Dr. Keng Siau, chair and professor, and Dr. Fiona Nah, professor, both in business and information technology, have been ranked among the world’s most productive management information system researchers, according to a 2020 study by the University of Arizona.

The study assesses researchers based on their “h-index,” a metric designed to measure the productivity and impact of a scholar’s publications. By definition, a scholar with an index of “h” has published “h” papers, each of which has been cited by others at least “h” times — and the index is used for comparing scholars in the same field.

Siau received an h-index score of 54, ranking him in the top 60 global management information system researchers and Nah received an h-index score of 39, ranking her in the top 135. The study ranked a total of 195 scholars with an h-index of at least 25, which accounts for almost 5% of the Association of Information Science’s 2017 membership of 4,329.

The Arizona study relied on citations from Google Scholar and compiled its original list of management information system (MIS) scholars from sources including Association of Information Science fellows and award-winning scholars, past and recent conference and program chairs from the International Conference on Information Systems, associate editors of major MIS journals and highly ranked scholars from several recent MIS productivity studies.

Siau has written over 300 academic publications and, according to Google Scholar, has over 12,500 citation counts. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Database Management and served as North America regional editor for Requirements Engineering journal from 2010-16.

Nah is editor-in-chief of the international peer-reviewed journal AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction and an associate editor for International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Information and Management, Journal of Global Information Management, and Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. She is a co-founder of the AIS Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction and serves on its advisory board.