1. ¹Department of Information Systems, The Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, U.S.A.
2. ²Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
3. ³Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Finland
4. ⁴Faculty of Management, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Correspondence: Kalle Lyytinen, Department of Information Systems, The Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio 44106-7235, U.S.A. Tel: +1 216 368 5353; Fax: +1 216 368 4776; E-mail: kalle@cwru.edu

Accepted 31 July 2007.

Abstract

We review the status of European publishing in high-impact Information System (IS) journals finding that the European publication record is disappointing. We consider popular explanations to this state of affairs and find them neither credible nor useful for improving the European record. We propose several constructive reasons for this including (1) the lack of appreciation of the article genre, (2) weak publishing cultures, (3) inadequate Ph.D. preparation for article publishing, (4) weak reviewing practices, (5) poorer command of research methods, (6) poorer understanding of the reviewing protocols, and (7) institutional shaping of research funding in Europe. We formulate several recommendations to affect these causes at the individual, institutional, journal, and European community level.