Indexing research: an approach to grounding ingarden\u27s ontological framework

Attempts to produce an adequate and long-lived subject indexing system for information systems research have failed. In this paper we seek to address this by proposing an approach by which the terms expressed in research literature, such as those in the information systems literature, can be systematically and meaningfully categorised. The approach is significant in that it draws upon rigorous and philosophically compatible bodies of work in two areas. Firstly, we draw on work addressing the nature, existence, and categorisation of literary expression found in research papers (Roman Ingarden’s ontological analysis of the scientific work of art). Secondly, we draw from qualitative research methods addressing how meaningful categories can be analysed from text and related to each other (grounded theory). The resulting approach has the potential to be applied in many scientific disciplines beyond information systems, and to form the intellectual core of an information tool in e-research.