Information Systems' Cumulative Research Tradition: A Review of Research Activities and Outputs Using Pro forma Abstracts

This study mapped 947 articles published in top information systems (IS) journals over the period 1998-2002 into an updated version of March and Smith’s taxonomy of IS research activities and outputs using Newman’s method of pro forma abstracting. The results show that publishing in many of these journals is almost exclusively limited to the behavioral science paradigm of theorizing and justifying. Design science research, research that builds and evaluates systems, is negligible. These results suggest that an increase in design science research is needed to advance IS cumulative research because building and evaluating systems provides unique feedback that advances those ideas that are the most promising in practice.