Clare Atkins, Massey University, New Zealand
Gail Louw, University of Brighton

Reclaiming knowledge: A case for evidence based information
systems.

The information base, on which both information systems (IS) research
and practice is founded, continues to grow rapidly, as does its
accessibility.  A major challenge facing the IS community is
discovering how to extract knowledge, useful to, and usable by, all in
the community, from this fragmented, disparate, often conflicting and
sometimes unevaluated resource.  This challenge is not unique to IS,
and the concept of 'evidence-based' practice is already widely used by
the healthcare community to address these same issues.  Emerging as a
considered response to the increasing need for efficient and effective
use of resources, evidence-based healthcare relies heavily on the
timely dissemination of 'best evidence' to a wide audience of health
practitioners.  A formal methodology for the critical appraisal and
systematic review of primary research has been developed and, through
the mechanism of the Cochrane Collaboration, has become an important
means of synthesising and disseminating significant amounts of
information to inform practitioners' and managers' decision-making.
Here, we explore the application of the fundamental elements of
evidence-based healthcare, particularly developing rigorours appraisal
guidelines and the 'systematic review' of all available evidence, to
IS.

Further details are available from our web-site,
http://fims-www.massey.ac.nz/~is/centre.html