A Thematic Analysis of Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management (IJIKM)

Shouhong Wang , Hai Wang, Nadia Khalil
Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management  •  Volume 13  •  2018  •  pp. 201-231   FEATURED ARTICLE

This study investigates the research profile of the papers published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management (IJIKM) to provide silhouette information of the journal for the editorial team, researchers, and the audience of the journal.

Information and knowledge management is an interdisciplinary subject. IJIKM defines intersections of multiple disciplinary research communities for the interdisciplinary subject.

A quantitative study of categorical content analysis was used for a thematic analysis of IJIKM. One hundred fifty nine (159) papers published since the inauguration of the journal in 2006 were coded and analyzed.

The study provides synopsized information about the interdisciplinary research profile of IJIKM, and adds value to the literature of information and knowledge management.

The analysis reveals that IJIKM disseminates research papers with a wide range of research themes. Among the research themes, Organizational issues of knowledge/information management, Knowledge management systems/tools, Information/knowledge sharing, Technology for knowledge/information management, Information/knowledge application represent the five main research streams of IJIKM. The total number of papers on organizational issues of knowledge/information management increased from 16% to 28% during the past 6 years. Statistical method was the most common research methodology, and summarization was the most common research design applied in the papers of IJIKM. The paper also presents other patterns of participant countries, keywords frequencies, and reference citations.

Innovation is the key to information and knowledge management. Practitioners of information and knowledge management can share best practices with external sectors.

Researchers can identify opportunities of cross-disciplinary research projects that involve experts in business, education, government, healthcare, technology, and psychology to advance knowledge in information and knowledge management.

Information and knowledge management is still a developing field, and readers of this paper can gain more understanding of the dissemination of the literature of information and knowledge management involved in all relevant disciplines.

A longitudinal study could follow up in the future to provide updated and comparative information of the research profile of the journal.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, IJIKM, research profile, content analysis, thematic analysis
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