Editorial

Citation

Whitley, E.A. (2008), "Editorial", Information Technology & People, Vol. 21 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.2008.16121daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Information Technology & People, Volume 21, Issue 4

Editorial board changes

Earlier this year, we learned that Heinz Klein, a long time member of the Editorial Advisory Board and friend of the journal had passed away. Those who have been fortunate enough to meet and work with Heinz will know how fierce his intellect was and how insightful he was on a variety of topics. Heinz will be sadly missed by the information systems community.

Jeria Quesenberry, who has been book reviews editor since 2004 is stepping down from this role as she has recently completed her PhD and has since taken on a full time faculty position. Under her guidance, the book reviews have been one of the key elements of the journal and we are pleased to say that Jeria’s involvement with the journal remains, as she is joining the editorial advisory board.

Eleanor Wynn

Eleanor has announced that she is stepping down as co-editor of the journal.

The journal (then called Office Technology and People) was launched in 1982, with Peter Keen as the first editor-in-chief. Eleanor took over as editor-in-chief with volume 3 in 1987 and in 1992 the journal was renamed as Information Technology & People. I joined Eleanor as co-editor in 2002.

Throughout her tenure, Eleanor has provided a strong editorial direction for the journal. Never one to be dogmatic, she has instead always encouraged interesting research, done well. As a consequence, the journal developed a reputation for publishing innovative research of the highest quality. Thus, for example, Heinz Klein wrote of the journal that ITP was “more innovative than most journals helping new ideas to break through”.

In the editorial she wrote launching the newly renamed journal, Eleanor stated that she hoped that the journal would encourage “a sense of interdisciplinarity to provide a range of perspectives that will disrupt any complacent sense of expertise about information technology and its uses”. She continued, noting that “single disciplines and single paradigms are too parochial for the challenges of designing the applications, platforms and implementations of our times”.

One measure of this is can be seen in the list of now well-established authors who published some of their earliest works in the journal. Thus, 1984 saw a paper by Lucy Suchman and Eleanor on office procedures, 1987 saw papers by Claudio Ciborra on transaction costs, and Martha Feldman on e-mail and weak ties in organisations. 1988 saw papers by Wanda Orlikowski on the IS profession and Jørgen Bansler on systems development in Scandinavia. 1989 had papers by Rob Kling and Suzanne Iacono on the institutional character of IS and by Heinz Klein and Rudy Hirschheim on legitimation in IS development. All of these papers are now available on the Emerald web site: www.emeraldinsight.com/itp.htm

Another measure can be seen in the groundbreaking special issues that ITP has published with the ITP special issues often appearing many years before similar issues in the so-called “top journals”. Table I lists ITP’s special issues since 1992. Eleanor was always enthusiastic in soliciting and encouraging these special issues and an important consequence has been the number of papers on these topics that are submitted to the journal after the special issue appears.

Table I ITP Special issues since 1992

Eleanor has long recognised that information systems are not only developed and used in large corporations in western economies and the journal has provided a warm welcome from authors from around the world, writing about their particular experiences in their own contexts. In addition to the special issues on specific locations, ITP has a long tradition of publishing papers from outside the Western hemisphere.

This global perspective on information systems research has also played a key role on the make up of the editorial board of ITP. When soliciting new associate editors and members of the editorial advisory board, Eleanor was always careful to ensure that the board never became too skewed in terms of gender, location or research approach.

Eleanor leaves the journal with an annual submission rate of over 120 papers a year, with the journal publishing around 20 papers a year (an acceptance rate of around 15 per cent).

Although Eleanor is stepping down as co-editor of the journal, she will be remaining with the journal as Editor Emeritus. We look forward to her continuing involvement with the journal as it continues to develop as a leading outlet for innovative research.

Looking forward, in addition to regular issues, 2009 will also see two special issues that continue ITP’s tradition of publishing challenging research. There will be exciting special issues on IT and social theory as well as one on global sourcing.

Edgar A. WhitleCo-editor