Epistemological Advances Through Qualitative Literature Reviews in Information Systems Research (EPIQUALIS)

质性文献综述是许多学科建立的研究类型，包括信息系统（is）学科。从认识论的角度来看，定性文献综述可以从累积和革命性的角度促进信息系统的科学进步，甚至为信息系统的研究提供基础。自2000年以来，IS作者在39个顶级IS期刊上发表了173篇定性的IS文献综述，并在这些期刊上发表的2300多篇研究论文中引用了这些文献综述，从而认识到文献综述的重要性。对信息系统文献的分析表明，尽管文献综述在引用方面具有巨大的文献计量学影响，并且文献综述具有巨大的潜力，但信息系统学科是否以及在多大程度上利用了文献综述的潜力，通过认识论贡献来增强知识，例如，知识体系的综合、研究空白的识别或新理论的提出或检验。理解这个认识论问题对信息系统学科很重要，原因有三个，项目的关键目标与此相关：(1)从分析的角度来看，它提供了关于信息系统文献综述何时以及如何成功地促进了认识论的增强的见解。特别是，它可以比较已实现的贡献与潜在的贡献，并确定所吸取的教训。这些经验教训涵盖了文献综述如何创造知识（直接认识论影响）以及它们如何使其他研究人员能够基于文献综述所取得的成果产生知识（间接认识论影响）的例子。该研究项目的一个目标是确定信息系统文献综述的直接和间接认识论贡献（目标1：通过信息系统文献综述加强认识论）。(2)从规范的角度来看，这些经验教训可用于为以下两方面提供建议：i)前瞻性IS文献综述的作者，以增加其认识论影响和引用数量；ii)所有希望利用文献综述的认识论进展，以自己产生知识的IS研究人员。提供这些建议是该项目的第二个目标（目标2：信息系统学科作者的认识论指南）。(3)从科学哲学的角度看，文献评论类型缺乏认识论/知识理论基础。该项目的第三个目标是促进这种理论基础的发展（目标3：信息系统文献综述的认识论理论）。

The qualitative literature review is an established research genre in many academic disciplines, including the information systems (IS) discipline. From an epistemological perspective, qualitative literature reviews can contribute to scientific progress in IS from both the cumulative and the revolutionary perspective and even provide the foundation for research in IS. IS authors have acknowledged the importance of literature reviews by publishing more than 173 qualitative IS literature reviews in the 39 top IS journals since 2000, and these literature reviews have been cited in more than 2,300 research papers published in these journals. The analysis of the IS literature shows that, despite the large bibliometric impact of literature reviews in terms of citations and the large potential of literature reviews, it is still unexplored whether and to what extent the IS discipline has exploited the potential of literature reviews to enhance knowledge through epistemological contributions, e.g., the synthesis of the body of knowledge, the identification of research gaps, or the proposition or test of new theories. Understanding this epistemological issue is important for the IS discipline for three reasons, to which the key objectives of the project are linked: (1) From an analytical perspective, it provides insights with regard to when and how IS literature reviews have (un)successfully contributed to epistemological enhancement. In particular, it allows the comparison of realized contributions with potential contributions as well as the identification of lessons learned. These lessons learned cover examples of how literature reviews have created knowledge (direct epistemological impact) and of how they have enabled other researchers to generate knowledge based on what the literature reviews have achieved (indirect epistemological impact). One objective of the research project is the identification of both the direct and indirect epistemological contributions of IS literature reviews (objective 1: epistemological enhancements through IS literature reviews). (2) From a prescriptive perspective, these lesson leaned can be used to derive recommendations for both i) authors of prospective IS literature reviews in order to increase their epistemological impact and the number of citations and ii) all IS researchers who want to exploit the epistemological advances of literature reviews in order to generate knowledge on their own. The provision of these recommendations is the second objective of the project (objective 2: epistemological guidelines for authors in the IS discipline). (3) From a philosophy of science perspective, no epistemological/knowledge-theoretical basis for the genre of literature reviews exists. A third objective of the project is to contribute to the development of such a theoretical foundation (objective 3: epistemological theory for IS literature reviews).