Is the lack of keyword synergism inhibiting maturation in the MIS theory? An exploratory perspective

摘要

This article explores previous research on keyword search techniques and evaluates the comprehensiveness of a well-known keyword classification scheme. Comparison of literature reviews provide evidence that this topic is not well agreed upon and these contradictions have reduced reliance on keyword searches as a method of exploring prior research on a given topic. Presently, there does not exist a comprehensive management information systems (MIS) keyword list. Information regarding keyword usage in 14676 articles published in 27 MIS journals from 1985–1994 was collected electronically from an ABI Inform database. After several levels of refinements on 4386 keywords, a comprehensive list of 1056 keywords was obtained. Our MIS keyword list was compared with that of Barki and differences with Barki's list were identified, such as: (i) failing to include many keyword subjects that have frequently occurred during the past decade, and (ii) inclusion of keywords that have not had a single occurrence in MIS journals for the same period.