Association for Information Systems
PO Box 92523
Atlanta, GA 30314-0523 USA
We are pleased to introduce SIG Data, the newest Special Interest Group of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), dedicated to the study of data. Our SIG brings together scholars who approach data, data work, data quality, data governance, data practices, and more as primary objects of inquiry. Data are an increasingly important research area as they shape contemporary social and organizational life and, for instance, are key assets in training AI.
We aim to be a big-tent community open to different methods and sociotechnical perspectives on the nature of data and their lifecycles, including issues of generation, curation, stewardship, ethics, governance, and use, as well as the infrastructures and ecosystems through which data circulate.
Building a Community Around Data
Beyond advancing scholarship, SIG Data aims to cultivate a diverse and welcoming community. The SIG was developed by 30 scholars from institutions around the world, reflecting the breadth of perspectives already contributing to the emerging field of data studies in IS.
Members will have opportunities to connect with colleagues, exchange research ideas, develop collaborations, support emerging scholars, and help shape future research and teaching on data. Planned activities include workshops, paper and idea development opportunities, community discussions, conference activities, publishing initiatives, and engagement with practitioners and policymakers. Read more about SIG Data’s purpose, community, and upcoming activities on the SIG Data website and follow it on LinkedIn.
SIG Data President Aleksi Aaltonen remarked: “Data are implicated in virtually every aspect of contemporary organizations, yet scholars and scholarship on data as a phenomenon have often been scattered across different research communities. With SIG Data, we want to offer a platform to build connections, develop new conversations, and collectively shape an ambitious agenda for data research in IS.” In a statement on the founding of the SIG, Aaltonen articulated the mission he sees SIG Data work towards as: “the bridge-building function across different ways of studying data to create value by enabling insights that can happen only when scholars from different backgrounds meet”.
A key milestone will be the SIG Data Inaugural Workshop at ICIS 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal, on Sunday, December 13, 2026. The workshop will bring the community together to explore questions in data research, connect scholars around shared interests, and provide a supportive setting for developing early stage research ideas. Activities will emphasize participation and conversation, including opportunities for members to discover one another’s research, discuss promising directions for the field, and receive feedback on work in development. Read more and register here.
Join SIG Data
If you study data, or are interested in how data are created, governed, transformed, circulated, valued, or used in contemporary information systems, we invite you to join SIG Data. You can join directly here (look under Data (SIG Data)).
Whether your work examines AI and training data, data infrastructures, data quality, data governance, data work, data ethics and justice, platforms and ecosystems, data markets, organizational data practices, or entirely new questions about data, SIG Data offers a community in which to connect those interests with others across the IS field.
Join us and help shape the future of data research in information systems!