List of Publications
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Publikationen
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Refereed journal papers
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Boell, S. K.; Hoof, F. (2020). Accounting for Information Infrastructure as Medium for Organizational Change. Accounting History Review. 30(1). 45-68.
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Hoof, F.; Boell, S. K. (2019). Culture, technology, and process in ‘media theories’: Toward a shift in the understanding of media in organizational research. Organization. 26(5). 636-654.
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Boell, S. K.; Hovorka, D. (2019). Writing, Arguing, Contributing - A Cogent Argumentation Framework for Identifying, Specifying, and Evaluating Research Contribution. Australasian Journal of Information Systems. 23.
Area: Contribution; Information Systems; Argumentation
The predominant means by which research becomes visible and accessible to the research community is through publication. Generally, publication requires careful framing of the research in relation to existing knowledge. As a contribution to knowledge cannot be self-evident, authors must persuade, through argumentation, the editors, reviewers, and the research community that their work offers a contribution. In Information Systems, the discussion of argumentation is often limited to the logic dimensions of argumentation, namely deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning. In this paper, we demonstrate that argumentation requires the consideration of three additional dimensions of argumentation: rhetoric, dialectic, and social-institutional. Kuhn’s concept of the disciplinary matrix is introduced as the background toward which a cogent argument is directed and against which contribution is evaluated. We then illustrate the role of argumentation through the example of the seminal paper by Orlikowski and Iacono on the role of IT in Information Systems research. Understanding the importance of argumentation in framing one’s research contribution is critical to authors, editors, and reviewers alike within and beyond Information Systems and its reference disciplines.
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Boell, Sebastian K. (2017). Information: Fundamental positions and their implications for information systems research, education and practice. Information and Organization, 27(1), 1-16.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; Campbell, John (2016). Telework Paradoxes and Practices: The Importance of the Nature of Work. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31(2), 114-131.
Area: Telework; Nature of Work; Remote Work; Paradox
Research on telework often focuses on the outcomes of telework, investigating if telework is ultimately a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing for teleworkers and their organisations. However, findings across telework research studies are often inconclusive, requiring deeper engagement with potential explanations for contradictory and paradoxical results. This study uses virtual ethnography (netnography) to investigate naturally occurring data. By analysing online debates related to Yahoo!’s decision to ban telework for its employees, this study surfaces aspects currently overlooked by telework research. These findings suggest that the diversity of the nature of work undertaken by knowledge workers and perceived differences in the suitability of different tasks for telework are of critical importance for understanding telework from a practice perspective. However, deeper engagement with the different kinds of work activities of knowledge workers is currently missing in the telework research literature. This study therefore contributes to better understanding of telework and paradoxical findings in telework research.
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Ustesheva, Anastasia; Boell, Sebastian K. (2016). Theorizing Society and Technology in Information Systems Research. DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 47(4), 106-110.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Hoof, Florian (2015). Using Heider’s Epistemology of Thing and Medium for Unpacking the Conception of Documents: Gantt Charts and Boundary Objects. Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Document Academy. 2. Article 3.
Area: Document; Fritz Heider; Boundary Object; Gantt Chart
Documents play a central role for many organizational processes. Current conceptualizations of documents predominantly engage with documents in two different ways. One sees documents as things with specific properties, and a second sees documents as medium enabling communication across different groups of actors. What is currently not well understood is how documents are perceived either as thing or as medium. This chapter engages with this issue by drawing from Fritz Heider’s epistemology of thing and medium, a concept stemming from social and media theory. According to Heider things are uniform and medium are multiform. Applying this concept to documents we argue that documents as things are perceived as uniform, whereas documents as medium are perceived as multiform. We exemplify the application of this conception of documents in the context of Gantt charts and the concept of boundary objects.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2015). Debating systematic literature reviews (SLR) and their ramifications for IS: a rejoinder to Mike Chiasson, Briony Oates, Ulrike Schultze, and Richard Watson. Journal of Information Technology. 30(2). 188-193.
Area: Literature Reviews; Literature Searches; Systematic Literature Review
Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) are making their inroads into the IS discipline. By responding to the commentaries this rejoinder contributes to a debate about potential merits, limitations and wider ramifications of SLR for the IS discipline. More specifically we engage with the questions: What is an SLR and can it be conducted partially? How can literature reviews and SLR be improved? What is the view of ‘evidence’ in SLRs and the evidence-based practice movement and what are potential implications for ‘research informing IS practice’? How can the efficiency and effectiveness of literature reviews be improved? Overall we argue for a practice of critique that scrutinizes methodologies such as SLR in the light of values and ends we seek to achieve in the IS discipline.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2015). On Being 'Systematic' in Literature Reviews in IS. Journal of Information Technology. 30(2). 161-173.
Area: Literature Reviews; Literature Searches; Systematic Literature Review
General guidelines for conducting literature reviews often do not address the question of literature searches and dealing with a potentially large number of identified sources. These issues are specifically addressed by so-called systematic literature reviews (SLRs) that propose a strict protocol for the search and appraisal of literature. Moreover, SLRs are claimed to be a ‘standardized method’ for literature reviews that is replicable, transparent, objective, unbiased and rigorous, and thus superior to other approaches for conducting literature reviews. These are significant and consequential claims that – despite increasing adoption of SLRs – remained largely unnoticed in the information systems (IS) literature. The objective of this debate is to draw attention of the IS community to SLR’s claims, to question their justification and reveal potential risks of their adoption. This is achieved by first examining the origins of SLR and the prescribed SLR process and then by critically assessing their claims and implications. In this debate, we show that SLRs are applicable and useful for a very specific kind of literature review, a meta study that identifies and summarizes evidence from earlier research. We also demonstrate that the claims that SLRs provide superior quality are not justified. More importantly, we argue that SLR as a general approach to conducting literature reviews is highly questionable, concealing significant perils. The paper cautions that SLR could undermine critical engagement with literature and what it means to be scholarly in academic work.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2014). A Hermeneutic Approach for Conducting Literature Reviews and Literature Searchers. Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 34. Article 12.
Area: Literature Reviews; Literature Searches; Hermeneutics
The quality and success of scholarly work depends in large measure on the quality of the literature review process. This paper advances conceptual understanding of the literature review process and extends earlier guidelines on literature reviews. It proposes a hermeneutic framework that integrates the analysis and interpretation of literature and the search for literature. This hermeneutic framework describes the literature review process as fundamentally a process of developing understanding that is iterative in nature. Using the hermeneutic circle it describes the literature review process as being constituted by literature searching, classifying and mapping, critical assessment, and argument development. The hermeneutic approach emphasizes continuous engagement with and gradual development of a body of literature during which increased understanding and insights are developed. The paper contributes to better understanding of the literature review process and provides guidelines to assist researchers in conducting high quality reviews. Approaches for efficient searching are included in an Appendix.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia (2012). Fifty years of LIS education in Australia: Research productivity and visibility of LIS educators in higher education institutions. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 53(1). 49-68.
Area: Visibility; Library and Information Science; Australia
This paper surveys aspects of the research productivity and visibility of Australian Library and Information Studies (LIS) educators as reflected in publications retrieved from eight relevant databases. Searching was restricted to educators serving for at least two years in Australian LIS programs from 1959 to 2008; the records obtained were downloaded and checked for accuracy. The results show that fewer than five percent of educators, generally with long service, produced over one-quarter of all journal articles, while nearly one-third of educators authored no articles. About three-quarters of all journal articles were singleauthored; however, multiple authorship has increased over time, especially since 2000. Nearly one-half of all articles were published in Australian national journals; as these journals were indexed only in national and LIS-specific databases, such databases must be included to obtain a reliable picture of Australian LIS research productivity.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia (2011). Publications of Australian LIS Academics in Databases. Australian Academic and Research Libraries. 43(3). 211-230.
Area: Database Coverage; Library and Information Science; Australia
This paper examines aspects of journal articles published from 1967 to 2008, located in eight databases, and authored or co-authored by academics serving for at least two years in Australian LIS programs from 1959 to 2008. These aspects are: inclusion of publications in databases, publications in journals, authorship characteristics of publications, productivity, and subject content of publications over time. Results indicate that national and LIS-specific databases provided adequate coverage; however, no single database provided over half of all publications. More than half of all articles were published in national journals focusing on aspects of LIS in Australia; however, there is a trend for increasing publications in international journals. Most of the earlier publications had one author, but multiple authorship in publications has increased since 1999. Overall the number of publications per LIS academic is low; however, per capita productivity has been increasing since the mid-1990s. Finally, titles of articles reveal a shift from library-related terms to information-related terms.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Boell, Sebastian K. (2010). Fifty years of LIS education in Australia: Academization of LIS educators in higher education institution. Library and Information Science Research. 32(4). 246-257.
Area: Library and Information Science; Australia;
This paper investigates the academization of library and information science (LIS) educators in Australia from 1959 to 2008. Extensive data document the distribution of these academics in Australian higher education institutions over fifty years: from a slow beginning in the 1960s, to rapid growth in the 1970s, relative stability in the 1980s, and a persistent decline from the 1990s. Results of other characteristics of Australian LIS educators over the fifty-year period are presented including: previous positions held before entering academia, what and where academic qualifications were obtained, academic positions/ranks by gender, mobility within Australian higher education institutions, and years spent as Australian LIS educators. Although there has been a steady decline in the number of Australian LIS educators since the 1990s, the level of academic qualifications and percentage with doctorates have risen, thus conforming to a major requirement of academia; however, the relative decline in junior academic positions is a worrying trend. The analysis of changed characteristics over time helps define who Australian LIS academics are, and additionally provides data that contributes to LIS academic workforce planning.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2010). Literature reviews and the hermeneutic circle. Australian Academic and Research Libraries. 41(2). 129-144.
Area: Literature Reviews; Information Seeking; Systematic Review;
Conducting a literature review is a vital part of any research. Library and information science (LIS) professionals often play a central role in supporting academics in their efforts to locate relevant publications and in teaching novice researchers skills associated with literature reviews. This paper examines literature review processes with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of their complexity and uncertainty and to propose a new approach to literature reviews: one capable of dealing with such complexity and uncertainty.
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Boell, Sebastian K. (2010). Informations und bibliothekswissenschaftliche Zeitschriften in Literaturdatenbanken. Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliografie. 57(1). 26-36.
Area: Bibliometrics; Scientometrics; Infometrics; Journal Ranking;
Article in German Fachzeitschriften spielen für Wissenschaftler und Praktiker bei der Verbreitung von Forschungsergebnissen und Erfahrungsberichten eine wichtige Rolle. Der vorliegende Artikel gibt eine kurze Einführung in das Feld der Informetrie, um auf dieser Grundlage eine Zeitschriftenliste auf dem Gebiet der Informations- und Bibliothekswissenschaft (IuB) einzuführen. Durch Kombination von zehn verschiedenen Zeitschriftenlisten aus Datenbanken, die relevante Literatur auf dem Gebiet der IuB erfassen, wird eine umfassende Liste von 1205 relevanten Fachzeitschriften erstellt. Anhand ihrer Erscheinungshäufigkeit wird die Bedeutung einzelner Zeitschriften für das Gebiet der IuB eingeordnet, wobei vier verschiedene Kategorien von Zeitschriften unterschieden werden: fünfzehn Kernzeitschriften, 88 zentrale Zeitschriften, 173 selektive Zeitschriften und 672 Randzeitschriften. Betrachtet werden darüber hinaus auch Publikationssprache und geografische Verteilung der Zeitschriften sowie die Überschneidung von verschiedenen Datenbanken untereinander.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Wilson, Concepción S. (2010). Journal Impact Factors for evaluating scientific performance: use of h-like indicators. Scientometrics. 82(3). 613-626.
Area: Scientometrics; Impact Factor; Cancer Research;
This article introduces the Impact Factor squared or IF2-index, an h-like indicator of research performance. This indicator reflects the degree to which large entities such as countries and/or their states participate in top-level research in a field or subfield. The IF2-index uses the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of research publications instead of the number of citations. This concept is applied to other h-type indexes and their results compared to the IF2-index. These JIF-based indexes are then used to assess the overall performance of cancer research in Australia and its states over 8 years from 1999 to 2006. The IF2-index has three advantages when evaluating larger research units: firstly, it provides a stable value that does not change over time, reflecting the degree to which a research unit participated in top-level research in a given year; secondly, it can be calculated closely approximating the publication date of yearly datasets; and finally, it provides an additional dimension when a full article-based citation analysis is not feasible. As the index reflects the degree of participation in top-level research it may favor larger units when units of different sizes are compared.
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White, Howard D.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Yu, Hairong; Davis, Mari; Wilson, Concepción S.; Cole, Fletcher T. H. (2009). Libcitations: A Measure for Comparative Assessment of Book Publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 60(6). 1083-1096.
Area: Bibliometrics; Research Evaluation; Libcitations;
Bibliometric measures for evaluating research units in the book-oriented humanities and social sciences are underdeveloped relative to those available for journaloriented science and technology. We therefore present a new measure designed for book-oriented fields: the "libcitation count." This is a count of the libraries holding a given book, as reported in a national or international union catalog. As librarians decide what to acquire for the audiences they serve, they jointly constitute an instrument for gauging the cultural impact of books. Their decisions are informed by knowledge not only of audiences but also of the book world (e.g., the reputations of authors and the prestige of publishers). From libcitation counts, measures can be derived for comparing research units. Here,we imagine a match-up between the departments of history, philosophy, and political science at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney in Australia.We chose the 12 books from each department that had the highest libcitation counts in the Libraries Australia union catalog during 2000 to 2006. We present each book's raw libcitation count, its rank within its Library of Congress (LC) class, and its LCclass normalized libcitation score.The latter is patterned on the item-oriented field normalized citation score used in evaluative bibliometrics. Summary statistics based on these measures allow the departments to be compared for cultural impact. Our work has implications for programs such as Excellence in Research for Australia and the Research Assessment Exercise in the United Kingdom. It also has implications for data mining in OCLC's WorldCat.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Wilson, Concepción S.; Cole, Fletcher T. H. (2008). Usage of different Web Impact Factors for Ranking Australian Universities. COLLNET journal of Scientometrics and Information Management. 2(2). 57-70.
Area: Webometrics; Web Mining; University Rankings;
This study describes how search engines (SE) can be employed for automated, efficient data gathering for Webometric studies using well defined query specfic URLs in SE (predictable URLs). It then compares the usage of staff-related Web Impact Factors (WIFs) to web impact factors for a ranking of Australian universities, showing that rankings based on staff-related WIFs correlate much better with an established ranking from the Melbourne Institute than commonly used WIFs. In fact WIFs do not correlate with the Melbourne ranking at all. It also compares WIF data for Australian Universities provided by Smith [1] for a longitudinal comparison of the WIF of Australian Universities over the last decade. It shows that size-dependent WIF values declined for most Australian universities over the last ten years, while staffdependent WIFs shows a riding trend.
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Refereed conference papers (full papers)
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Boell, S. K.; Wang, B. (2019). www.litbaskets.io, an IT Artifact Supporting Literature Searches for Information Systems Research. Australasian Conference for Information Systems.
Area: Information Systems; Literature Searches
Information Systems (IS) researchers currently lack an obvious place to start their literature searches. Existing tools suffer from being either too narrow in their coverage of existing research, leading to an insufficiency effect (low recall); or they are too encompassing, leading to an impracticality effect (low precision). From 11 listings of IS-related journals, we identify a set of 1,042 journals receptive to IS research. We introduce a web interface that allows searching for literature across most of these journals. The search tool enables researchers to narrow or widen the focus of searches, thus allowing researchers to optimise the precision-recall trade-off of their literature searches. We provide an evaluation of our artifact and discuss the relevance of our artifact for exploratory literature searches. Our artifact seeks to facilitate knowledge claims in IS research based on a shared body of knowledge beyond the AIS basket of eight journals.
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Hovorka, D.; & Boell, S. K. (2017). Contribution in Information Systems: Insights from the Disciplinary Matrix. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS). Proceedings 86. Awarded 'Best Theoretical Paper'
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Hafermalz, Ella; Boell, Sebastian K.; Elliot, Steve; Hovorka, Dirk; Marjanovic, Olivera (2016). Exploring Dimensions of Sharing Economy Business Models Enabled by IS: An Australian Study. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS).
Area: Sharing Economy; Business Model; Australia
Over the last decade, the Sharing Economy has developed rapidly to become a significant source of market disruption. However, multi-disciplinary research into the phenomenon is constrained by uncertainties about its focus, scope and even what activities the term “Sharing Economy” refers to. This paper’s research aims are to address those constraints by clarifying concepts and terminology to afford meaningful discourse and impactful research. We do this by developing a Sharing Economy Diagnostic (ShED) for categorising companies and organizations who participate in platform-based sharing that is enabled by Information Systems. Within the Australian Sharing Economy, Information Systems occupy the sweet spot, being located at the intersection of demand for different types of market behaviours and enabling those demands by bringing market groups together in ways that are facilitating and creating new business models.
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Boell, S. K., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2015) What is 'Information' Beyond a Definition?. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2015). Paper 1363.
Awarded 'Best Conference Theme Paper' at ICIS 2015
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Hovorka, D. S., Boell, S. K. (2015) Cogency and Contribution in IS research. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2015). Paper 1574.
Area: Contribution, Argumentation
Although it is accepted that to make a contribution, Information Systems (IS) research must be novel and provide utility, these characteristics are insufficient to account for the cogency or persuasion that research makes a contribution. Novelty and utility are not self-evident and authors need to articulate an argument that their paper makes a contribution in relation to the discourse to which it seeks to contribute. We use the Habermasian ideal of argumentation to explicate the rhetorical, dialectic, logical and socio-institutional dimensions of cogent argument. We use two examples of published research to illustrate how these elements can be extended to frame research as a contribution in relation to the wider disciplinary matrix. We outline next steps of the research and the utility of the framework for researchers, reviewers and editors.
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Boell, S. K., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2015) What is an Information System?. Proceedings of the 48th Hawaiian International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). p 4959-4968.
Area: Information System; Definitions; Theory; Sociomateriality;
This paper aims to advance understanding of information systems (IS) through a critical reflection on how IS are currently defined in the IS literature. Using the hermeneutic approach for conducting literature reviews the paper identifies 34 definitions of IS in the literature. Based on the analysis of these 34 definitions four different views of IS are distinguished: a technology view emphasizing the technological aspects of IS; a social view emphasizing the sociocultural aspects; a socio-technical view emphasizing the interconnection of technology and social elements; and a process view emphasizing the activity orientation of IS. The paper critically examines the contributions and limitations of these different approaches for understanding and theorizing IS. Based on this examination the paper argues to for the need to develop an additional, alternative sociomaterial conceptualization of IS based on a non-dualist, relational ontology.
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Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., Boell, S. K., and Campbell, J. (2014) Materiality of Connectivity in the Networked Society: A Sociomaterial Perspective. Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2014 (ACIS 2014 Proceedings). [online] http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/8062
Area: Connectivity; Technology; Sociomateriality; Telework; Work;
This paper contributes to an emerging discourse on the meaning of technology in today’s networked society by exploring connectivity as a hallmark of the networked society. Based on an empirical study of professionals, arguably the forerunners of the networked society, the paper seeks to answer how connectivity matters. Rich narratives from in-depth interviews reveal the diverse ways materiality of connectivity is experienced and performed in the work practices and private lives of professionals. These findings challenge existing conceptual treatments of connectivity as a technical, social, or socio-technical phenomenon, and offer empirical grounding for a novel theoretical view of connectivity. The proposed sociomaterial theoretical framework identifies four different modes of connectivity that explain how connectivity matters to individuals: as materially experienced and enacted in specific sociomaterial practices. As a novel and refined view of connectivity the sociomaterial framework is important for future research on connectivity in the networked society.
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Boell, S. K., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., and Campbell, J. (2014) Telework and the Nature of Work: An Assessment of Different Aspects of Work and the Role of Technology. European Conference on Information Systems 2014 (ECIS 2014 Proceedings). [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2014/proceedings/track01/16/
Area: Telework; Telecommute; Work; Yahoo!
Engagement in work through information and communication technology from places other than a corporate office, often referred to as telework, is simultaneously transforming work and life. In order to support successful adoption of telework by organizations it is important to move away from re- search stacking up evidence for or against telework. Instead what is required is a more nuanced ex- amination that seeks to contribute to better understanding of work practices and the support for suc- cessful approaches to telework. Based on an analysis of an extensive online debate following Yahoo’s decision to ban telework, we identify important issues associated with telework in practice and con- trast them with their presence in extant literature. This leads to the identification of areas for research that should be further advanced to support organizations in improving their telework practices. In particular such research can be built on a more thorough assessment of teamwork and collaboration needs, as well as the nature of work that is to be undertaken by teleworkers.
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Campbell, J., Boell, S. K., Keating, B., and Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2013). Temporal Aspects of Telework and its Impact on Work-Family Conflict. Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2013 (ACIS 2013 Proceedings).
Area: Telework; Telecommute; Temporality
Telework is the engagement in work outside of a regular office setting by means of the use of information and communication technology (ICT). Findings reported in the literature are mixed with some studies having argued that telework provides workers the opportunity to better balance work and private roles. In contrast others have argued telework blurs the boundaries between work and private life thus creating competing objectives and conflict. This research in progress seeks to examine these inconsistencies by distinguishing between telework activity before and after office working hours. We predict that increased engagement in telework outside of office hours will contribute to stronger perceptions of work-family conflict, while greater engagement in telework during office hours will lessen perceptions of work overload and work-family conflict.
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Boell, S. K., Campbell, J., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., and Cheng, J. E. (2013). Advantages, Challenges and Contradictions of the Transformative Nature of Telework: A Review of the Literature. Americas Conference on Information Systems 2013 (AMCIS 2013 Proceedings). [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2013/EndUserIS/GeneralPresentations/4/
Nominee for 'Best Paper' at AMCIS 2013
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2012). Conceptualizing Information Systems: From ‘Input-Processing-Output’ Devices to sociomaterial apparatuses. European Conference on Information Systems 2012 (ECIS 2012). Paper 20. [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2012/20
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2011). Theorizing Information – From Signs to Sociomaterial Practices. Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2011 (ACIS 2011 Proceedings). Paper 53. [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2011/53/
Awarded 'Best Theoretical Paper' at ACIS 2011
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2011). Are Systematic Reviews better, less biased and of higher quality?. European Conference on Information Systems 2011 (ECIS 2011). Paper 223. [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2011/223
Area: Literature Reviews; Database Searches; Systematic Review
Literature reviews are central to any academic research. Whether journal article, conference presentation or research thesis it is necessary for all of them to provide an overview of earlier research in order to contextualize one’s own findings. More fundamentally, the beginning of any research is crucially dependent on an appropriate literature review. In recent years a supposedly new form of literature review has emerged, so called, systematic reviews. The aim of this paper is to question the key premises of systematic reviews and demonstrate that the claims they are less biased and more rigorous than so called narrative reviews do not hold. This paper briefly introduces the origin of systematic reviews and explains how they are undertaken. Based on this introduction the paper shows that key premises of systematic reviews cannot be fulfilled and that they by no means guaranty the creation of 'better' literature reviews. In contrast, to systematic reviews which put importance on the literature identification and selection process, it argues that reading is central to reviewing literature. Reading enables academics to improve their understanding of the subject area and therefore to further advance their searches. Better literature reviews can only be achieved through better understanding of the subject area. Proper understanding of search techniques will then allow researchers to identify further relevant literature. Reviewing literature is therefore better described as a hermeneutic process.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2010). Attributes of information. Americas Conference on Information Systems 2010(AMCIS 2010 Proceedings). Paper 129. [online] http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2010/129.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Wilson, Concepción S.; Cole, Fletcher T. H. (2008). A Webometric Analysis of Australian Universities using Staff and Size dependent Web Impact Factors (WIF). In: Kretschmer, Hildrun; Havemann, Frank (Eds.). Proceedings of WIS 2008. Berlin : Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Library and Information Science.
Area: Webometrics; Web Mining; University Rankings;
This study describes how search engines (SE) can be employed for automated, efficient data gathering for Webometric studies using predictable URLs. It then compares the usage of staffrelated Web Impact Factors (WIFs) to sizerelated impact factors for a ranking of Australian universities, showing that rankings based on staffrelated WIFs correlate much better with an established ranking from the Melbourne Institute than commonly used sizedependent WIFs. In fact sizedependent WIFs do not correlate with the Melbourne ranking at all.
It also compares WIF data for Australian Universities provided by Smith (1999) for a longitudinal comparison of the WIF of Australian Universities over the last decade. It shows that sizedependent WIF values declined for most Australian universities over the last ten years, while staffdependent WIFs rose.
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Oratti, J,; Boell, S. K. (2019). Matters of Concern at Work: Becoming-green-with Organisational Social Media. 11th International Process Symposium (PROS), 19-22. June 2019. Crete Greece.
Area: Process Philosophy; Environment; Reality
At the beginning of the 21 st century environmental, social and sustainable challenges have reached a scale unprecedented in human history. The rise of the rate of consumption together with population growth put immense pressures on social systems as well as on the environmental boundaries of the planet. The challenge is to achieve an outcome where basic needs such as food, healthcare and education are provided to all human beings, while at the same time solving the current environmental crisis as we create an economic system operating within the global environmental boundaries (Raworth 2018). Organisations and businesses have an important role to play in realizing required changes through collective action.
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Boell, S. K.; & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2018) A Relational Proess View of Information Systems. 10th International Process Symposium (PROS), 20-23. June 2018. Halkidiki Greece.
Area: Information Systems; Process Philosophy
In this paper, we propose an alternative, relational process conception of IS and demonstrate how such a conception enriches and advances our understanding of IS—what an IS is, what an IS is for, how components make up an IS, and how an IS becomes. In other words, the relational process view of IS embraces both its being and becoming.
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Boell, S. K.; Hoof, F. (2018). Organisations, Structures and Technology: Insights from Media and Communication Studies and Information Systems. Proceedings of the Association of Academic Historians in Australian and New Zealand Business Schools (AAHANZBS).
Area: History; Organizational Change; Media
Over the last decades Information Technology (IT) has become deeply interwoven into the fabric of organizations of all types and sizes. IT has lead to dramatic improvements in organizational efficiency and productivity, for instance, by automating labor intensive accounting related activities such as the processing of payroll, reporting of financial data through different levels of the organization, procuring goods and services, or the billing of customers. While such business processes are nowadays largely standardized and automated, the change associated with the adoption and use of IT is much more profound than simply an automation of existing tasks. Taking a historical perspective on IT and organizations reveals that the increasing use of IT in organizations led to a massive change in how organizations are structured, how business processes are undertaken, and how goals and targets are set, revised and monitored.
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Boell, S. K. (2017). Information and Organizational Change on Long Time-Scales. Proceedings of the Association of Academic Historians in Australian and New Zealand Business Schools (AAHANZBS) 2017.
Area: History; Organizational Change
Nobody will doubt that over time organisations change and that to a large extend organisational changes are related to technological development. As new technologies become available they reshape how work is undertaken, for instance, by enabling new forms of work, offering more sophisticated production methods, or enabled new forms of organisational communication. One particular technology associated with wide ranging organisational transformation over the last decades is information technology (IT).This research therefore draws methodologically from business history to investigate organisational change at the crossroad between business information systems and organisational studies.
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Orsatti, Jo; Boell, Sebastian K. (2016). Organizational Engagement in Climate Change: A Performative Account of Organizational Environmental Reality. 8th International Process Symposium (PROS), 16-18. June 2016. Corfu Greece.
Area: Process Philosophy; Environment; Reality
Commercial organizations are caught in an ongoing tension between the imperative of being perceived as socially responsible yet have persistent pressure to perform economically (Banerjee 2008). These tensions are heightened as organizations are increasingly held to account for their contributions to causes of environmental issues (Wright and Nyberg 2015). Rules and regulations, instituted by governments and industry bodies, are a means to evidence organizations engagement with these social obligations, implying also that the end of a more sustainable treatment of the environment is synonymous with the means by which it is measured. Paradoxically, when social obligations are fulfilled by regulatory compliance alone also the means is established to breach social obligations. Using the example of the VW emissions scandal (or ‘diselgate’) we argue that a possible explanation for this phenomenon is that environmental consequences are rendered invisible to the organization as they become obscured by focus on adherence to rules and regulations. We further argue that environmental reality is performed for management through the reporting process of the organization and successful reporting becomes a proxy for successful performance. This process distances managers from addressing environmental concerns per se and instead brings them closer to a view where they are satisfied with conforming to rules and regulations.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia (2011) Discovering Australian LIS Research in Literature Reference Databases. Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference, 10. May 2011. Brisbane : QUT.
Area: Database Coverage; Library and Information Science; Australia;
This presentation examines the visibility of LIS research undertaken by Australian LIS academics in eight databases. It uses a list of 382 LIS academics from Australia who worked as academics for more than 2 years over the last 50 years.
Please see the following journal publication for a more advanced description of this research:
Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia (2011). Publications of Australian LIS Academics in Databases. Australian Academic and Research Libraries. 42(X). XXX-xxx.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2010) Systematic review and the hermeneutic circle of literature reviews. Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference, 22. January 2010. Canberra : CSU.
Area: Literature Reviews; Information Seeking; Systematic Review;
This presentation argued that systematic reviews are insufficient for undertaking literature reviews in the social sciences. Instead literature reviews can be better understood as hermeneutic process.
Please see the following journal publication for a more advanced description of this research:
Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka (2010). Literature reviews and the hermeneutic circle. Australian Academic and Research Libraries. 41(2). 129-144.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Willard, Patricia; Kennan, Mary Anne; Boell, Sebastian K. (2009). Charting the history of Australian LIS education from 1959-2008: Problems and issues arising from data sources. Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference, 23. January 2009. Sydney : UTS.
Area: Library and Information Science; Australia;
This presentation reported on the work in progress on a project charting LIS education in Australia since the first library school at an university was establisehd in 1958.
Please see the following journal publication for a more advanced description of this research:
Wilson, Concepción S.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Boell, Sebastian K. (2010). Fifty years of LIS education in Australia: Academization of LIS educators in higher education institution. Library and Information Science Research. 32(4). 246-257.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia (2009). Productivity of Australian LIS academics. Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference, 23. January 2009. Sydney : UTS.
Area: Library and Information Science; Australia; Visibility in Databases;
This presentation reported on the work in progress on a project charting LIS education in Australia since the first library school at an university was establisehd in 1958.
Please see the following journal publication for a more advanced description of this research:
Wilson, Concepción S.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Boell, Sebastian K. (2010). Fifty years of LIS education in Australia: Academization of LIS educators in higher education institution. Library and Information Science Research. 32(4). 246-257.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Wilson, Concepción S. (2008) Use of h-like indicators based on Journal Impact Factors for evaluating scientific performance: Australian cancer research case study. In: Excellence and Emergence. A New Challenge for the Combination of Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. 10th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators. Vienna, Austria 17-20 September 2008. p 250-253.
Area: Scientometrics; Research Evaluation; Impact Factor;
This presentation introduced how journal impact factors can be used similar to the h-index for comparing the participation in top-level research between different larger entities. In this case cancer research by different Australian states.
Please see the following journal publication for a more advanced description of this research:
Boell, Sebastian K.; Wilson, Concepción S. (2010). Journal Impact Factors for evaluating scientific performance: use of h-like indicators. Scientometrics. 82(3). 613-626.
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Hafermalz, Ella; Riemer, Kai; Boell, Sebastian K. (2016). Enactment or Performance? A Non-dualist Reading of Goffman. In: Lucas Introna, Donncha Kavanagh, Séamas Kelly, Wanda Orlikowski, Susan Scott (ed.) Beyond Interpretivism? New Encounters with Technology and Organization (Volume 489 of the series IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology), Dublin : Springer, pp 167-181.
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Boell, Sebastian K.; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; (2016). Chapter 11: On Being 'Systematic' in Literature Reviews in IS. In: Leslie P. Willcocks, Chris Saer, Mary C. Lacit (ed.) Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems (Volume 2), Houndmills : Palgrave Macmillian, pp.48-78.
Area: Literature Reviews; Literature Searches; Systematic Literature Review
General guidelines for conducting literature reviews often do not address the question of literature searches and dealing with a potentially large number of identified sources. These issues are specifically addressed by so-called systematic literature reviews (SLRs) that propose a strict protocol for the search and appraisal of literature. Moreover, SLRs are claimed to be a ‘standardized method’ for literature reviews that is replicable, transparent, objective, unbiased and rigorous, and thus superior to other approaches for conducting literature reviews. These are significant and consequential claims that – despite increasing adoption of SLRs – remained largely unnoticed in the information systems (IS) literature. The objective of this debate is to draw attention of the IS community to SLR’s claims, to question their justification and reveal potential risks of their adoption. This is achieved by first examining the origins of SLR and the prescribed SLR process and then by critically assessing their claims and implications. In this debate, we show that SLRs are applicable and useful for a very specific kind of literature review, a meta study that identifies and summarizes evidence from earlier research. We also demonstrate that the claims that SLRs provide superior quality are not justified. More importantly, we argue that SLR as a general approach to conducting literature reviews is highly questionable, concealing significant perils. The paper cautions that SLR could undermine critical engagement with literature and what it means to be scholarly in academic work.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Boell, Sebastian K.; Willard, Patricia (2012) From Practice to Academia: 50 Years of LIS Education in Australia. In: Amanda Spink, Diljit Singh (ed.) Library and Information Science Trends and Research: Asia-Oceania, Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.15-45
Area: Visibility; Library and Information Science; Australia
The central place that education has in the strength and well-being of any profession is widely accepted. Australia presents an interesting case study of a country where LIS education moved from being conducted by practitioners under the guidance of the professional association to being provided in institutions of higher education in 1959. The 50 years (1959-2008) saw substantial changes in Australian LIS education with a rapid proliferation of schools which was later followed by closures, mergers and changes of focus. This chapter charts LIS education during this period focusing on organizational and structural aspects of the placement of LIS education in tertiary institutions, on the academization of LIS educators who had in the early days mainly been drawn from practice, and on the development of LIS educators as academic researchers and authors as represented by their productivity and visibility in national and international databases. In addition to giving an account of these areas of LIS education over the 50 years the chapter seeks to offer explanations for what has occurred and some views of strategies which may assist the development of LIS education in Australia and in other countries which possess similar characteristics.
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Boell, Sebastian K. (2012). Theorizing Information and Information Systems. Sydney : Australian School of Business (UNSW), PhD Dissertation. (Awarded with the ASIST ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award 2013 as well as the 2012 Weinstock Memorial Prize.)
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Boell, Sebastian K. (2007). A Scientometric Method to Analyze Scientific Journals as Exemplified by the Area of Information Science. Saarbrücken : Saarland University, Master Thesis. (Awarded with the VFI price 2008.)
Area: Bibliometrics; Scientometrics; Infometrics; Journal Ranking;
Background In most academic disciplines journals play an important role in disseminating findings of research among the disciplinary community members. Furthermore, based on Bradford's Law of scattering, one can assume that previous research in many journals, but also that there are some 'core' journals.
Aim This thesis aims to compile a comprehensive list of journals of relevance to Library and Information Science (LIS). A method to rank journals is introduced; key characteristics of the disciplines journals are discussed; and databases are compared.
Method A list of LIS journals was created by combining the journal listings of secondary sources indexing the field's literature. These sources were: INFODATA, Current Contents, Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Library Information Science Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Information Science and Technology Abstracts (ISTA), Library Literature and Information Science (LLIS), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Academic Search Premier, and Expanded Academic ASAP, and the Elektronische Zeitschriften Bibliothek. Journals were ranked by the number of occurrences in multiple databases.
Results A comprehensive list of 1,205 journals was compiled. 968 journals are active, mostly published in English in the USA and UK. Fifteen core journal could be identified. Databases have between five to 318 journals in common. Overlap with a wide range of subjects exist, especially Computing Studies, and Business and Economics.
Conclusion The extensive journal list can contribute to understanding of scholarly communication within the LIS discipline and provide academics and practitioners with a better understanding of journals within the discipline. Journal could be ranked by occurance in databases.
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Boell, S. K. (2017). Book Review: Shifting Practices: Reflections on Technology, Practice, and Innovation. Organization. 24(6) 952-955.
Area: Practices
In this review, I will first look at the key idea of Lanzara’s book and then talk in more detail about the research approach taken by the author. I will conclude this review by my assessment of who I believe will benefit from reading this book.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Lo, Margaret (2011). Systematic review of the quantity and quality of cancer research publications in New South Wales: 2007 to 2009. Sydney : University of New South Wales, School of Information Systems, Technology and Management.
Area: Bibliometrics; Scientometrics; Cancer Research;
The main aim of the project is to determine the quantity and quality of recent publications on cancer research produced in New South Wales vis-à-vis the other States of Australia. Subsidiary aims are to determine the relative contribution of Australia to research on cancer world-wide, and to compare the quantity and quality of Australian.
Analyses in this report are based on two censuses of the cancer literature, from SCI-SSCI and from Medline, with primary focus on SCI-SSCI. The Medline database also provided a census of the medical literature.
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Welberry, Heidi; Edwards, Carmel; Weston, Adele; Harvey, Charles; Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Lo, Margaret; Bishop, James K. (2008). Cancer research in New South Wales 2001-2006. Sydney : Cancer Institute NSW.
Area: Bibliometrics; Scientometrics; Cancer Research;
This report provides an overview of cancer research in New South Wales (NSW). The report is presented in two sections. Part One draws on information gathered in two separate surveys of cancer research in NSW covering the periods 2001-2003 and 2004-2006. Part Two of the report provides an alternate view of the impact of the cancer research activity by assessing the research publications between 1999 and 2006.
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Wilson, Concepción S.; Boell, Sebastian K.; Lo, Margaret (2007). Systematic review of the quantity and quality of cancer research publications in New South Wales: 1999 to 2006. Sydney : University of New South Wales, School of Information Systems, Technology and Management.
Area: Bibliometrics; Scientometrics; Cancer Research;
The main aim of the project is to determine the quantity and quality of recent publications on cancer research produced in New South Wales vis-à-vis the other States of Australia. Subsidiary aims are to determine the relative contribution of Australia to research on cancer world-wide, and to compare the quantity and quality of Australian.
Analyses in this report are based on two censuses of the cancer literature, from SCI-SSCI and from Medline, with primary focus on SCI-SSCI. The Medline database also provided a census of the medical literature.
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