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Special issue on action research in information systems: making is research relevant to practice--foreword.

Article Excerpt
This special issue of MIS Quarterly is devoted to the subject of action research in information systems. The senior editors of this Special Issue were Richard Baskerville and Michael D. Myers. The deadline for submission was September 30, 2002.

A total of 29 manuscripts were submitted. Of these, six made it though two or more review cycles. These six are presented in this issue. Another two manuscripts are still in the review process, but the disposition of these had not been determined by the publication deadline for this issue. If one or both of these manuscripts are accepted, they will appear in a future issue of MIS Quarterly.

Before we describe the articles in this issue, we will first explain our rationale for publishing a special issue on action research in information systems.

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Why Action Research and Information Systems?

There have been frequent calls for IS researchers to make their research more relevant to practice (Zmud 1998), yet it seems IS researchers continue to struggle to make excellent research practically relevant. We believe action research methods provide one potential avenue to improve the practical relevance of IS research. Action research has been accepted as a valid research method in other applied fields such as organization development and education. (e.g., Carr and Kemmis 1986; Elden and Chisholm 1993; Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990). It has been described as "the touchstone of most good organizational development practice" and "remains the primary methodology for the practice of organizational development" (Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990, p. 27). We see no reason why action research should not be accepted in the field of information systems.

Action research aims to solve current practical problems while expanding scientific knowledge. Unlike other research methods, where the researcher seeks to study organizational phenomena but not to change them, the action researcher is concerned to create organizational change and simultaneously to study the process (Baburoglu and Ravn 1992). It is strongly oriented toward collaboration and change involving both researchers and subjects. Typically it is an iterative research process that capitalizes on learning by both researchers and subjects within the context of the subjects' social system. It is a clinical method that puts IS researchers in a helping role with practitioners.

The essence of action research is a simple two-stage process. First, the diagnostic stage involves a collaborative analysis of the social situation by the researcher and the subjects of the research. Theories are formulated concerning the nature of the research domain. Second, the therapeutic stage involves collaborative change. In this stage, changes are introduced and the effects are studied (Blum 1955). Action research became highly participatory in the 1990s, with closer collaboration and synergy between the researcher and subject. Theorizing is shared between researchers and client participants because each brings their distinctive sets of knowledge into the action research process. Action researchers bring knowledge of action research and general theories, while clients bring situated, practical knowledge.

Why a Special Issue of MIS Quarterly?

In the call for papers we stated that "the aim of the special issue is...

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