Transparency in design science research

Abstract

Research transparency promotes openness and trust in the process, evidence, contributions, and implications of scientific inquiry. Information Systems (IS), as a pluralistic research community, must address transparency in relation to its use of multiple research methods appropriate to complex socio-technical contexts and challenging research questions. This commentary presents a set of important transparency challenges and actionable guidance for the Design Science Research (DSR) community. We propose a DSR Transparency Framework containing six forms of transparency: process, problem space, solution space, build, evaluation, and contribution. For each, we discuss challenges with guidance to achieve effective DSR transparency throughout the publication process.