Research and reputation

The department is international in its reputation, activity, staff and students. We are active in the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), the Association for Information Systems, the United Kingdom Academy for Information Systems, and other national and international bodies including the United Nations and European Union. The academic staff come from nine different countries.

In the most recent research assessment exercise by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the department gained a grade 5, representing research of international excellence. Our teaching has also been rated as excellent by the UK's Quality Assurance Agency.

The department has an active research programme on the social study of information and communication technologies, which it sees as the centre and five petals of a flower (see Research foci). We have projects funded by the UK government's research councils. Our distinctive role in studying the social effects of technology means that we are unusual in attracting funds from both the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. We also have research projects wholly or partly funded by industry.

In addition we carry out short-term research for many private and public sector organisations. Recent clients have included British Telecom, Novell, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls Royce, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and the OECD.

We host a series of international seminars on the Social Study of ICTs (information and communication technologies).

The department is the home of three leading international information systems journals.

Edgar Whitley is co-editor of Information Technology and People (ITP). It provides international, interdisciplinary perspectives to further your knowledge and understanding of the development and use of IT in organisations. This unique information resource sets out to study uses and theories of information technology that affect organisational communications, change processes and work practices, and which reflect the varying societal and infrastructural conditions in which IT is deployed. It examines ways in which people collectively conceptualise, invent, adapt, define and use technology, as well as how they are constrained by features of it in the organisational setting.

Professor Leslie Willcocks is joint editor-in-chief of The Journal of Information Technology (JIT). JIT is of interest to academics, scholars, advanced students and reflective practitioners in management science, information systems and computer science disciplines. The journal will also inform those seeking an update on current experience and future prospects in the areas of contemporary information and communications technology.

James Backhouse is co-editor in chief of  Identity in the Information Society (IDIS). IDIS is an international, multidisciplinary journal that promotes the study of identity in the information society. Identity is now a key issue for citizens, business and state. The journal explores the developing relationships between identity, security and privacy in an information-intensive society that in the name of security, better marketing or more efficient delivery of goods and services relentlessly tracks physical persons, their financial transactions, and their health. Articles range across research, practice, current issues and debates.  IDIS specifically encourages articles from different disciplinary sources, reflecting the broad nature of the topic with its interwoven concerns of law, technology, and information systems alongside other social, political and management issues.

page last updated 02 March 2010

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