An Historically-Grounded Critical Analysis of Research Articles in MIS
Abstract
In order to explore scientific writing in Information Systems (IS) journals, we adopt a combination of historical and rhetorical approaches. We first investigate the history of universities, business schools, learned societies and scientific articles. This perspective allows us to capture the legacy of scientific writing standards, which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, we focus on two leading IS journals (EJIS and MISQ). An historical analysis of both outlets is carried out, based on data related to their creation, evolution of editorial statements, and key epistemological and methodological aspects. We also focus on argumentative strategies found in a sample of 436 abstracts from both journals. Three main logical anchorages (sometimes combined) are identified, and related to three argumentative strategies: 'deepening of knowledge', 'solving an enigma' and 'addressing a practical managerial issue'. We relate these writing norms to historical imprints of management and business studies, in particular: enigmafocused rhetorics, interest in institutionalized literature, neglect for managerially grounded rhetoric and lack of reflexivity in scientific writing. We explain this relation as a quest for academic legitimacy. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to address the discrepancies between these writing norms and more recent epistemological and theoretical stances adopted by IS researchers.Download Info
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Paper provided by HAL in its series Post-Print with number hal-00644398.Length:
Date of creation: 2011
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published, European Journal of Information Systems, 2011, 20, 4, 1-23
Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00644398
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00644398/en/
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Related research
Keywords: argumentative strategies; history; academic writing; legitimacy;This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2011-12-13 (All new papers)
- NEP-HIS-2011-12-13 (Business, Economic & Financial History)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Linking History and Management Discourse: Epistemology and Method
by bbatiz in NEP-HIS blog on 2012-04-19 13:36:38 - Linking History and Management Discourse: Epistemology and Method
by bbatiz in NEP-HIS blog on 2012-04-19 13:36:38 - Linking History and Management Discourse: Epistemology and Method
by bbatiz in NEP-HIS blog on 2012-04-19 13:36:38
Cited by:
- François-Xavier De Vaujany, 2011. "Paradigmatic Plurality or Citation Market? A Longue Durée Perspective of Management Writing," Post-Print hal-00644401, HAL.
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