“Research is really how reputations of programs in the academic world are built, and when you’re tapped to be the editor of a journal, that’s really a compliment from your peers.”

The Harbert College is dedicated to producing research that advances the academy, extends business thought, and shapes best practice.

David Paradice, Harbert Eminent Scholar in Business Analytics at the Harbert College, has been named Editor-in-Chief at Foundation and Trends in Information Systems, an academic journal.
Paradice believes that technology – and education surrounding the discipline – remains at the forefront during the pandemic. That’s why research is increasingly important.

“It’s been technology and the ability for people to transition to online meetings, conduct commerce through online transactions and pay bills,” he said. “The pandemic has helped us realize just how reliant we are on technology and how pervasive it is. We need well-educated people to run the systems, build the systems, test the systems and install the systems. This is good for information systems programs.

“Research is why we need to keep learning what makes a difference and what doesn’t make a difference, what ways of doing things online are better than other ways of doing things online. And for our programs, including business analytics, this fits right in because we’re generating huge amounts of data. But that data is useless if we can’t get into it, mine it, and figure out what it’s trying to tell us.”

Foundation and Trends in Information Systems isn’t your typical scholarly journal. Paradice noted that most papers published cover roughly “30 to 40 years” of research, are often in excess of 100 pages and serve as a go-to guide for developing research. “Papers published in this journal are the kinds of papers a scholar goes to when they are about to research a specific area and they want to learn more about what’s been done in that area, or how research has evolved in that area,” he said.

“There is another sort of thing that researchers look for … sometimes half of the studies in a particular area say that something is positive and sometimes the other half say it’s negative. This makes the researcher ask, ‘I wonder which one it really is, under which conditions it’s positive and under which conditions it’s negative.’ These kinds of in-depth papers are really valuable because of how it gets the information into one place.”

Paradice relishes the role of editor and research itself. Why? “Curiosity,” he said. “I know that I am going to learn some things by reading these papers. These papers are submitted by some of the top researchers in the field. They have great records. They don’t do mediocre work. I feel very fortunate because the people I’m working with are very good at what they do.”

Harbert College is home now to seven academic journals. Including Foundations and Trends in Information Systems, Jim Barth, Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance, is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Risk and Financial Management and Co-Editor of the Journal of Financial Economic Policy. Justin Benefield, Associate Professor in Finance, is Editor of the Journal of Housing Research.

Brian Connelly, Professor and Luck Eminent Scholar in Management, is Editor of the Journal of Management. Chris Hopkins, McLain Family Professor in Marketing, is Editor of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. Glenn Richey, Harbert Eminent Scholar in Supply Chain Management, and Beth Davis-Sramek, Gayle Parks Forehand Professor in Supply Chain Management, are Co-Editors of the Journal of Business Logistics.

“Research is really how reputations of programs in the academic world are built, and when you’re tapped to be the editor of a journal, that’s really a compliment from your peers,” Paradice added. “This is very valuable in terms of establishing a certain research gravitas for an institution. The people you have at an institution who have been entrusted with this job, the more highly it speaks of the research mission of that institution.”