Thank You to the AIS Community

At the start of every year, we take the opportunity to reflect on significant accomplishments across the Association during the prior year and to highlight upcoming events.   While 2020 resulted in vast changes throughout the world, the importance of your intellectual contributions, engagement and support towards making the entire AIS community a continued success has been steadfast. For that we are not only thankful for you and your membership in the association, but also optimistic about the coming year. A key theme throughout 2020 was ‘transformation’. This became apparent quickly as classrooms transitioned online, research collaborators began meeting via Zoom, and of course, when it was decided AMCIS, ECIS and PACIS would need to be delivered virtually.  

From this came the formation of the Virtual Conference Services (VCS 2020) that offered members access to three conferences (ECIS, PACIS and AMCIS) in a consistent and inclusive way. The overarching aim of VCS 2020 was to continue advancing knowledge in the scientific IS community (in spite of the global pandemic) and to prevent disenfranchising authors of accepted manuscripts at those conferences.  This worked remarkably well!  VCS 2020 featured:

• 1,111 Academic IS papers
• 136,801 Abstract Views in eLibrary (to date)
• 44,836 Full-text Downloads from eLibrary (to date)
• 314 paper presentation sessions
• 2,128 Registrants from more than 80 countries
• 28,582 Author-video Streaming Sessions (to date)

As 2020 progressed, the growing importance of the AIS eLibrary in a virtual world became abundantly clear.  Traffic levels in the eLibrary reached all-time record highs in 7 of the 12 months during 2020 for both abstract views and full-text article downloads.  Several new services were added to the eLibrary to meet the growing demands.  Some of these include,

• Authors can now add author-videos directly on an article’s landing page.
• Discussion-threading capability was added on article landing pages to allow readers to ask questions, to make observations or to post comments
• An incredible 7,119 new works were posted in the eLibrary during 2020.This is highest level of new works added in a calendar year since 2009.
• The Transactions on Replication Research journal (TRR) was made completely open-access.
• Many early volumes of AIS owned journals (CAIS, JAIS, THCI, TRR, PAJAIS) were made open-access.
• Access controls to eLibrary holdings were simplified during 2020, with many more to be implemented during 2021.
• Several of the eLibrary holding sites received a make-over during 2020, with much more to come during 2021.

In short, all-time record levels were reached during 2020 across every metric used in the eLibrary (uploads, abstract views, full text downloads, video streaming, visitors, sessions, unique users, etc.). 

One of the most common points of feedback from members in 2020 was the need to add a greater variety of ways to share and exchange research ideas.  This feedback led directly to the formation of the AIS Research Exchange.  This new program combines presentations by leaders in IS research with networking opportunities to provide AIS members with a unique new way to connect with others in the field of information systems. The Research Exchange events are also recorded and posted in the AIS eLibrary (https://aisel.aisnet.org/research_exchange/).  To date the topics have covered;

• “Writing Good Reviews and Getting Noticed with Sue Brown and Rajiv Kohli” and moderated by Alan Dennis.(https://aisel.aisnet.org/research_exchange/1/)
• “New Directions at MISQ with Andrew Burton-Jones, Moderated by Cynthia Beath”.(https://aisel.aisnet.org/research_exchange/2/)
• “How to Navigate a Revise and Resubmit with Paul Pavlou and Wai Fong Boh”(https://aisel.aisnet.org/research_exchange/3/).

As 2020 came to a close, the year was once again cap-stoned with the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2020, the most prestigious gathering of information systems academics and research-oriented practitioners in the world.  We sincerely thank the Conference Co-Chairs, Joey George, Souren Paul and Rahul De’, along with the incredible efforts of the Program Co-Chairs, Elena Karahanna, Suprateek Sarker and Gal Oestreicher-Singer.  The virtual conference featured more than 300 paper presentations, coupled with more than 50 virtual ancillary events and meetings.  The virtual social networking events included live cooking demonstrations, yoga and dancing.  Each day of the Conference was scheduled to best-fit with each of the time zones across AIS to allow for wider participation from all members.

This remarkable list of achievements from 2020 could go on. In short, despite the challenges that the last year presented all of us, we want to thank you‑‑ the AIS member.  Thank you for submitting articles, reviewing papers, participating in communities, attending conferences, serving on conference committees, serving on AIS Council, and the many additional roles that benefit the entire community. The AIS community cannot exist without this perseverance and your incredible pursuit of intellectual curiosity, research, scholarly achievement, spirit of volunteerism and service.

Respectfully,
Brian Fitzgerald, AIS President
AIS Council
AIS Staff