Data and Information Management
Special Issue on Systematic Review and Meta-analysis in Information Management Research
Guest Editors:
- Jian Mou, Pusan National University, South Korea (jian.mou@pusan.ac.kr)
- Jason Cohen, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (jason.cohen@wits.ac.za)
Introduction
Systematic literature review and meta-analytic methods are being widely adopted by scholars in diverse fields, and are particularly useful for providing an overview of a certain issue. In the field of information management and information systems, there are many literature review papers addressing privacy issues, health misinformation, enterprise security, IS offshoring, and so on. In addition, more than 30 meta-analysis papers have been published in AIS senior basket journals during last few decades. Both methods are important to systematically examine prior research, synthesize and resolve inconsistencies in prior findings, and provide benchmarks for future studies. Furthermore, scholars can employ literature review and meta-analysis to build and test theory in a specific domain and research phenomenon.
But they have some important differences. Systematic literature reviews integrate findings from a body of literature or domain in a narrative manner (Combs et al., 2019), while meta-analyses correct measurement and sampling errors to estimate true correlations between the studied variables (Glass et al., 1981) and often provide information about the variables moderating the magnitude of relationships being investigated (Rosenthal,1994).
Given the importance of both methods in advancing academic research, we call for papers addressing research questions in information management research using systematic literature review and/or meta-analysis techniques. We particularly welcome papers that make significant contributions in the following ways: (1) outline the scope of a topical domain and overview the current state of research, (2) resolve inconsistencies and highlight research gaps across extant studies, (3) accumulate and synthesize extant knowledge, and (4) derive future research directions (Hulland & Houston, 2020).
We will not limit the research topics and welcome studies with a wide range of topics applying these research methods. In general, we expect to receive articles in two broad categories:
(1) Methodological articles highlighting novel or underutilized techniques that can be used to conduct literature review and meta-analysis research in information management research;
(2) Literature review and meta-analysis research papers that make important contributions to the emerging topics, such as big data and analytics, dark sides of IS, health informatics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, block chain, sharing economy, metaverse, FinTech, etc.
Submission Instructions:
We encourage original and high-quality submissions that are not submitted to or accepted by other journals. Significantly extended version of conference or workshop papers (essentially 30% novel content) are welcome. For research papers, the authors are expected to highlight the contribution of the submitted article in the five aspects as listed above in the cover letter.
Submitted papers must conform to the author guidelines available on the DIM journal website at https://www.elsevier.com/journals/data-and-information-management/2543-9251/guide-for-authors. Authors are required to submit their manuscripts online through the DIM submission site at https://www.editorialmanager.com/dim/, and choose the article type “SI: SR & MA”.
The special issue operates on a tight timeline, and authors could expect a quick turn-around reviewing process. Paper reviews will be handled on a first-come-first-review basis. Submissions will be evaluated by at least two independent reviewers. The review criteria include the relevance to the special issue, novelty, clarity, originality, the significance of contribution, technical quality, and quality of presentation. The accepted papers will be published online first.
Important dates:
Submission system opens: 31/08/2022
Submission Deadline: 30/06/2023
Expected publication: Issue 1, 2024
Reference:
Combs, J.G., Crook, T.R., and Rauch, A. (2019). Meta-analytic research in management: contemporary approaches, unresolved controversies, and rising standards. Journal of Management Studies 56 (1), pp. 1-18.
Glass, E., McGaw, B. and Smith, M.L. (1981), Meta-Analysis in Social Research, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA.
Hulland, J., and Houston, M.B. (2020). Why systematic review papers and meta-analyses matter: An introduction to the special issue on generalizations in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(3), 351-359.
Rosenthal, R. (1994). Science and ethics in conducting, analysing, and reporting psychological research. Psychological Science 5(3), pp. 127-134.
