Asli Sencer; Meltem Ozturan; Hande Kimiloglu

A Web 2.0 Supported Business Process Management Environment for Collaborative Research

Full Text (PDF, 731KB), PP.8-17

Views: 0 Downloads: 0

Author(s)

Asli Sencer ^1,* Meltem Ozturan ¹ Hande Kimiloglu ¹

1. Bogazici University, Management Information Systems Department, Istanbul, 34342, Turkey

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijieeb.2015.01.02

Received: 23 Sep. 2014 / Revised: 2 Oct. 2014 / Accepted: 3 Dec. 2014 / Published: 8 Jan. 2015

Index Terms

Collaborative research, business process management (BPM), Web 2.0, information technology (IT) utilization

Abstract

Collaborative research includes research activities conducted by a group of people working at different locations and has become a hot issue due to the effects of globalization and advances in information technology (IT). The aim of this study is to design, develop, implement and evaluate an IT environment to better manage the standard processes of a collaborative research by providing more efficient use of the resources. Inspired by the studies in the literature, the basic steps and requirements of a typical collaborative research are identified and the related process flow diagram is generated. Next a Web 2.0 supported business process management (BPM) environment is developed in the direction of the process flow diagram to support collaborative researches. A commercial BPM system is used to automate and monitor the processes, whereas Web 2.0 platform is used for communications management, workspace sharing and data collection. The proposed environment is experimented by a case study conducted with a group of researchers; its performance is evaluated and directions for improvements are identified. It is concluded that in general the Web 2.0 supported BPM environment is functional, reliable and useful for collaborative research. The environment is found to be more suitable for research support processes compared to basic research processes.

Cite This Paper

Asli Sencer, Meltem Ozturan, Hande Kimiloglu, "A Web 2.0 Supported Business Process Management Environment for Collaborative Research", International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business(IJIEEB), vol.7, no.1, pp.8-17, 2015. DOI:10.5815/ijieeb.2015.01.02

Reference

[1]K. Katsouyanni, “Collaborative research: accomplishments and potential,” Environ. Health-Glob., vol. 7, 2008, pp. 1–7, doi:10.1186/1476-069X-7-3.
[2]J. S. Katz and B. R. Martin, “What is research collaboration?,” Res. Policy, vol. 26, 1997, pp. 1–18, doi:10.1016/S0048-7333(96)00917-1.
[3]CEC (Commission of the European Communities), “Communication from the Commission: science and technology, the key to Europe's future – guidelines for future European Union policy to support research,” 2004, http://eur–lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri= COM:2004:0353:FIN:EN:PDF.
[4]J. N. Cummings and S. Kiesler, “Collaboration research across disciplinary and organizational boundaries,” Soc. Stud. Sci., vol. 35, 2005, pp. 703–722, doi:10.1177/0306312705055535.
[5]G. Bammer, “Enhancing research collaborations: three key management challenges,” Res. Policy, vol. 37, 2008, pp. 875–887, doi:10.1016/j.respol.2008.03.004.
[6]W.S. Barnett and E.C. Frede, “And so we plough along: the nature and nurture of partnerships for inquiry,” Early Child. Res. Q., vol. 16, 2001, pp. 3–17, doi:10.1016/S0885-2006(01)00082-5.
[7]P. M. Newton and D. J. Levinson, “The work group within the organization: A sociopsychological approach,” Psychiatr., vol. 36, 1973, pp. 115–142.
[8]M. LeCompte, “Some notes on power, agenda, and voice: a researcher’s personal evolution toward critical collaborative research,” in Critical Theory and Educational Research, eds. P. McLaren and J. Giarelli, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1995, pp. 91–112.
[9]S. L. Jones, S. L. Myers, D. L. Biordi and J. B. Shepherd, “Advantages and disadvantages of collaborative research: A university and behavioral health care provider’s experience,” Arch. Psychiat. Nurs., vol. 12, 1998, pp. 241–246, doi:10.1016/S0883-9417(98)80033-2.
[10]A. Zervignon-Hakes, “Culture clash: translating research findings into public policy,” in Early Care and Education for Children in Poverty: Promises, Programs, and Long–Term Results, eds. W. S. Barnett and S. S. Boocock, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1998, pp. 245–271.
[11]K. Howe and M. Moses, “Ethics in educational research,” in Rev. Res. Educ. 24, eds. A. Iran–Nejad and D. Pearson, American Educational Research Association, Washington DC., 1999, pp. 21–59.
[12]D. Caruso and D. Rhoten, “Lead, follow, get out of the way: side–stepping the barriers to effective practice of interdisciplinary — A new mechanism for knowledge production and re–integration in the age of information,” 2001, http://www.hybridvigor.net/interdis/pubs/hv_pub_interdis-2001.04.30.pdf.
[13]J. Hermans and A. Castiaux, “Knowledge creation through university–industry collaborative research projects,” 2008, http://www.mendeley.com/research/knowledge-creation-through-universityindustry-collaborative-research-projects-1/.
[14]T. Ohta, K. J. Lee and K. Kazuhiko, “Role of formal boundary spanning structure and changing pattern of university–industry collaborative research in University of Tokyo,” 2008, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp? tp=&arnumber=4599628.
[15]P. Gambadauro and A. Magos, “Office 2.0: a Web 2.0 Tool for International Collaborative Research,” Lancet, vol. 371, 2008, pp. 1837–1838.
[16]B. Lud?scher, I. Altintas, C. Berkley, D. Higgins, E. Jaeger–Frank, M. Jones, E. Lee, J. Tao and Y. Zhao, “Scientific workflow management and the Kepler system,” Concurr. Comp.-Pract. E. Special Issue on Workflow in Grid Systems, vol. 18, 2005, pp. 1039–1065, doi:10.1002/cpe.994.
[17]M. Ozturan, A. S. Erdem and H. Kimiloglu, Business Process Management System for Collaborative Research, Bogazici University Academic Research Project Report, 2011, (Project #: 09S112).
[18]S. Wilson, Y. Takayama, E. Ghiglione and J. Dalziel, “Designing systems for managing dynamic collaborative research processes,” 2007, http://zope.cetis.ac.uk /members/scott/resources/escience_workflow.pdf.
[19]P. A. David, “Towards a cyberinfrastructure for enhanced scientific collaboration: providing its ‘soft’ foundations may be the hardest part,” 2004, http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk.
[20]T. K. L. Schleyer, “Collaboratories: leveraging information technology for cooperative research,” in J. Dent. Res., vol. 80, 2001, pp. 1508–1512, doi:10.1177/00220345010800060601.
[21]D. Beaver, “Reflections on scientific collaboration (and its study): past, present and future,” Scientometrics, vol. 52, 2001, pp. 365–377, doi:10.1023/A:1014254214337.
[22]E. Vasileiadou, “Working apart together — Using ICTs in research collaboration,” 2009, http://dare.uva.nl/document/131414.
[23]P. J. Jordan, M. G. Ory and T. G. Sher, “Yours, mine, and ours: the importance of scientific collaboration in advancing the field of behavior change research,” Ann. Behav. Med. Special Supplement, vol. 29, 2005, pp. 7–10, doi:10.1207/s15324796abm2902s_3.
[24]S. Klink, A. Oberweis, D. Ried and R. Trunko, “A service–oriented information system for collaborative research and doctoral education,” in Int. Conf. E Bus. Eng., Shanghai, China, 2006, pp. 670–673.
[25]S. K. Rhee, J. Lee and M. W. Park, “RIKI: a wiki–based knowledge sharing system for collaborative research projects,” 2008, http://www.springerlink.com/content/hv 7388u831x431p1/.
[26]Z. Itahriouan, A. Abtoy, K. E. El Kadiri, N. Aknin, “Validated CMS: Towards new generation of web content management systems on Web 2.0,” I. J. Information Technology and Computer Science, vol. 12, 2012, pp. 40-49, doi: 10.5815/ijitcs.2012.12.04.
[27]JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), “Virtual research environments programme,” 2004, http://www.jisc.ac.uk.
[28]NRC (National Research Council), National Collaboratories: Applying Information Technology for Scientific Research, National Academy Press, Washington, DC., 1993.
[29]S. Takao, “The effects of narrow–band width multipoint videoconferencing on group decision making and turn distribution,” 1999, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=295665.295678.
[30]C. L. Borgman, “What can studies of e-learning teach us about collaboration in e–research? Some findings from digital library studies,” Comp. Support Comp. W., vol. 15, 2006, pp. 359–383, doi:10.1007/s10606-006-9024-1.
[31]G. Konduri, and A. Chandrakasan, “A framework for collaborative and distributed Web–based design,” 1999, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=782214&tag=1.
[32]B. Bunin, S. Ekins, and S. Louise-May, “Towards integrated web–based tools in drug discovery,” Drug Discov. Today, vol. 6, 2010, pp. 17–21.
[33]I. Elsayed, G. Madey and P. Brezany, “Portals for collaborative research communities: two distinguished case studies,” Concurr. Comp.-Pract. E., vol. 23, 2010, pp. 269–278, doi:10.1002/cpe.1685.
[34]P. Carmichael, “Extensible markup language and qualitative data analysis,” 2002, http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/852.
[35]D. Gannon, B. Plale, M. Christie, Y. Huang, S. Jensen, N. Liu, S. Marru, S. L. Pallickara, S. Perera, S. Shirasuna, Y. Simmhan, A. Slominski, Y. Sun and N. Vijayakumar, “Building grid portals for e–science: A service–oriented architecture,” Adv. Par. Com., vol. 16, 2008, pp. 149–166.
[36]Ultimus GmBH., “BPM for research excellence,” 2006, http://whitepapers.technologyevaluation.com/view_document/6147/ultimus–case–study–bpm–for–research–excellence.html.
[37]H. Bukvova, “Studying Research Collaboration: A Literature Review, Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems,” 2010, http://sprouts.aisnet.org/10-3.
[38]D. Stokols, S. Misra, R. Moser, K. Hall, B. Taylor, “The ecology of team science – understanding contextual influences on transdisciplinary collaboration,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 35, 2008, pp. 96-115, doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.05.003.
[39]B. Ju, S. Pawlowski, “Exploring the Barriers and Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Use in Distributed Research Today: A Ranking-type Delphi Study,” ASIST 2011, October 9-13, 2011, New Orleans, LA, USA.
[40]ISO, “ISO/IEC 9126–1: Information Technology — Software Product Quality — Part1: Quality Model,” 2001, http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=22749.

International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business (IJIEEB)