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Roger Clarke's 'History of I.S. in Australia'

A Retrospective on the Information Systems Discipline in Australia
Appendices


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Roger Clarke **

Review Version of 23 April 2006, small update 26 April 2006

This file contains the Appendices to the paper 'A Retrospective on the Information Systems Discipline in Australia'

Prepared for the Special Issue of the Australian Journal of Information Systems on 'The State of the IS Discipline'

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2005-06

Available under an AEShareNet Free
for Education licence or a Creative Commons 'Some
Rights Reserved' licence.

This document is at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/AISHistApps0605.html


These Appendices are designed to provide other researchers with reference to, and where possible access to, the resources discovered during the course of researching the history of the IS discipline in Australia.

  1. Bibliography
  2. Resources
  3. Timelines
  4. Professors
  5. Early Australian PhDs in IS
  6. The International Impact of Australian IS

App. 1A: Historical and Reflective Articles on IS in Australia

This Appendix lists articles about the IS discipline in Australia. The documents are presented in alphabetical order by first-named author.

Clarke R. (1987) 'The Computing Professional's Bookshelf' Austral. Comp. J. 19, 4 (December 1987) 222-223

Clarke R. (Ed.) (1988a) 'Australian Information Systems Academics: 1988/89 Directory' Australian National University, November 1988

Clarke R. (Ed.) (1991) 'Australasian Information Systems Academics: 1991 Directory' Australian National University, April 1991

Clarke R. & Lo B. (1989) 'Accreditation Requirements for Information Systems Courses for the Australian Computer Society' ACS, November 1989

de Ferranti B. & Deane J. (2001) 'Early Contributions to IT in Australia from the Basser Department of Computer Science - John Bennett's SILLIAC year' J. Res. & Practice Infor. Techno. 33, 4 (December 2001) 280-293

Dreyfus S. (2004) 'The University of Melbourne Department of Information Systems - 1996-2004' University of Melbourne, 2004

Earle T.R. & Fitzgerald E.P. (1983) 'Professionalism - Its Educational Aspects' Austral. Comp. J. 15, 3 (September 1983) 86-90

Edwards J. (2001) 'John Makepeace Bennett - An Inspiration' J. Res. & Practice Infor. Techno. 33, 4 (December 2001) 273-279

Elliot S. (1993) 'Formal Computing Education in Australia: Do We Practise What We Teach?' Austral. Comp. J. 25, 2 (June 1993) 49-60

Gable G. & Clarke R. (Eds.) (1996) 'Asia Pacific Directory of Information Systems Researchers: 1996' National University of Singapore, 1996

Gable G. & Clarke R. (Eds.) (1994) 'Asia Pacific Directory of Information Systems Researchers: 1994' National University of Singapore, 1994

Galliers R.D. (1987) 'Information Systems Planning: A Manifesto for Australian-based Research' Austral. Comp. J. 19, 2 (June 1987) 49-55

Goldsworthy A.W. (1993) 'IT and the Competency Debate-Skill vs. Knowledge A Major Issue' Austral. Comp. J. 25, 3 (September 1993) 113-122

Greig J. & Levin P. (1989) 'Computing at Chisholm: The First Twenty-Five Years, 1965-1989' Chisholm Institute of Technology, 1989. (Chisholm was later absorbed into Monash University)

Hudson H.R. et al. (1992) 'Report of the Discipline Review of Computing Studies and Information Sciences Education' 3 vols., Australian Government Publishing Service, March 1992

Jeffery D.R. & Lawrence M.J. (Eds.) (1990) 'Current Research Directions in Information Systems' Special Issue, Austral. Comp. J. 18, 4 (December 1986) 157-158

Klobas J.E. & McGill T. (1993) 'Computing Professionals and Information About Developments in Information Technology' Austral. Comp. J. 25, 4 (December 1993) 149-158

McDowell I. (2002) 'Computing History - The First ANCCAC Conference' PC Update, March 2002, Melbourne PC User Group, Australia, at http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2203/2203article10.htm

McGregor K. (1974) 'University claims a computer first' The Australian Financial Review, 29 January 1974

Maj S.P. & Veal D. (2000) 'Computer Technology Curriculum - A New Paradigm for a New Century' J. Res. & Practice Infor. Techno. 32, 3/4 (September-December 2000) 200-214

Metcalfe M. & Kiley M. (2000) 'Arguing For PhD Coursework' Austral. J. Infor. Syst. 7, 2 (May 2000)

Pearcey T. (1988) 'A History of Australian Computing' Chisholm Institute of Technology, 1988

Pervan G. & Cecez-Kecmanovic D. (2001) 'The Status of Information Systems Research in Australia: Preliminary Results' Proc. 12th Austral. Conf. in Infor. Syst., December 2001

Pervan G. & Shanks G. (2004) 'IS Research Activity in Australia: Results of the 2004 ACPHIS Research Survey' Presentation to Austral. Conf. Infor. Syst., December 2004

Ridley G. (1997) 'The Role of Conferences and Refereed Journals In Australian Information Systems Research' Austral. J. Infor. Syst. 5, 1 (September 1997)

Ridley G., Goulding P., Lowry G. & Pervan G.P. (1998) 'The Australian Information Systems Research Community: An Analysis of Mainstream Publication Outlets' Austral. L. Infor. Syst. 5, 2 (1998) 69-80

Sale A. (1994) 'Computer Science Teaching in Australia' Ch. 10 in Bennett J.M. et al. (Eds.) 'Computing in Australia: The development of a profession' Hale & Iremonger / Australian Computer Society, 1994, pp. 151-154

Wallace C.S. (1977) 'Computing Research in Australia' Austral. Comp. J. 9, 1 (March 1977) 21-24

Woodings T. (1987) 'The Professional Development and Continuing Education of Computing Practitioners' Austral. Comp. J. 19, 4 (December 1987) 224-230


App. 1B: Early Articles on IS in Australia

This Appendix lists such early references as have been found to articles on topics in what became the IS discipline. The documents are presented in chronological order of publication-date.

?Proc. 1st Austral. Comp. Conf., Uni. of Sydney, 1951

?Proc. Conf. on Comp. and Data Proc., Weapons Research Establishment, Adelaide, 1957

Ovenstone J.A. (1957) 'Business and Accountancy Data Processing' Proc. Conf. on Comp. and Data Proc., vol. III, Weapons Research Establishment, Adelaide, 1957

Proc. 2nd Austral. Comp. Conf., Uni. of Sydney, 1960, National Committee on Computation and Automatic Control (ANCCAC), incl. a stream of 43 papers on 'Commercial Applications'

?Proc. 3rd Austral. Comp. Conf., May 1966, Australian Trade Publications

Fenna D. (1966) 'A System Design in the Australian Post Office' Proc. 3rd Australian Computer Conference, May 1966, Australian Trade Publications, 1966, pp. 135- 138

The Australian Computer Society, formed in 1966, established the Australian Computer Journal in 1967. (It was re-named in 2001 the Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology)

Jones P.D. (1967) 'Computer Science Education In Australian Universities' Austral. Comp. J. 1, 1 (March 1967) 37-43

McGeorge J.A. (1968) 'CARBINE - a Computer Automated Real-time Betting Information Network' Austral. Comp. J. 1, 3 (September 1968) 143-148

Fiedler M.R.G. (1969). Education For Commercial ADP Staff - I Skills Required And Existing Facilities' Austral. Comp. J. 1, 5 (1969) 277-284

?Proc. 4th Austral. Comp. Conf., 1969, Australian Computer Society

Fiedler M.R.G. (1970) 'Education For Commercial ADP Staff In Australia II The Solution In - House Training' Austral. Comp. J. 2, 1 (March 1970) 32-38

Campbell D.V.A. (1970) 'A modulus 11 check digit system for a given system of codes' Comput. Bull. 14 (1970) 12-1

Webster L.A. (1970) 'The Development of an Information System for a Manufacturing Company I : The Feasibility Study' Austral. Comp. J. 2, 2 (June 1970) 61-65

Montgomery A.Y. (1970) 'Some Aspects of Data Processing Management in Australia' Austral. Comp. J. 2, 2 (June 1970) 71-78

Webster L.A. (1971) 'The Development of an Information System for a Manufacturing Company II : An Order Entry System for a Steel Plant' Austral. Comp. J. 3, 1 (March 1971) 3-11

Aiken J.D. (1971) 'An Introduction to Management Information Systems' Austral. Comp. J. 3, 3 (September 1971) 98-105

Taylor A.A. (1972) 'Professionalism and Apathy' Austral. Comp. J. 4, 3 (September 1972) 104-111

Saw B.M. (1973) 'A Discussion of the Business Data Processing Cost/Benefit Relationship' Austral. Comp. J. 5, 1 (March 1973) 35-38

Hill R.J. (1973) 'Staged Introduction of Manufacturing Information Systems' Austral. Comp. J. 5, 3 (September 1973) 96-104

Coombes R.L. (1976) 'Comprehensive EDP Security Guidelines' Austral. Comp. J. 8, 1 (March 1976) 25-37

Brookes C. (1976) 'The Future of EDP Technology and Impact on Organisations' Austral. Comp. J. 8, 2 (June 1976) 43-46

Clarke R. (1976) 'Top-Down Structured Programming in COBOL' Proc. 10th? Austral. Comp. Conf., Perth, September 1976

Karoly G. (1977) 'Real-Time Systems at the Victorian TAB - An Historical Review' Austral. Comp. J. 9, 1 (March 1977) 11-16

Grouse P.J. (1978) ''Flowblocks': a technique for structured programming' ACM SIGPLAN Notices 13, 2 (February 1978) 46 - 56

Brookes C.H.P., Grouse P.J., Jeffery D.R. & Lawrence M.J. (1982) 'Information Systems Design' Sydney, Prentice Hall, 1982


App. 1C: Curriculum-Related Publications

The following curriculum statements and commentaries have been identified as having had direct or indirect influence on the design and conduct of undergraduate and to a lesser extent postgraduate IS education in Australia. To some extent at least, they are indicative of the scope of the discipline from a research perspective as well. The documents are presented in chronological order of publication-date.

Couger J. (Ed.) (1973) 'Curriculum Recommendations for Undergraduate Programs in Information Systems' Commun. ACM 16, 12 (December 1973) 727-749

Brittan J.N.G. (1974) 'An International Curriculum for Information Systems Designers' IBI/ICC, 1974

DPMA (1981) 'DPMA Model Curriculum for Undergraduate Computer Information Systems Education' Data Processing Management Association, Park Ridge, Illinois, 1981, including:

Nunamaker J.F. (Ed.) 'Education Programs in Information Systems: A Report of the ACM Curriculum Committee on Information Systems' Commun. ACM 24, 3 (March 1981) 124-133

Nunamaker J.F., Couger J.D. & Davis G.B. (1982) 'Information-Systems: Curriculum Recommendations for the 80s - Undergraduate And Graduate Programs' Commun. ACM 25, 11 (November 1982) 781-805

ACS (1985) 'Guidelines for Course Accreditation' Australian Computer Society, 1985

DPMA (1986) 'CIS'86: The DPMA Model Curriculum for Undergraduate Computer Information Systems' 2nd Ed., Data Processing Management Association, Park Ridge, Illinois, 1986

Buckingham R.A., Hirschheim R.A., Land F.F. & Tully C.J. (1987) 'Information Systems Education: Recommendations and Implementation' British Computer Society / Cambridge University Press, 1987

ACS (1987) 'Guidelines for Course Accreditation' Australian Computer Society, 1987

AAA (1987) '1986-87 Report of the American Accounting Association Committee on Contemporary Approaches to Teaching Information Systems' J. of Infor. Syst. 1, 3 (Spring 1987) 127-156

Davis J.R. & Leitch R.A. (1988) 'Accounting Information Systems Courses and Curricula: New Perspectives' J. of Infor. Syst. 3, 1 (Fall 1988) 153-166

ACS (1990) 'Guidelines for Course Accreditation' Australian Computer Society, 1990

Trauth E.M., Farwell D.W. & Lee D. (1993) 'The IS Expectation Gap: Industry Expectations versus Academic Preparation' MIS Quarterly 17, 3 (September 1993) 293-307

Couger J.D., Davis G.B., Dologite D.G., et al. (1995) 'IS95 - Guideline For Undergraduate Is Curriculum' MIS Qtly 19, 3 (September 1995) 341-359

Maynard G.B. & Underwood A. (1996) 'Guidelines for Accreditation of Courses in Universities at the Professional Level' Australian Computer Society, 1996

Underwood A. (1997) 'The Core Body of Knowledge for Information Technology Professionals' Australian Computer Society, 1997

Davis G. B., Gorgone J. T., Couger J. D. Feinstein, D. L. & Longenecker Jr. H. E. (Eds.) (1997) 'IS'97 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems' Data Base 28, 1 (Winter 1997) I-94

Gorgone J.T. & Gray P. (2000) 'MSIS 2000: Model Curriculum And Guidelines For Graduate Degree Programs In Information Systems' Commun. AIS 3, 1 (January 2000)

Gorgone J.T., Davis G.B., Valacich J.S., Topi H., Feinstein D.L. & Longenecker Jr H.E. (2002) 'IS 2002: Model Curriculum And Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems' Assoc. for Infor. Syst., 2002

ISACA (2004) 'ISACA Model Curriculum for IS Audit and Control' Information System Audit and Control Association, 2004

Gorgone J.T., Gray P., Stohr E.A., Valacich J.S. & Wigand R.T. (2005) 'MSIS2006 Curriculum Preview' Commun. AIS 15 (2005) 544-554


Appendix 2A: Resources - International

ISWorld, at http://www.isworld.org/

ISWorld Mailing List, at http://lyris.isworld.org/isworldlist.htm

ISWorld Directory, at http://www.isfacdir.org/

The Index of Information Systems Journals, edited by John Lamp at Deakin, http://lamp.infosys.deakin.edu.au/journals/index.php

ISWorldNet Dissertation Database, at http://www.isworld.org/dissertationdatabase/

Association for Information Systems (AIS), at http://www.aisnet.org/

International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS), at http://icisnet.aisnet.org/

International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS) Proceedings, at http://aisel.isworld.org/publication.asp?Pub=ICIS


Appendix 2B: Resources - Regional

European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), at http://www.ecisnet.org/

Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), at http://www.pacis-net.org/

Americas Conference in Information Systems (AMCIS)

Americas Conference in Information Systems (AMCIS) Proceedings, at http://aisel.isworld.org/publication.asp?Pub=AMCIS


Appendix 2C: Resources - Australian - Publications

Australasian Conference in Information Systems, since 1989, no apparent conference home-page, 2005 conference at http://depts.it.uts.edu.au/is/ACIS2005/

Australian Computer Journal (ACJ, 1967-1999), index at http://www.acs.org.au/jrpit/RPITVolumeIndex.html

Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology (JRPIT, 2000-), successor to the ACJ, at http://www.acs.org.au/jrpit/, index at http://www.acs.org.au/jrpit/RPITVolumeIndex.html

Australian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS, 1993-), at http://www.uow.edu.au/ajis/ajis.html, index at http://www.uow.edu.au/ajis/past.html

Database of University Computer Science Departments, at http://www.cs.jcu.edu.au/acsadb/department_db.html

Universities in Australia, at http://www.avcc.edu.au/content.asp?page=/universities/memberUnis.htm

Australian Digital Theses Program, at http://adt.caul.edu.au/


Appendix 2D: Resources - Australian - Organisations

ISWorld Net - Australia, at http://www.aaisnet.org/isworld/

Australasian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AAIS), at http://www.aaisnet.org/

Australasian Departments of Information Systems, at http://www.infosys.utas.edu.au/cgi/is_depts/

Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS), at http://www.acphis.org.au/


Appendix 3A: Timeline - International

1965 First Courses in Scandinavia and in the USA, First Professor in Europe - Borje Langefors in Stockholm, Professor in Information Processing

1967 First Professors and Departments:

1969 First specialist newsletter launched - Data Base for Advances in Information Systems (usually shortened to Database). Published under the auspices of the ACM Special Interest Group on Business Data Processing (SIGBDP), now SIGMIS

1977 MIS Quarterly launched, Information & Management launched

1980 First International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS)

1983 First Edition of the Directory of Faculty in the U.S.A. and Canada

1993 ISWorld Mailing List and ISWorld Web-Site founded

1994 Association for Information Systems (AIS) formed

1995 Worldwide Online Directory of IS Academics went live, First Americas Conference in Information Systems (AMCIS)


Appendix 3B: Timeline - Australian

1957 Earliest known article by John Ovenstone, in the Business Applications section of the 2nd Conf. on Automatic Computing and Data Processing at WRE, Salisbury,

1965 Earliest identified IS units - Electronic Data Processing, at at least Caulfield Institute, and at Uni. of Tasmania, Hobart

1966 Australian Computer Society formed, by the federation of prior societies in South Australia (formed 1960), Victoria (1961), Queensland (1962), N.S.W. (1963) and Canberra (1965)

1967 Australian Computer Journal established (1967-99, thereafter Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology (JRPIT)

1968 Units in Business Use of Computers at UNSW - Phil Grouse

1970 First Honours topics available, at at least Uni. of Queensland and UNSW

1974 First Professor of Information Systems - Cyril Brookes, UNSW

1977 First Australian with a PhD in Information Systems - Ron Weber, at Uni. of Minnesota

1981 Second Professor at least partly in Information Systems - Ron Weber, UQ

1982 First PhD in Information Systems gained in Australia - Errol Iselin, Uni. of Queensland, supervised by Ron Weber

1984 Second PhD in Information Systems gained in Australia - Iris Vessey, Uni. of Queensland, supervised by Ron Weber

1986 Third PhD in Information Systems gained in Australia - Ross Jeffery, UNSW, supervised by Cyril Brookes

1987 Second PhD gained by an Australian in the USA - Rick Watson, at Uni. of Minnesota

1988 First Edition of the Directory of Australian Information Systems Academics - Roger Clarke, ANU

1990 First Australian Conference in Information Systems (ACIS), at Monash - Ross Jeffery, Peter Weill, Ron Weber, Roger Clarke, Igor Hawryszkiewycz, Graeme Shanks

1991 Third, Fourth and Fifth Chairs in IS, all at Monash; Second Edition of the Directory of Australasian Information Systems Academics

1993 Second Chair at UNSW - Michael Lawrence

1994 Australian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS) established - Rob McGregor, Uni. Wollongong; First Edition of the Asia-Pacific Directory of Information Systems Academics - Guy Gable, QUT & Roger Clarke, ANU

1995 ACPHIS started as informal 'IS Heads' meeting at ACIS in Perth and has met at least annually at ACIS since then

1996 ISWorld Country Page for Australia established - Roger Clarke, ANU; Second and last Edition of the Asia-Pacific Directory of Information Systems Academics, then absorbed into the ISWorld Directory - Guy Gable, QUT & Roger Clarke, ANU

2001 Formation of Australasian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AAIS)


Appendix 4: Professors

The count of Professors that is provided below includes those people who have been clearly identified as full Professor and whose background and role have been clearly identified as placing considerable weight on Information Systems. Appointments in such areas as Accounting and Computer Science have been included, provided that the individual has indicated a close affinity with the IS community.

The primary source of this data is the Directories (Clarke 1988, 1991, Gable & Clarke 1994, 1996). It is of the nature of both the early, printed Directories and the self-maintained (and often not maintained) online directory since 1995, that both omissions and mis-classifications occur. This Appendix includes corrections and updates that have become known to me. Please advise the author of any such, and accept his apologies should there be any unintended slight or embarrassment!

Professors on the dates at which snapshots were taken were as follows (alphabetical by institution, then name):

[CHECK: When did Philip Yetton become a Prof. at AGSM? 1990ish? He appears never to have submitted an entry to the Directory]

[Michael Rosemann, QUT?]


Appendix 5: Early Australian PhDs in IS

This Appendix lists PhDs known to have been awarded to Australians whose work was clearly in or directly relevant to IS, prior to the end of 1995. Sources used include the ISWorld Dissertation Database, the Australian Digital Theses Program, the authors' memory, and interviews with Ron Weber and Cyril Brookes.

This list excludes people who entered the IS discipline with doctorates in other areas, and those who migrated to Australia after completing a doctorate.

1977 Ron Weber 'Auditor Decision Making: A Study of Some Aspects of Accuracy and Consensus and the Usefulness of a Simulation Decision Aid for Assessing Overall System Reliability' University of Minnesota, supervisor Gordon Davis

1982 Errol Iselin '[re information overload]', University of Queensland, supervisor Ron Weber

1984 Iris Vessey '[re psychological processes underlying program debugging]', University of Queensland, supervisor Ron Weber

1986 Ross Jeffery 'A Comparison of Models Describing Third and Fourth Generation Software Development Environments, with Implications for Effective Management' University of New South Wales, supervisor Cyril Brookes

1987 Rick Watson 'A Study of Group Decision Support System Use in Three and Four-Person Groups for a Preference Allocation Decision' University of Minnesota, supervisor Gordon Davis

1988 Peter Clayton [? Very Close to IS!] 'User involvement in academic library strategic planning: congruence amongst students, academic staff and libary staff at the Canberra College of Advanced Education' University of Canberra, supervisor ?

1989 Patricia Willard [? Very Close to IS!] 'The Personal Computer and the Public Library: A Study of the Absorption of New Technology and an Analysis of Librarian's Opinions about the Present and Future Impact on Australian Public Libraries' University of New South Wales, supervisor?

1990 Marianne Broadbent 'The Alignment Of Business And Information Strategies' Graduate School of Management, The University of Melbourne, supervisor Peter Weill

1992 Chris Sauer 'Information Systems Failure: The Problem of Managing Support for a Flawed Innovation Process' University of Western Australia, supervisor ?

1992 Paul Swatman 'Increasing Formality in the Specification of High Quality Information Systems in a Commercial Context', Curtin University, supervisor Roger Duke

1993 Arthur Tatnall 'A curriculum history of business computing in Victorian Tertiary Institutions from 1960-1985', Deakin University, supervisor ?

1993 Paula Swatman 'Integrating Electronic Data Interchange with Existing Organisational Structure and Internal Application Systems: the Australian Experience', Curtin University

1994 James Popple 'SHYSTER: A Pragmatic Legal Expert System' Australian National University, supervisor Roger Clarke

1995 Graham Pervan 'A Comprehensive Model of Group Support Systems Application: Development and Initial Testing' Curtin University of Technology (Australia), supervisor ?

1995 was selected as the cut-off point on the pragmatic grounds that the numbers increased significantly from then onwards, with at least 7 in 1996 (D'Ambra, Gould, Gregor, Green, Kirlidog, Mackay and Sayer) and at least 5 in 1997 (Clarke, Klobas, Parker, Shanks and Williams). It would appear that, in 2002-04, about 20-30 IS PhDs are graduating from Australian universities each year (Pervan & Shanks 2004).


Appendix 6: The International Impact of Australian IS

This Appendix reports the results of a brief analysis undertaken of the international impact of Australian IS scholars. The primary measures considered are publications in the discipline's flagship journals and conferences, and citation counts.

The following arbitrary allocation decisions were made, in order to determine the meaning of 'Australian' for the purposes of the analysis:

The first specialist journal, MISQ, has been published since 1977. Authorship was very strongly U.S. during its first two decades. The first Australian author appears to have been Iris Vessey, in June 1980 (4, 2) and again in June 1981 (5, 2). (She may also have been the first non-US author and/or the first non-US PhD to publish there). Ed Stohr followed in December 1983 (7, 4). Iris published again in March 1988 (12, 1), this time in conjunction with Peter Tait of Touche Ross, Brisbane. Rick Watson appeared for the first time in September 1988 (12, 3), Eric J. Walton (then at U.W.A.) in December 1988 (12, 4), Peter Weill in March 1989 (13, 1), Rick again in June 1990 (14, 2), Michael Lawrence and Graham Low from U.N.S.W. in June 1993 (17, 2), and Rick again in June 1995 (19, 2). Tellingly perhaps, Ron Weber appears only as an Editor, and only from 2002.

In Information & Management, the first paper by an Australian was by Ross Jeffery and Iris Vessey, in 1980, the next by Ross Jeffery and Michael Lawrence in 1981, then Bob Edmundson and Ross Jeffery in 1984, Iris Vessey again in 1986, Michael Sager in 1988, Bill Cundiff in 1989, then Guy Gable in 1991.

Information Systems Research (ISR) was a relative latecomer on the journal scene, in 1989. Australians were slow to break into it as well, with the first publishers appearing to be Iris Vessey in 1995 (vol. 6), Ron Weber twice in 1996, and Peter Seddon in 1997.

Brisk analysis of the early years in Management Science identified no papers prior to 1996 (vol. 42), when both Ron Weber and Guy Gable published. Rick Watson published there in 1998.

The first ICIS Proceedings in 1980 included a paper by Ted Stohr (already of NYU - although the 'I' stands for International, the first ICIS was addressed exclusively by people resident in the USA). 1981 included 6 papers with non-American authors (from The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Israel). 1982 included a similar number, with Finland, Sweden, Israel, Canada and Singapore represented. 1983 was similar, but Norway and Italy made their first appearance, and Ted Stohr again contributed.

The first contributions from Australia were in 1985, by Iris Vessey and Ron Weber; by Iris as sole author, both at that stage at the University of Queensland; and by Rick Watson, then of W.A. CAE. Ron Weber re-appeared in 1988. In 1989, Australia was represented by Ron Weber, Peter Creasy (also of the University of Queensland), and Peter Weill (at that stage of the University of Melbourne). Rick Watson also appeared in 1989, although by then he was at Georgia.

In 1990, Ron Weber appeared again, as did Peter Weill and Marianne Broadbent. In 1991, Ron (twice), Peter and Marianne, and Rick again featured, and Paula and Paul Swatman made their first appearance. The steady increase in competition for space has meant that Australian representation on the ICIS programme, although consistent, has seldom been as high since then. It did include the Best Paper Award in 1996.

The ECIS conference also has high standards, and the involvement of Australians has been considerable. Galliers & Whitley note that, in the first 10 years, 1993-2002, "the UK [had] by far the largest proportion of papers [398, 24%], the second largest contributors [being] Australia (153, 9%] and the USA [143, 9%, ahead of Germany 134, 8% and The Netherlands 103, 6%].

In summary, by 1995, it appears that only 2 resident Australians had published in MISQ, Mngt. Sci. and ISR combined, and only a further 3 in I&M. Moroever, Walstrom & Leonard's (2000) 'Citation Classics' article did not appear to include any contributions by Australians (although of course the same can be said for most countries, as the research arena has been so heavily dominated by US academics).

Publications in a couple of leading IS journals, a leading 'reference disciplines' journal, and two leading IS conferences, are important measures, but of course add up to far less than an adequate metric. Publications in important specialist IS journals, and in quality journals in reference disciplines, and in adjacent disciplines, would probably be perceived by many observers to be the next critical metric. Further considerstions are authorship of academic books, journal editorships, doctoral supervisions, programme committee chairmanships, and authorship of text-books.

[Replace the following 3 paras. with a summary of the final counts from 'A Pilot Citation Analysis of Australian Information Systems Researchers' ]

For the purist, if a single criterion were to be used, it would probably be the frequency of citations of refereed works. There are serious problems with relying on counts from the ISI Citations Indices as an indicator of an IS academic's impact. Nonetheless, an analysis was undertaken on 22-23 January 2006 of apparent citations 1978-2005. The results were as follows.

Four expatriate Australians are highly-cited. Iris Vessey totals 610 (with one Decision Sciences paper scoring 111 and an MISQ paper 83). Rick Watson scores 485, Ted Stohr 217, and Peter Weill 178. Those scores compare well against a selection of well-known North American researchers: Izak Banbasat 1,281, Dan Robey 1,247, Sirkka Jarvenpaa 960, Detmar Straub 873, Gordon David 428, and Peter Keen 427. They appear even stronger against a selection of well-known European researchers: Kalle Lyytinen 458, Bob Galliers 173, Enid Mumford 103, Claudio Ciborra 60, Frank Land 59, and David Avison 51.

Within Australia, 5 researchers have substantial citation-counts: Marcus O'Connor 354, Ron Weber 328, Michael Lawrence 208, Ross Jeffery 172 and Marianne Broadbent 166. A further 8 have citation-counts between 40 and 83: Graham Low 83, Peter Seddon 70, Graeme Shanks 61, Paula Swatman 53, Kit Dampney 47, Roger Clarke 43, Graham Winley 40, Chris Sauer 40.

The most highly-cited papers by resident Australians appeared to be a 1997 ISR paper by Peter Seddon (60), two Int'l J. of Forecasting papers in 1993 and 1994 by multiple authors including Marcus O'Connor (43 and 40), an IEEE Trans. on Software Eng. in 1990 by Graham Low and Ross Jeffery (38), and a Sloan Mngt. Rev. paper in 1997 by Marianne Broadbent and Peter Weill (36).

_________

In summary, on a proportional basis, Australians did not figure strongly in the early years of the discipline, but a small number of individuals have forged substantial international reputations.

In more recent years, Australians are very well represented in international conferences, particularly in Europe and to a lesser extent in North America, but their impact in major journals continues to be swamped by the very large and in part very professional population of American and Canadian IS researchers. The UK is probably the next most influential country, after which Australia can probably claim its place, at worst on a per-capita par with Hong Kong and Singapore, and with The Netherlands and Germany. Many countries in Europe, Asia and South America are, of course, held back by the very strong english-language bias in the IS discipline.


Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in the E-Commerce Programme at the University of Hong Kong, Visiting Professor in the Baker & McKenzie Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of N.S.W., and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University.



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