Research Notes

Research Notes promote dialog among the information systems community by incrementally extending well-researched phenomena or providing methodological commentaries.

Methodological commentaries provide important ideas about the application of specific methodologies, critique their usage in prevailing information systems research, and offer valued guidelines for improving the conduct of research. Often, Research Notes might stimulate debate and the field on an important methodological issue.

Alternatively, Research Notes seek to extend or alter the nomological network of constructs that currently underlies the information systems community’s understanding about specific phenomena. The primary intent of a Research Note is for authors to demonstrate how the explanatory or descriptive power of a well-understood theoretical or research model could be incrementally improved through the addition of a limited few constructs as mediators, moderators, or additional predictors. Such publishable Research Notes will have the following characteristics:

1. Authors introduce the phenomenon of choice and the dominant nomological model shaping the prevailing understanding about it. The phenomenon should be of salient interest to the information systems community.
2. Authors provide a compelling conceptual rationale for the extensions to the model in the form of specific mediators, moderators, or predictors. Since a dominant research model is the starting point, less time is spent in theoretically justifying the entire model. Instead, the authors should efficiently explain how and why their proposed extensions are conceptually or theoretically justifiable. Note that some papers might propose several new constructs or reconfigure the prevailing model in novel ways. In such cases, the contribution might be more substantive and the paper should be submitted as a Research Article.
3. Authors provide the empirical evidence for their proposed model of the phenomenon and explain its significance for research and practice.

Research Notes will be shorter in length (no more than 30 pages) than Research Articles. The primary criteria for reviewing research notes shall be:

• Is the phenomenon salient to the information systems community?
• Are the proposed extensions to the model theoretically justifiable?
• Are the empirical design, data, and analysis robust?
• Are the contributions of the revised model significant