Information Systems Community Research Articles

Reviewing the availability and integration of community health information system for HIV/AIDS in Lesotho

Background: Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals, with community-based services playing a crucial role. Various stakeholders contribute to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interventions, which must be documented and shared with others for informed decision-making.Aim: This study aims to review the availability of a community health information system (CHIS) in Lesotho and its integration between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National AIDS Commission (NAC).Setting: The study is based on the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Commission in Maseru, Lesotho.Method: A scoping review used peer-reviewed articles, documents from MOH and NAC, and other relevant reports from non-governmental organisations. The community information systems were examined for inclusion of clinical and non-clinical information. Possible linkages of information between MOH and NAC were reviewed.Results: Clinical information from CSOs is recorded in DHIS2 at the MOH facilities, while non-clinical information is reported in LOMSHA. However, clinical information from VHWs is currently not included in DHIS2 and formal reporting tools are being developed. There are no links between MOH and NAC, which limits information sharing.Conclusion: Although a CHIS exists, it lacks the necessary linkages. Community-based information from VHWs is not reported through DHIS2. Therefore, the country does not benefit fully from community-based health information.Contribution: Community health information systems review has never been conducted in Lesotho before. Therefore, this review will raise awareness about its importance and use in decision-making.

IT Research in Marginalized Contexts: An Evolving Landscape

Information systems (IS) scholars are gradually conducting research on socio-technical issues in marginalized contexts to uncover inequities and injustices and empower them through technology. In support of the evolving IS research landscape, a dedicated track on IT, social justice, and marginalized contexts was organized at HICSS 2024 that would allow the IS community to attract, promote, and grow research on marginalized contexts systematically and deliberately. This editorial presents a brief overview of the ten mini-tracks accepted as a part of this special HICSS 2024 track and highlights the prominent themes showcased in the 39 accepted papers. The editorial calls for IS scholars to challenge the hegemonic conduct of IS research and advance scholarship in this space by prioritizing intellectual conversations that mitigate the risks of constructing a future where technological spaces, digital applications, and machine intelligence mirror a narrow and privileged vision of society with its biases and stereotypes. The editorial concludes with a call to collectively seed a scholarly legacy in IT research within marginalized contexts at HICSS.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN CROSS-BORDER ENERGY TRADE: THE CASE OF THE KAZAKHSTAN – CHINA PIPELINE

The article delves into the nuanced realm of environmental sustainability in the context of the KazakhstanChina pipeline – a crucial conduit for oil and gas resources spanning borders. Rigorous methodologies, including Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and community engagement, unveil the environmental challenges intrinsic to cross-border energy projects. From habitat disruption and pollution to the potential for oil spills, the negative impacts demand strategic mitigation. The article advocates for a multifaceted approach, recommending the incorporation of advanced technologies, strategic route planning, and diversified energy sources. Emphasizing community engagement, transparency, and international cooperation, the proposed sustainable practices aim to balance the imperatives of economic growth with ecological preservation. As the world grapples with increasing energy demands, the Kazakhstan-China pipeline stands as a poignant case study, prompting a collective reevaluation of our approach to global energy trade. Through proactive measures and collaborative efforts, it is possible to navigate the delicate equilibrium between energy security and environmental stewardship, fostering a future where sustainable practices underscore the foundation of cross-border energy endeavors.

A Comprehensive Review of Affordance Theory in Enhancing Digital Health Solutions

The interplay between humans and objects is a foundational aspect of visual perception, significantly enriched by Gibson's introduction of Affordance Theory. This theory posits that human interaction with objects is predicated on the recognition of what these objects can provide or afford them. This premise has sparked a vibrant debate within the Information Systems (IS) community, leading to the emergence of two distinct interpretative schools of thought. The first school accentuates the role of user perception and the intrinsic features of IT artifacts in co-creating affordances. In contrast, the second school asserts that affordances are inherently integrated within the IT artifact's design and features.This review critically examines the divergent applications of Affordance Theory by these schools, with a particular emphasis on mHealth app studies. It proposes a comprehensive framework that synthesizes key arguments from both perspectives, aiming to offer researchers a refined tool for leveraging Affordance Theory. Furthermore, this framework seeks to aid designers in enhancing the usability and utility of IT artifacts, thereby bridging theoretical insights with practical application. Through this analysis, the paper endeavors to contribute to a nuanced understanding of Affordance Theory and its implications for digital health solutions.

Exploratory search in information systems: a systematic review

PurposeExploratory search activities are ubiquitous in various information systems. Much potentially useful or even serendipitous information is discovered during the exploratory search process. Given its irreplaceable role in information systems, exploratory search has attracted growing attention from the information system community. Since few studies have methodically reviewed current publications, researchers and practitioners are unable to take full advantage of existing achievements, which, in turn, limits their progress in this field. Through a literature review, this study aims to recapitulate important research topics of exploratory search in information systems, providing a research landscape of exploratory search.Design/methodology/approachAutomatic and manual searches were performed on seven reputable databases to collect relevant literature published between January 2005 and July 2023. The literature pool contains 146 primary studies on exploratory search in information system research.FindingsThis study recapitulated five important topics of exploratory search, namely, conceptual frameworks, theoretical frameworks, influencing factors, design features and evaluation metrics. Moreover, this review revealed research gaps in current studies and proposed a knowledge framework and a research agenda for future studies.Originality/valueThis study has important implications for beginners to quickly get a snapshot of exploratory search studies, for researchers to re-align current research or discover new interesting issues, and for practitioners to design information systems that support exploratory search.

The ‘hijacking’ of the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems: Implications for the information systems community

AbstractJournal hijacking, which refers to the attempted brand takeover of a journal by a third party, is a nascent threat confronting the information systems (IS) community, as evidenced by cybercriminals having established an online presence, masquerading as the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). The SJIS hijacking damages the journal's reputation, leads to payment and publication scams, involves identity theft among unsuspecting IS researchers, and results in tarnished author reputations. Beyond SJIS, journal hijacking presents a threat, not only to the IS community, but also to science and academic integrity in general if researchers and readers cannot distinguish between fake publications by hijacked journals and real publications by legitimate journals. In this opinion article, we relate the story of the SJIS hijacking from the victims' perspectives. We describe its many aspects, draw attention to the key factors that contribute to the problem, and offer our perspectives on different response strategies in the absence of simple solutions. We hope to create awareness about the problem and stimulate a discussion in the IS community, not least in the face of digital innovations, such as ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence technologies that may inadvertently support paper mills and the production of fake research results.

Splitting versus lumping: narrowing a theory’s scope may increase its value

ABSTRACT Specialisation, by seeking theoretically deeper explanations or more accurate predictions, is common in the sciences. It typically involves splitting, where one model is further divided into several or even hundreds of narrow-scope models. The Information Systems (IS) literature does not discuss such splitting. On the contrary, many seminal IS studies report that a narrow scope is less strong, less interesting, or less useful than a wider scope. In this commentary, we want to raise the awareness of the IS community that in modern scientific progress, specialisation – an activity that generally narrows the scope and decreases the generalisability of a hypothesis – is important. The philosophy of science discusses such positive developments as splitting and trading off a wide scope in favour of accuracy. Narrowing the scope may increase value, especially in sciences where practical applicability is valued. If the IS community generally prefers a wider scope, then we run the risk of not having the information necessary to understand IS phenomena in detail. IS research must understand splitting, how it results in narrowing the scope, and why it is performed for exploratory or predictive reasons in variance, process, and stage models.

Understanding the Diffusion of Business Analysis Responsibilities

ABSTRACT Business analysis is core to the information systems (IS) discipline. Historically, those performing business analysis held the “Business Analyst” job title; however, in recent years evidence suggests that business analysis is now a job responsibility diffused across a wide variety of roles. It is vital that the IS community understand more about the diffusion of responsibility for business analysis across a variety of organizational roles. This research seeks to provide such an understanding by analyzing job postings referencing business analysis responsibilities. Over 231,000 unique job postings were analyzed to identify the most common job titles associated with business analysis, the hard and soft skills associated with them, and how the job titles compared in terms of skill requirements. The study provides insights to support both academia and industry in understanding business analysis as it relates to IT job titles and roles.

The impact of EU Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act on health information systems

The European Parliament has approved new legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) to improve the functioning of the internal market of intermediary services in the European Union (EU) where there is a risk that the major so-called gatekeeper companies can exercise unfair control of core platform services. The purpose of this study was to investigate, what health information systems could be in the scopes of these acts and what requirements the acts may have for the production, the sale and the use of health information systems. The act texts were examined bearing in mind what types of health information systems exist and what their user bases are. Those health information systems that can belong or do not belong to the groups of systems regulated by the DMA and DSA were identified. The most relevant requirements for these systems were also identified from these acts. The result of the study is that these acts have only minor consequences for the healthcare information systems sector as they are not often intermediary (hosting) services in the meaning of the DSA or gatekeepers in the meaning of the DMA. The emerging digital healthcare platforms are most affected by the new DSA and secondly such peer support patient portals where patients can supply content for others to see. Apparently, no digital healthcare platform has yet reached such a size or a dominant role within the EU that it would fall under the scope of the DMA. The two above mentioned healthcare related intermediary services have due diligence obligations to remove illegal contents from their services and to treat their business and consumer customers fairly. The obligations include clear and fair terms and conditions, the provision of a single point of contact for users and authorities, content moderation, complaint handling, marking advertising clearly, annual reporting, and responding to the contacts from the authorities. The obligations increase when the size of the enterprise increases. It is still too early to produce healthcare information systems specific guidance to support the implementation of these two acts as the acts themselves and potential upcoming general guidance documents can serve the health information systems community sufficiently well.

Editorial: Continuing on an Inclusive Path to Scholarly Excellence with Renewed Vigor

Editorial: Continuing on an Inclusive Path to Scholarly Excellence with Renewed Vigor

Evaluation of a technology-enhanced, integrated community health and wellness program for seniors (HWePS): protocol of a non-randomized comparison trial

BackgroundHealthy aging for all in the community is a shared public health agenda for countries with aging populations, but there is a lack of empirical evidence on community-wide preventive models that promote the health of older people residing in socially-disadvantaged communities. The Health and Wellness Program for Seniors (HWePS) is a technology-enhanced, multi-level, integrated health equity intervention model. This study evaluates the effect of the HWePS on the health and well-being of older adults residing in urban, low-income communities. Methods/designHWePS is a prospective, non-randomized comparison trial conducted in an intervention and a control neighborhood (dong) in Seoul, South Korea, over 12 months. Older people who reside in the small areas and meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria are eligible to participate. The multi-level, multi-faceted HWePS intervention is a preventive community care model for older residents guided by the expanded chronic care model, the comprehensive health literacy intervention model, and the Systems for Person-centered Elder Care model along with health equity frameworks. HWePS consists of four components: a health literacy intervention based on individual and community needs assessments, personalized (self-)care management featuring nurse coaching and peer support, a healthy-living and healthy-aging community initiative, and information and communication technology (ICT) systems. The primary outcomes are self-reported health and health-related quality of life. Outcome assessors and data analysts are blinded to group assignment. Process evaluation will be also conducted.DiscussionAs a multi-level health equity project, HWePS has adopted a novel study design that simultaneously targets individual- and community-level factors known to contribute to health inequality in later life in the community. The study will provide insights into the effectiveness and implementation process of an integrated, multi-level, preventive community care model, which in turn can help improve the health outcomes of older residents and reduce disparities in underserved urban communities.Trial registrationISRCTN29103760. Registered 2 September 2021, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN29103760

Popperian Falsificationism in IS: Major Confusions and Harmful Influences

The current relationship between Popper’s philosophy of science and Information Systems (IS) is complex and often confused. On the one hand, many influential members of the IS community claim that much IS research follows Popper’s falsificationism. On the other hand, many assumptions underlying Popper’s falsificationism, including the nature of theories as exceptionless laws rejected by a singular unsupportive observation are inappropriate and misleading. Moreover, Popper also rejected all inductive inferences and inductive methods as unscientific which, alas, has led some influential IS scholars to dismiss inductive inferences in major IS methodologies. Such Popperian advice is harmful as virtually all statistical or qualitative IS research relies on inductive inferences – and there is nothing wrong with that. Finally, we offer a solution for how to deal with the scientific significance of the problem of induction. This solution is inductive fallibilism. This means recognizing that theories, rather than always being held as true or false simply, often contain varying inductive supportive and unsupportive evidence.

Quantum Computing and IS - Harnessing the Opportunities of Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies have a high potential for impact and are worthy of attention by the Information Systems (IS) community. To date, the IS discipline has not been able to be a leader in the research and teaching of emerging technologies in their early stages arguably because: (1) IS researchers often lack knowledge of the foundational principles of such emerging technologies, and (2) during the emerging phase, there is insufficient data on the adoption, use, and impact of these technologies. To overcome these challenges, the IS discipline must be willing to break its own disciplinary research boundaries to go beyond software applications and their related management issues and start studying emerging technologies before they are massively adopted by industry. In this paper, we use quantum computing as an exemplar emerging technology and outline a research and education agenda that will help IS harness the opportunities quantum computing offers. We propose that IS researchers rigorously investigate emergent technologies through collaboration with researchers from other disciplines. We also see a role for IS researchers in the scholarship of emerging technologies and in the process of introducing emerging technologies into IS curricula.

Pendampingan Penerapan Manajemen Pengelolaan Keuangan Masjid Besar Merdeka Wonomulyo Berbasis Aplikasi Sistem Informasi Manajemen Keuangan Singkat Gampang (SIMAKSIGA)

This service aims to provide assistance to the administrators of large independent mosques in financial management using a simple application made by Hasanuddin, SE., MM lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Islamic Business IAI DDI, Polewali Mandar Regency, Quick and Easy Financial Management Information System ( SIMAKSIGA) Community Service is carried out for 5 months starting from January 2022 to May 2022 and the location of the assistance is at the Baitul Maal office of the Merdeka Mosque, Wonmulyo. Financial management that begins with making adjustments to transactions that occur at the mosque, both input and expenditure. The results of the assistance in the form of a short and easy financial management system are expected to assist the management in managing their finances more transparently, and can be held accountable

Challenges in research data management practices: a literature analysis

ABSTRACT Driven by funding and publishing requirements to open and reuse data, Research Data Management (RDM) has become a crucial part of a researcher’s role. However, this key task is often completed by researchers, who sometimes make decisions, without having the necessary support or know-how, resulting in few research datasets being shared. The objective of this study is to identify the challenges in researcher RDM practices that impact the sharing/reusing of research data. Four thematic areas emerge from our coding of the selected literature: (i) alignment of research management and data management, (ii) resourcing, (iii) researcher openness, and (iv) research data governance. Despite the growing field of RDM, there is a limited understanding of RDM practiceshighlighting a requirement for further investigation together with practical tools, decision aids and training to assuage clearly unmet needs. Indeed, this provides an opportunity for the Information Systems (IS) community to better support researchers to implement good RDM practices.

Cyberbullying Indicator as a Precursor to a Cyber Construct Development

The current global pandemic occasioned by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been attributed, partially, to the growing range of cyber vises within the cyber ecosystem. One area of such impact is the increasing tendencies of cyber-bullying among students. Cyberbullying -the act of subjugating others using a cyber platform- is a growing concern among educators, especially in High-Schools. Whilst studies have been carried out towards understanding this menace, the approach towards identifying indicators of cyberbullying is largely missing in the literature. To address this research gap, this study proposed a cyberbullying framework based on the identification of some observable behavioral indicators. Using a self-administered measurement instrument from 30-respondents, the study observed the probability of a cyberbully construct, as a potential measure of the presence of cyberbullying; a probability that has been largely ignored in extant literature. This observation presents a veritable tool for the development of an active and integrated learning platform void of abuse among students. Furthermore, within the cyber education ecosystem, a cyberbullying construct would provide a mechanism for the development of an appropriate online learning platform, which would be useful to the information system and cyber education research communities.

Uniformity and comparability of national Health Information Systems for home care, nursing homes, and hospices in Italy

Health Information Systems (HIS) play a strategic role in the development of community healthcare services, a field still underdeveloped in Italy as shown by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their use for epidemiological purposes is increasing over the years. However, some general critical issues have been reported concerning national community health information systems, but no detailed study was found after a non-systematic review in Medline database and institutional websites. to assess uniformity and comparability of health information collected by the national health information Systems for Home Care (SIAD), Nursing Homes (FAR), and Hospices (HOS) in Italy, three healthcare settings sharing patients with common conditions and healthcare needs. information was gathered from current Technical Regulations Papers of the Italian Health Ministry. All variables of the three Information Systems were ordered on the basis of the characteristics provided by the ministerial documents into a single grouping model created for the purpose and their distribution compared among and between the Systems. According to the grouping model, the variables were divided in two main groups: System Variables for administrative, bill, and identification-personal data and the Pathway Variables for patient's conditions and provided healthcare data. Common information content variables among all systems and between two of them were then identified, highlighting those with also identical terminology and allowed values. On the basis of the percentages of common and identical variables, uniformity in content and terminology was then calculated among all systems and between two of them. Besides, levels of content and terminology agreement have been calculated with Cohen's K matching the three Systems in all possible combinations of pairs. there are 70 variables in SIAD, 45 variables in FAR, and 34 in HOS. System variables are nearly the half in FAR and HOS, 22 (48.9%) and 17 (50.0%) variables, respectively. Pathway variables are prevalent only in SIAD, with 55 variables (78.6%). Only SIAD and HOS use ICD-9-CM, with 2 (2.8%) and 9 (26.5%) variables, respectively. The three Systems share 18 common variables, with other 16 common between just two of them. Considering the common variables, the total number of variables used by all the Systems is 97, with 23 System variables (23.7%) and 74 Pathway variables (76.3%). Overall, content uniformity among the three Systems is 18.5%, but becomes 60.9% considering only the System variables and 5.4% for the Pathway variables, with respectively 14 and 4 common variables. Among the common variables, 11 have the same denomination and allowed values, with an overall terminological uniformity of 11.3%. Being all of them System variables, no terminological uniformity has been found among the three Systems.The level of content agreement was fair for the couple FAR-HOS (K Cohen 0.26), but null for HOS-SIAD and SIAD-FAR (K Cohen -0.20 and <0.01). Null was also the level of terminological agreement in all the possible pairs of matched systems (K Cohen all negative). content and terminology uniformity of National Health Information Systems in Italy for Home Care, Nursing Homes, and Hospices has been found to be poor, with little reference to standardised classification systems and a scarce level of comparability of the information gathered in the three healthcare settings, although similarity in patients' characteristics and provided health services. Data comparability among them is mainly limited to administrative and identification-personal information, with little possibility of comparing information on patients' conditions and provided healthcare in the three settings. This scarce uniformity might undermine the contribution of national Health Information Systems in the development of community healthcare services in Italy and limit the potential of epidemiological research in this area. Also in the light of the establishment of new national Health Information Systems for Primary Care and Community Hospitals, a methodological reassessment of languages, codes, and evaluation tools used by community health services and information systems is needed.

A Concentric Loop Convolutional Neural Network for Manual Delineation-Level Building Boundary Segmentation From Remote-Sensing Images

To date, accurate building footprint delineation in the surveying, mapping, and geographic information system (GIS) communities has been dependent on human labor. In this article, to address this issue, we propose a concentric loop convolutional neural network (CLP-CNN) method for the automatic segmentation of building boundaries from remote-sensing images. The proposed method consists of three components: 1) a boundary detector to extract coarse polygonal boundaries of individual regions of interest; 2) a concentric loop-shaped convolutional network with bidirectional pairing loss to fine-tune the vertices of the polygons; and 3) a refinement block, which removes redundant vertices and regularizes the boundaries to polygons at the manual delineation level. We also demonstrate that the proposed CLP-CNN method is applicable to other generic objects in natural images. Experiments on two building datasets confirmed that more than 77%/67% of the building polygons predicted by the proposed method are on par with the manual delineation level, representing a significant saving in the labor cost of manual annotation. In generic object boundary delineation tests performed on the Semantic Boundaries Dataset (SBD), the proposed method outperformed the most recent state-of-the-art methods by at least 3.1% in average precision (AP). Furthermore, compared with other vertex matching methods, the learning process of the proposed method converges faster. The source code will be available at <uri xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://gpcv.whu.edu.cn/data</uri> .

Towards Machine Learning as an Enabler of Computational Creativity

Computational creativity composes a collection of activities that are capable of achieving or simulating behaviors, which can be deemed creative. A frequently articulated criticism for related systems is that the creative capability yet remains with the software designer rather than the computational creative system itself. The rise of machine learning (ML) enables new ways of combining, exploring, and transforming conceptual spaces to achieve creative results. This article demonstrates that the learning occurring within the computational machine through ML enables creative capabilities therein, allowing the computational creative system to be more creative on its own than ever before. Thus, we perceive ML as a key enabler of computational creativity. In this article, we consolidate research from the computer science, computational creativity, and information systems communities, which has been treated separately so far. We build on a framework of human creativity to examine the relationship between creative capabilities and ML mechanisms in ML-based computational creative systems. Specifically, we explicate, which creative capabilities are already established through ML mechanisms in computational creative systems as strengths. Furthermore, we explicate challenges pointing towards further potential of ML-based computational creative systems to enhance the inherent creative capabilities. Our results reveal that ML-based computational creative systems advance the previously static and explicit principles of non-ML-based computational creative systems, yielding creative capabilities on the machine's own, which yet have been in the realm of human actors. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Impact Statement</i>—Creativity is a core organizational skill as it enables innovation. With markets becoming increasingly volatile, constant innovation is essential for organizations to create and sustain their economic competitive advantage. Due to the undisputable relevance of creativity for individuals, organizations, and societies, artificial intelligence research has set out to enable creative behavior in computational systems. Especially, ML methods lately became a highly frequented means within computational creative systems. However, while oftentimes applied, ML is seldomly explicitly assessed for its potential to facilitate computational creativity. In this article, we analyze extant computational creative systems relying on ML. The findings serve as a guidance for the design of these systems in various contexts and as pointers for future research to advance the creative capabilities of such systems.

A domain-specific language for the specification of UCON policies

Security policies constrain the behavior of all users of an information system. In any non-trivial system, these security policies go beyond simple access control rules and must cover more complex and dynamic scenarios while providing, at the same time, a fine-grained level decision-making ability. The Usage Control model (UCON) was created for this purpose but so far integration of UCON in mainstream software engineering processes has been very limited, hampering its usefulness and popularity among the software and information systems communities. In this sense, this paper proposes a Domain-Specific Language to facilitate the modeling of UCON policies and their integration in (model-based) development processes. Together with the language, an exploratory approach for policy evaluation and enforcement of the modeled policies via model transformations has been introduced. These contributions have been defined on top of the Eclipse Modeling Framework, the de-facto standard MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) framework making them freely available and ready-to-use for any software designer interested in using UCON for the definition of security policies in their new development projects.