The five best episodes to get you started with this podcast
Release Date: 03/04/2025
What is the difference between advisors and mentors?
this IS research
We have on the show, a freshly minted assistant professor that just completed his PhD program. He is starting a new mentorship program for the , which marks a great opportunity to talk about supervision, advice, and mentoring in the IS field. Should mentors be collaborators on papers? Can you trust all advice you have been given? When does mentoring go bad? How do you pick a mentor or an advisor to begin with? Tune in to find out. And if our podcast triggered your interest to become a mentor for the AoM CTO Career Mentoring Program, send an e-mail to with the subject “Interested in being a...
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How to pick the perfect conference location
this IS research
The has just moved the next AOM conferences outside of the United States. The Association for Information Systems has been rotating the between three different regions for many years. Picking conference locations seems to be hard, and pretty political—or not? What are the criteria by which academic conferences are selected and what are those by which they should be selected? We discuss a few different ways how conferences and academic programs could be organized. References Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2024). The Art of Phenomena Construction: A Framework for Coming Up with...
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The AI Slop Tsunami
this IS research
Do you think AI will have an impact on science? You are wrong. It will not–it already does. The annual received over 1,000 more paper submissions this year. Our main journals report a 20%, 40%, or even 100% increase in submission numbers. This could be great if these papers were good, if we simply saw more and better research being produced. Problem is: We don’t. What we see is an AI slop tsunami of less readable papers, hastily produced, with marginal insights if any. How should we handle this situation? We discuss a few possible levers on the supply and demand side of research that we...
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Why you should put pictures of your reviewers next to your computer when you’re writing
this IS research
We devote enormous time and effort to developing a research idea, crafting a research design, executing a study, and then writing and polishing a paper – only to then find out that the reviewers do not find our contribution interesting enough to publish the paper. Years of work—wasted. There must be a better way. Thankfully, has an idea - flipping the script: deal with demand uncertainty first and with empirical uncertainty second. But before you do that you still need to ask one key question: Is this project worthy of me? Tune in to find out. References Pienta, D., Vishwamitra,...
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Glaser, Strauss, Charmaz, Nelson, Claude.ai? When digital nomads use generative AI to build grounded theories for the Journal of Information Technology
this IS research
We have on the show, who is what Germans call a “Tausendsassa:” He is both a practitioner and researcher of digital nomadism, the editor-in-chief of the , and president of the . We touch upon all three of these aspects, but at the core we want to know from Daniel whether generative AI tools are automating grounded theory and thereby eliminate what used to be at the heart of a humanistic and constructionist approach to doing research – or are they merely leveling the playing field for qualitative field researchers by giving them computational support matching those tools that...
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In three years, we won’t be revising our papers anymore
this IS research
Jan is annoyed because he needs to revise his papers and respond to his reviewers. Why can’t ChatGPT or Claude do this for him? Why aren’t we doing this already? So we start to wonder: what will happen to paper writing, reviews, and revisions as we enter an age where science practice is imbued with AI? How important are framing, literature engagement, and prose when AI use will homogenize communication? How important are method skills when analytics can be automated? What skills should emerging researchers focus on to maintain or create a competitive edge? And will publishing move towards...
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Who wants to be a this IS research expert? Jan’s turn
this IS research
Does Jan really know what he is talking about? Like we did with Nick last time, we play another round of trivia questions about information systems research – but now Nick is the host and Jan is the player. How well does he know the field? Tune in to find out. And like last time, you can play our game for yourself. The questions are posted below. Play the game for yourself: Round 1 Question: MIS Quarterly is physically headquartered and historically associated with which American university? A. MIT B. Georgia State University C. Indiana University D. University of Minnesota Round 2...
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Who wants to be a this IS research expert?
this IS research
Does Nick really know what he is talking about? Time to find out. We play a trivia quiz with fifteen questions about information systems research. Nick has an audience joker, a telephone joker, and a 50:50 joker -and he needs all of them to make it through the levels. How well do you know the field? Tune in to find out, or play our game for yourself. The questions are posted below. Play the game for yourself: Round 1 Question: Which three journals were added when the AIS Senior Scholars expanded the old Basket of Eight into the 11-journal premier list in 2023? A. DSS, I&M, and...
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Do you prefer a prestigious or a rigorous journal?
this IS research
Journals play an important role for academics. They disseminate new knowledge and separate good from bad research. They also signal competencies, reputation, and standing. Publishing in certain journals often means your work is more rigorous. It may also mean your work is more visible and gets cited more often. Plus, having your work appear in certain journals can be an important prerequisite for career advancement and it can literally affect your salary. Yet of course, these different functions can be evaluated in different ways. Not all journals score equally high or low on all these...
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If you’re not using ChatGPT to cheat in research, you’re not going with the times
this IS research
Let’s say we are unethical people, trying to get ahead in academia and gain accolades for the sake of promotion and income and so forth. In an age where artificial intelligence and LLMs are entering the academic enterprise, has “cheating” changed? Are there new ways of fabricating, fudging, cooking, trimming, and lying about your data, your insights, and your writing? Do we cheat the way we’ve always cheated, just more effectively and efficiently? Or do we not actually cheat but merely change the rules and norms of scholarship? Tune in and find out. References Noblit, G. W.,...
info_outlineNick is traveling, Jan is sick - no time to produce a new episode in time. But fear not, we still have a giant archive of episodes that you may have forgotten or not even heard so far. So we picked five of our best episodes and link to them below so that you can re-visit them, or maybe you haven’t even gotten around to listening to them yet. All episodes can be found on the major podcasting platforms but you can also listen to them directly on the websites below.
Episode links
The IS field has no passion (10 November 2021). Episode recorded together with Kalle Lyytinen, available at http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/the-is-field-has-no-passion-10-november-2021/.
Writing papers on how to write papers (12 October 2022). Episode available at http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/writing-papers-on-how-to-write-papers-12-october-2022/.
The big five theories from the last millennium (17 May 2023). Episode available at http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/the-big-five-theories-from-the-last-millennium-17-may-2023/.
Anything qualitative researchers write has been said before (13 September 2023). Episode recorded together with Paul Leonardi, available at http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/anything-qualitative-researchers-write-has-been-said-before-13-september-2023/.
How to do a literature review (10 July 2024). Episode available at http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/how-to-do-a-literature-review-10-july-2024/.