ISJ inaugural editorial

The Information Systems Journal (ISJ) was launched in 1991 with a vision. In response to the growing use of interpretive methods based on qualitative data by information systems (IS) researchers – especially in Europe – and in response to the stance of the majority of IS journals that were oriented towards publishing positivist IS research employing quantitative data – especially in the USA – this new journal was established by David Avison and Guy Fitzgerald who served as Editors-in-Chief for the next 21 years. The journal was physically situated in Europe, with the editorial office located at a variety of institutions in the UK. Over time the ISJ has grown in scope, methodologically and geographically: papers representing all epistemological and methodological traditions are published in the journal, with authors coming from all inhabited continents. For the ISJ, this issue represents a significant turning point. David Avison and Guy Fitzgerald have formally stepped back from their Editor-in-Chief positions. Three new Editors-in-Chief have been appointed, one from each of the three AIS regions. Robert M Davison is Professor of Information Systems at the City University of Hong Kong, where he has worked for the last 20 years. He has previously served as Associate and Senior Editor at the ISJ, as well as in similar positions with IT & People, MIS Quarterly and the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. His current research incorporates an interpretive perspective of informal technology use in SMEs in China, notably in such contexts as virtual collaboration and knowledge sharing. He is the author of over 60 journal articles, a similar number of conference papers and has coordinated half a dozen special issues of journals, most recently on IS in China for the ISJ. Philip Powell is Executive Dean and Professor of Management at the School of Business, Economics and Informatics at Birkbeck, University of London. Formally, he was Deputy Dean at the University of Bath and Director of the IS Research Unit at Warwick Business School, having worked in Australia, Africa, US and Europe. Before becoming an academic he worked in insurance, accounting and systems analysis. He is author of 12 books and his work has appeared in over 100 journals and at over 150 conferences. He has been involved with the ISJ for many years; from 1994–1997 he was an associate editor before becoming managing editor, a position he has filled for the last 15 years. He serves on many other editorial boards and is a past President of UKAIS. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. He holds an honorary chair in IS Economics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2012.00417.x