Doctoral course - How to Publish in Top Information Systems Journals

Time: Thursday 16. – Friday 17. May 2024 (two full days starting at 9 AM each day)

Place: Tellus Backstage & Horizon, Linnanmaa Campus, University of Oulu, Finland
https://www.oulu.fi/en/university/campuses

Registration: The registration period has ended on 31 January

Credits: 3 ECTS

Description of the seminar
The intensive course starts with an analysis of top Information Systems (IS) journals, focusing on their review practices, the types of articles they typical publish, and the kinds of articles that are especially challenging to get accepted. The course will further discuss the general structure of successful IS research articles, including expectations for contributions and standards for adequacy in leading journals. The course will also describe various types of research papers, outlining specific expectations for each, and provide strategies for career advancement and publication success. Finally, students will present their work, and Professor Siponen will provide feedback.
Please note that due to the interactive nature of this seminar, our intake is limited to 15 doctoral researchers and 15 additional participants.

Bio
Mikko Siponen is a Professor of Information Systems at The University of Alabama, USA. Professor Siponen has a M.Sc. in Software Engineering, a Ph.D. in Information Systems, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He has worked in several countries as a visiting distinguished professor, honorary professor, visiting professor, invited speaker, and a consultant. He has been published extensively in top Information Systems (IS) journals like MISQ, ISR, JAIS, EJIS, and has held editorial positions at JAIS, ISR, EJIS, I&M, and CAIS. At this time, he is the only Information Systems scholar invited to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He has been Primary Investigator for research projects funded by the Academy of Finland, the EU, Business Finland, and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. The Association for Information Systems ranks Professor Siponen as a top IS scholar worldwide. Furthermore, Professor Siponen is featured in the so called Stanford University's World's Top 2% of Scientists ranking.

Pre-seminar preparation
1) Provide your work-in-progress manuscript that might become a future top journal publication latest on 8 May by email to arto.lanamaki@oulu.fi and tmsiponen@ua.edu. Your manuscript will be distributed to all seminar participants.
2) Read the papers in the reading list. The six articles are available as PDFs here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tjfrxisoo0w00ykw5q4v5/h?rlkey=g35f1ic6pe…
3) Prepare to present your research and provide feedback to others in the seminar.

Readings list
Busse, C., & August, E. (2021). How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal. Journal of Cancer Education, 36(5), 909-913. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01751-z
Ciriello, R., & Thatcher, J. B. (2023). Six Inversion Strategies for Avoiding Rejection in Academic Publishing: Lessons from the IS Discipline. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 53, 458-474. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.05319
Kane, G. C. (2022). How to Write an "A" Paper. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(5), 1071-1079. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00765
Leidner, D. E., & Birth, M. (2023). On Scholarly Composition: From Acceptable to Exceptional. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00799
Pang, M.-S., & Thatcher, J. B. (2023). A Practical Guide for Successful Revisions and Engagements with Reviewers. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(2), 317-327. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00797
Sarker, S., Whitley, E. A., Goh, K.-Y., Hong, Y., Mähring, M., Sanyal, P., Su, N., Xu, H., Xu, J. D., Zhang, J., & Zhao, H. (2023). Editorial: Some Thoughts on Reviewing for Information Systems Research and Other Leading Information Systems Journals. Information Systems Research, 34(4), 1321-1338. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.editorial.v34.n4
+ see the “Senior Scholars’ List of Premier Journals” https://aisnet.org/page/SeniorScholarListofPremierJournals
How to Publish in Top IS Journals
University of Oulu

Tentative programme
Day 1
Thursday 16 May 2024
9:00-11:00 How top IS journals operate and review submissions
This is an interactive lecture about how top IS journals operate and how your paper is reviewed by the review team.
11-12 Lunch
12:00- 13:30 Expectations by top IS journals and how to meet them
This will be a workshop that introduces implicit and explicit expectations by top journals and how they have changed over time.
13:30-14:00 Coffee break
14:00 - 16:00 How to make a contribution and how to reply to reviewers
This is an interactive lecture discussing how to make a theoretical and empirical contribution. It also discusses different tactics on how to reply to the reviewers. The lecture also discusses different publication strategies, and respective strengths and weaknesses.

Day 2
Friday 17 May 2024
9:00-11:00 Participant presentations
Participant presentations and feedback by professor Siponen
11-12 Lunch
12:00 - 13:30 Participant presentations
Participant presentations and feedback by professor Siponen
13:30-14:00 Coffee break
14:00-15:00 Participant presentations
Participant presentations and feedback by professor Siponen
15:00-16:00 Career planning
Career planning issues are discussed