The Australian Information Systems Research Community: an analysis of mainstream publication outlets

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation of the nature of and interactions among the Information Systems academic research community in Australia. The 382 refereed papers from the two mainstream IS refereed publication outlets in Australia were analysed for the period 1990-1996 to determine the contributions of individual universities, departments and authors to the pattern of collaboration, and to examine the nature of the contributors. The study revealed that several institutions, departments and authors dominated the publication outlets and that the majority of the collaboration that occurred took place within university departments. Collaboration between and among different disciplines and nations, and between practitioners and academics was limited. It was found that although the Australian academic IS research community had only recently emerged, it was growing strongly.