Call for Submissions
Special Forum: History of the Information Systems Field

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
(G. Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905)

The Information Systems (IS) field is now over forty years old --- long enough to have its own history. We believe this is a good time to reflect upon the history of the discipline.  By better understanding where we have been, we might be better able to position ourselves for where we want to go.  By reflecting upon what we have already studied, we can avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’. We may be able to capitalize on synergies derived from taking a broad historical perspective of what we already have studied.

This special forum is designed to publish commentaries that are backward looking because of their historical nature, but that are forward thinking as a result of their reflections about significant new directions and opportunities in the information systems discipline. The value and challenges of conducting such historical analysis of the discipline may also be addressed.  Possible topics for historical reflection include, but are not limited to:

·       IS Research themes

·       Information technologies

·       Educational approaches/Curriculum issues in the IS discipline

·       Research methodologies

·       Publishing in the discipline

·       Globalization of the IS discipline

The purpose of this call is to invite proposals for submission of such commentaries.  The proposals are not the full-length commentaries as described above.  Instead, they are a brief description of the intended phenomenon, why it is significant, and the authors' own competence in producing an insightful research commentary.  Each commentary should also clearly indicate how the historical reflection can be used to benefit future actions and study. The proposals should not be longer than two pages, double spaced.  The proposals will be evaluated by the special forums editors, Rudy Hirschheim, Carol Saunders, and Detmar Straub.  After this preliminary review, a limited number of proposals will be invited for full-length submissions.

The deadline for proposals is September 15, 2010, though earlier submissions are encouraged.   Proposals should be sent to the Senior Editor of the IS Research Perspectives section of JAIS, Carol Saunders: Csaunders@bus.ucf.edu.

After review, authors of the selected proposals will be notified by the October 15, 2010 and will be asked to submit their full-length papers by January 15, 2011.  After review, authors will be notified about the acceptance of their work by March 15, 2011 and the final versions will be due by May 1, 2011.

Rudy Hirschheim, Louisiana State University, rudy@lsu.edu
Carol Saunders, University of Central Florida, csaunders@bus.ucf.edu     
Detmar Straub, Georgia State University, dstraub@gsu.edu

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Dr. Andrew Schwarz

Associate Professor of Information Systems

Milton J. Womack Developing Scholar

Academic Coordinator for Online Graduate Programs (MBA)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/drandrewschwarz

Vice President of Technology, Association for Information Systems

Associate Editor, European Journal of Information Systems

Senior Editor, DATABASE

E. J. Ourso College of Business

Louisiana State University

225.578.9075 (Phone) 225.578.2511 (Fax)

aschwarz@lsu.edu

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