What is a good reference for my assignment?
It depends upon several factors, such as the reputation, scope, audience and other factors.
In the end, each student must consider how appropriate the reference is to the assignment requirements. This requires students to do careful reading, critical thinking, and to exercise some common sense.
Hawaii Pacific University has a helpful statement on academic honesty. This 
is the academic honesty handout that is part of the course syllabus.
Write to Done has a great article about how to find sources and references.
Wabash College has a very good list of resources about “good references”.
Writing Research Essays in North American Academic Institutions offers many helpful tips for US and international students on writing exploratory research essays. There are also good instructions on citations, references and how to avoid plagiarism. The author uses the Turabian format, but many of these instructions can be adapted for APA. (snurl.com/1ts1)
Widener University - evaluating Web references
Internet Detective - interactive tutorial on evaluating Web resources
What is a “scholarly” or “peer reviewed” journal?
If you are writing a paper for IS 6000, or you are writing an MSIS thesis or thesis proposal, it is required that you read, cite and include relevant research articles published in “scholarly” or “peer reviewed” journals.
As an MSIS student, it is essential that you find and read relevant journals and articles throughout the entire master’s program. This is a great way to identify research topics.
MSIS students should also develop their own annotated bibliographies of important articles. For some articles, you should write one-page summaries for later reference.
As an aspiring IS professional, you will find many scholarly and peer reviewed journals that can improve your technical and managerial skills.
In most cases, these journals are not newspapers, magazines, or web sites that are published for a general audience. These journals are highly specialized publications that present relevant research articles to a specific audience.
The terms “scholarly” or “peer reviewed”, when applied to paper or electronic publications, generally mean that:
- The primary audience of these journals is specialized, and may include professors, graduate students and researchers.
- Faculty members who apply for tenure are often evaluated on the articles they have published in these journals.
- Each journal has a set of rules that describe specific field(s) of study or topic area(s). Some journals are very general, while others are very specific.
- The title of the journal may or may not include words like annals, journal, or review. The title itself is not a guarantee that the journal is peer-reviewed, of course.
- There are journals that are devoted to theory building, often using exploratory and descriptive research methods. Many journals are devoted to empirical research studies that test or extend existing theory.
- All submissions are reviewed by at least one expert in the journal’s field(s) of study.
- The editor and/or reviewers can accept or reject a submitted article. Readers can assume that any articles that are accepted meet the journal’s standards for publication, and represent a contribution to the journal’s field(s) of study.
- In some cases, the author(s) are asked to revise and resubmit their submission. A list of suggested revisions and comments is usually included in this request. Completing all of the revisions does not guarantee that the article will be accepted. However, an “R&R” letter usually signals the editor’s interest in publishing the edited article.
- These journals often have special or theme issues that concentrate on a very specific topic. Sometimes a call for papers is published, asking authors to submit suitable articles. In some cases, the authors for this issue have been asked by the editor(s) to contribute or write an article.
- Some scholarly and peer reviewed journals are more competitive than others. Well-known and respected journals often reject most unsolicited submissions for publication. Other journals have a token review process, and may print many of their submissions.
- Most scholarly and peer reviewed journals are found in libraries and bibliographic databases. Some readers and libraries buy annual subscriptions so that they receive a paper copy of the journal for their own use. Only a few highly popular journals are sold at bookstores and newsstands.
U Nevada-Reno (snurl.com/1trn)
Scholarly and peer-reviewed IS journals and periodicals
This is not a complete list, by any means.
- www.acm.org - check the Association for Computing Machinery’s Digital Library for peer-reviewed articles in ACM journals.
- Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Information Systems and eBusiness Journals
- Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ)
- Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS)
- Information Systems Research (ISR)
- Informs
- Decision Sciences
- Sloan Management Review
- DataBase
- Information and Management
- Journal of Organizational Computing
- Electronic Commerce
- Journal of Data Warehousing
- Communications Research
- International Journal of Information Systems
- Journal of Global Information Technology Management
- Journal of Global Information Management
- Information Systems Management
- Decision Support Systems
- Communications of the CAIS
- Communications of the AIS
- Journal of End User Computing
- Small Group Research
- Organizational Computing
- International Journal of Electronic Commerce
- Information Systems Management Journal
- Business Horizons
- European Journal of Information Systems
- Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce
- California Management Review
IS web sites
These are mostly news and reporting sites that are not scholarly or peer reviewed journals. They are usually reliable sources of helpful news and information.
Beware of press releases, sponsored links, white papers and advertisements in these sources. Because all of these sites and publications rely on advertising revenue, readers will find many advertisements that are disguised as content.
- www.business2.com
- www.eweek.com
- www.computerworld.com
- www.fastcompany.com
- www.businessweek.com
- www.networkcomputing.com
- www.fortune.com
- www.slashdot.org
- news.google.com
- yahoo.com Technology Full Coverage index
IS research topics
For students in IS 6000 and 7100, the following web sites and keywords are good starting places for identifying appropriate thesis research topics.
- CIO.com Research Centers (with a tip of the hat to Larry Rowland for the link and his advice that if your topic isn’t covered in this site, the topic may not be worth researching in the first place.)
