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A (Personal) View:

Research, Writing, and Publications

Dr. Sandeep PuraoProfessor of IST

Penn State University

About Me

• PhD in Management Science (Minor: Computer Science)• Was faculty in a Business School, now in an Information School• Research and publications

– Focus: IT in organizational settings

– Source Discipline: MIS (affinity to Org Sciences and SE)

– Publications: ACM, IEEE, IS, CSCW

– Two recent (from 2011): • Action Design Research. MIS Quarterly 35(1): 37-56 (with Sein, Henfridsson, Rossi,

Lindgren)

• Monitoring Service Systems from a Language-Action Perspective. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 4(1):17-30. (with Robinson)

• Editorial responsibilities include / have included – Several including CS and IS; among others: MIS Quarterly, ISR

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What do you do during your PhD years?

• What do you / should you do during your PhD years?• Take classes• Get good grades• Work with your advisor • Attend project meetings• Prepare reports to sponsors • Generate papers to report your research• Do research under your advisor’s guidance• Present your research in conferences when you can

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• What do you / should you do during your PhD years?• Learn how to think about research• Learn how to scope research ideas • Learn how to place these in prior streams• Learn how to use appropriate research methods• Learn how to contribute to the academic disciplines• Learn how to use and create many kinds of manuscripts• Learn how to communicate ongoing and completed work• Learn how to become an effective independent researcher

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What should you do during your PhD years?

Emphasizing Key To-Do’s

• What do you / should you do during your PhD years?• Learn how to think about research• Learn how to scope research ideas • Learn how to place these in prior streams• Learn how to use appropriate research methods• Learn how to contribute to the academic disciplines• Learn how to create and use many kinds of manuscripts• Learn how to communicate ongoing and completed work• Learn how to become an effective independent researcher

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The Role of Writing

• Conducting Research• Understand problem• Create solution• Refine solution• Gather data• Analyze data • Generate findings

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• Reporting Research• Describe approach• Describe algorithms• Describe benefits• Demonstrate results• Describe limitations• Describe next steps

Do the research, THEN Report the results

Is this true?

OLD

Consequences

• We tend to form the following impressions:– Writing is fluff, research is key – Writing is something you have to do – Writing is not important, doing research is– Writing well does not mean that your research is good

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NOT true!

Writing

8That’s an Obama Speech

The Importance of Writing

• Time as a Surrogate for the importance of Writing ?• Conference Papers vs. Journal Articles

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conference

journal

8 months

24 months

The Importance of Writing

• Time as a Surrogate for the importance of Writing• Conference Papers vs. Journal Articles

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conference

journal

12 months

24 months

8 months

18 months

A Personal Narrative - I

• Several years ago: on a ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm• Purao, Rossi and Sein:

– “We should articulate our ideas about combining organizational intervention and technology design as a research method”

• Working with R. Cole (IST PhD student, then taking 532, did this as part of that course)– a first effort submitted to ICIS (premier conference in IS). – comparing our hazy proposal against two existing approaches:

action research and design research

• Paper accepted at ICIS

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A Personal Narrative - II

• Sein, Purao and Rossi on multiple continents– “We should move ahead on articulating our ideas about

combining organizational intervention and technology design as a research method – now that we have a better understanding of how it compares with other research methods”

– R. Cole (IST PhD student) moved on to his dissertation effort related to security

• In 2007, meeting at Design Research conference with Henfridsson and Lindgren– “Would you like to join the team to articulate this? We see your

work with Volvo as the perfect example of what we would like to articulate.”

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A Personal Narrative - III

• The Team of Five working across continents and time-zones– “Let’s pull together a manuscript for submission. We can target

MIS Quarterly. Our ideas have been brewing for some time now and we have rich experiences about this method”

• In 2008, at the next annual conference, after several iterations of the manuscript online including:– “What the @#@$% are you doing? Why did you go back to the

previous version? You wasted all my edits.”– “I think we are doing this all wrong. We need to have the

example at the beginning so that the readers can appreciate ..”

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A Personal Narrative - IV

• Submission to MIS Quarterly – Early 2008– Manuscript: 55 pages

• First Round Reviews Received – Late 2008– Three Reviewers – 6 pages, 12 pages, 25 pages– Associate Editor Report – 15 pages

• Responses to First Round– Devised strategy for response, multiple documents including

some named ‘plan of attack’ – Jan 2009 – 3-5 pages– Responses to reviewers crafted – 8 pages, 10 pages, 27 pages– Responses to AE crafted – 8 pages– Manuscript thoroughly revised – 51 pages

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A Personal Narrative - V

• Submission of Revised Manuscript – July 2009– Manuscript: 51 pages– Response to review team: ~ 53 pages

• Research presented in many universities by authors• Second Round of Reviews Received – March 2010

– Three Reviewers (not sure if one changed from first round) – Conditional acceptance indicated by the journal– Reviews - 6 pages, 5 pages, 8 pages– Associate Editor Report – 12 pages– AE would like clarification on role of theory and how it changes

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A Personal Narrative - VI

• Responses to Second Round– Devised strategy for response – April 2010 – 2 pages– Responses to reviewers crafted – shorter now– Responses to AE crafted – 20 pages– Manuscript revised – 46 pages

• Re-submitted – May 2010– Acceptance indicated – June 2010

• Queued for publication – September 2010• Actual publication in print – March 2011

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A Personal Narrative - VII

• Now– Multiple dissertations under way in at least 5 universities– SAP-sponsored workshop in Shanghai in December– Follow-on research investigations – Multiple queries for talking with industry partners– Personal celebrations

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Some Statistics

18Source withheld. 2004 Study.

Some Statistics

19Source withheld. 2004 Study.

The Review Process

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Submission

Assignment of AE

Reviewers Assigned by AEDesk-reject by SE

Desk-reject by AE

Reviewers Accept

Reviewers Submit reviews

AE Decides

SE Decides

Authors Receive Report

Authors Revise

One Version

Selecting Journals

• Journal Rankings– Select: Information Science– http://www.journal-ranking.com

• FT-40– http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bd9e8b74-fd17-11dd-a103-

000077b07658.html#axzz1b2xuxoAv• AIS Journal Ranking

– http://ais.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=432

• UT Dallas Ranking– http://som.utdallas.edu/top100Ranking/searchRanking.php?t=j

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A Different Role for ‘Writing’

• Writing is not a process of reporting

– It is an integral part of doing research

• Writing is not a process of reporting

– It is a process of communicating with colleagues

• Writing is critical because it allows you to connect

– With appropriate audiences and communities and colleagues

• Writing is critical because it allows you to work

– Work with multiple researchers

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NEW

Using ‘Writing’

• Start writing as you start doing your research– Use it to clarify your thoughts– If unclear, emulate prior writings– If necessary, create skeletons

• Identify audiences and communities• Work with multiple researchers

– Within and outside your department– Within and outside your university

• Prepare manuscripts for conferences and journals• Subject your writing to informal and formal reviews

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NEW

The Writing Process

• How does the writing process work?• Goals

– Writing as reflection– Writing as persuasion – Writing as story-telling and narrative

• Techniques– Writing as increasingly elaborate outlining– Writing as moving across levels of abstraction

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Emulate the Best

25http://bravenewworld099.blogspot.com/

Dialog

• Sandeep Purao• http://www.purao.net• http://www.linkedin.com/sandeeppurao

• Email: spurao@ist.psu.edu• October 2012

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