Centre for Information Systems Research
The Centre for Information Systems Research (CISR) has its focus on the development and beneficial use of information and communications technology in organisations and society more widely. The Centre is co-led by Professors Guy Fitzgerald and Mark Lycett and is composed of around 20 members of academic staff, another 20 research staff and PhD students, together with some academics from other universities and visitors. CISR is the largest such group in the country.
The Centre has three core streams of research:
Social informatics, which examines the interaction between people and technology and, in its broadest sense, investigates the social aspects of ‘informatization’ at the individual, organizational and societal level. Core areas of research interest include information behaviour, organisational dynamics, cross-cultural IS studies, IS development, decision support and reflective practices informed by social theory.
Organisational informatics, which examines the interaction between organisations (whether private, public or voluntary) and technology, paying particular attention to the crucial elements of organisational context and the nature and influence of interaction. Core areas of research interest include information management, information systems strategy, organisational change, decision support, eGovernment, outsourcing, business process analysis, systems development and methodologies.
Dynamic information systems engineering (DISE), which seeks to engineer information systems that can make sense of the world in which they interact and dynamically adapt to changes in that world. Core areas of research interest include situational awareness, ontology engineering, semantic systems development, pervasive informatics and their application for enhanced intelligence, perception and augmentation.
These streams of research are applied across a number of application domains. Those domains that have dedicated groups are:
Healthcare, which carries out research into information-based healthcare issues, such as decision support for pharmaceutical supply chain and evaluation of healthcare IS.
Defence and Cyber Security, which carries out research in the area of data, information and intelligence fusion primarily in the area of decision support systems for command and control alongside the development of Augmented Reality applications for enhanced situational awareness.
Since its inception, CISR has established an enviable track record of success. Its members have published over 200 articles since 2001 in top journals, such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Communications of the ACM, Information and Management and the Journal of Strategic Information Systems. The Centre has a flourishing PhD programme and a track record of large grants, particularly in the area of health care and health informatics.
