A major mission of the information systems discipline is to produce relevant academic research that is useful to IS practice. The ICIS practice-oriented research track will contribute to this mission. The track welcomes submission of practice-oriented IS research on any topics that are highly relevant and useful to practicing IS executives in the digital economy.

Criteria for acceptance of submissions will be similar to those adopted by MISQ Executive. Authors are encouraged to submit in-depth research that provides rich stories, unique insights, and useful conceptual frameworks for managing digital capabilities. The target audience for MISQE is primarily practitioners, but it includes researchers, with a goal of stimulating ongoing discussions at the intersection of research and practice. MISQE also seeks to contribute to the development of future industry leaders. Papers submitted to this track will be specifically evaluated for relevance and usefulness to digital leaders. Submissions are also expected to demonstrate a rigor that makes the findings credible to a discriminating reader.

The Editor-in-Chief of MISQ Executive offers accepted papers of this track an opportunity to go through a fast-track review, development, and publication process at MISQ Executive.

In addition to paper presentations, this track will invite digital leaders from various industries to: (1) give keynote speeches; (2) attend mixed practitioner/researcher panels; and (3) serve as discussants in research presentations to provide feedback and help define further questions for practice-oriented IS research.

Overall, this track aims to:

• Extend the reach of ICIS to digital leaders
• Showcase our highest quality practice-oriented IS research
• Promote practice-oriented IS research as a key source of insight and guidance for digital leaders
• Provide researchers a platform to present and discuss their practice-oriented IS research findings with digital leaders and academics and expose the community to current challenges in creating value in digital economies
• Help identify the most challenging managerial issues for digital leaders and frame them as new questions that could guide future practice-oriented IS research.

This practice track has run for a number of years at ICIS. Unfortunately, many submissions are rejected because they are far from meeting the criteria for acceptance at MISQ Executive. We are not just seeking research with strong relevance for practitioners, but manuscripts that are written in a way that makes them easily accessible to such a reader. This means that any accepted manuscript will not follow the traditional “rules” of writing for an academic audience.

If you are not a regular reader of MISQE articles we would advise you to read a few so as to get a sense of their style, structure, focus and content. Some general guidelines for writing such articles include:

• Simplify reality, but don’t be simplistic
• Keep theory and methodology in the background (perhaps include your methods in an appendix, but write it so that it is accessible to non-academic readers).
• Use literature and in-depth evidence to give credibility and generalizability.

Typically, such articles loosely follow this structure:

Short lead in

Motivate the practitioner reader in 2-3 sentences. Why should they read the article? What you write should resonate closely with them; perhaps it is a problem that they recognize that you are now going to help them solve.

Short introduction to topic

Frame the topic of the article. Use footnotes rather than traditional academic referencing style when using prior research.

Extensive research findings

Use headings and figures/tables to communicate findings. Address solutions to managerial challenges. Present lessons learned from the research and recommendations.

Actionable guidelines

Actionable guidelines include action verbs, not passive verbs like “understand,” “assess, “think,” or “get commitment.”  Tell the reader what to actually do, or what to change.  For example, if getting commitment is important, say how to get the required level of commitment.

Appendix

Present an overview of research methods. Remember to write in a way that is accessible to an academic audience unfamiliar with the nuances of academic research.