Well-Done Literature Reviews: A Journal's Editor--in--Chief Perspective

Abstract

As academics and researchers, we are taught to conduct and report on our research. One of the basic skills we learn is to conduct and write the literature review. Jennex (2009) discusses the value of good literature reviews as being the building and strengthening of a body of knowledge. Good research that is not basic research builds on that which was done before and uses previous research to ground current research in theory and as a lens for interpreting results. However, as the numbers of information systems (IS) journals grow—Lamp (2004) lists 861 IS journals with 735 still active (as of March 25, 2014)—the time and effort it takes to conduct a thorough and comprehensive literature review is growing. The result of increasing time to conduct and report on the literature review is that the quality of the literature review is declining. Of course, fueling the growth in IS journals is the increase in academics and researchers conducting and submitting research. The result of having more research articles being written is that there are more to review, creating a drain on limited reviewer resources. The data to support these statements comes