The Risks of Declining Theory Construction and Theorisation and Rising Empiricism in the Discipline of Information Science: An Overview

Theory is a hallmark of any discipline’s identity. Theory development and theorisation facilitate a healthy cultivation of ideas, help enculturate the future generation of scholars in a discipline, and aid in identifying grand research problems that a discipline should aim to solve. Information science has a long history of theory development and theorisation; however, there has been a consistent decline in both of these scholarly pursuits in recent years. Furthermore, the nexus between national research assessments, scholarly publication practices, and pressures faced by scholars in academia is giving rise to empiricism. This paper tries to shed light on these challenges as well as the risks they pose to the discipline of information science through engaging with literature, views of senior information science scholars, and the author’s personal experience of reviewing research for many high impact information science journals. After exposition of these challenges a course of action is proposed with a hope that the information science community, including researchers, peak professional associations, editors of journals, and faculty at graduate schools, will come together to remedy this situation.