and Journal of Information Systems (JIS). Using Latent Semantic Analysis, a statistical text analytics methodology that can uncover the conceptual content within unstructured data, this study identifies 14 prevalent academic research themes in AiAIS, IJAIS, and JIS from 1986 to 2015 and provides graphs that visualize thematic trends over time, including by journal. Certain themes have remained consistent in their study over the timeframe, while others have increased or diminished. Certain themes have matured while others appear to still be maturing at the end of the timeframe. Thematic trends by source journal suggest that no journal has dominated publishing specific significant themes in AIS academic research.