Yong Tan is #1, Foster #5 in global ranking of information systems research

When it comes to information systems research, Yong Tan is #1 on the planet.

Tan, the Michael G. Foster Endowed Professor of Information Systems at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, tops the global list of most productive IS scholars that is produced by the Association for Information Systems (AIS), the discipline’s preeminent scholarly organization.

The AIS also ranks Tan and his Foster School colleagues collectively #5 in the world for research productivity in information systems.

The research index is derived from a tally of papers published over the past three years (2019-2021) in the discipline’s two most influential and prestigious journals: Information Systems Research and Management Information Systems Quarterly.

Extraordinary productivity

Tan published an extraordinary 14 papers in these two journals from 2019 to 2021. Extend the ranking period to five or even eight years, and Tan still tops the list.

Far from a one-man band, though, he is surrounded by talented colleagues in Foster’s Department of Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM), who collectively produced 22 publications in the two main IS journals over past three years.

In the department’s robust information systems research group, Tan is joined by:

• Prolific veterans – Ming Fan (recipient of the 2021 Dean’s Research Award) and Debabrata Dey (2020 Information Systems Society Distinguished Fellow)—plus Kamran Moinzadeh (2017 Dean’s Leadership Awardee) and Shi Chen (2020 Dean’s Research Awardee), operations management specialists who also publish in top IS journals.
• Accomplished junior faculty – Elina Hwang (winner of the 2021 Information Systems Society Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award), Yingfei Wang (recipient of an Amazon Research Award), Stephanie Lee, Uttara Ananthakrishnan and Mingwen Yang.
• Promising newcomers – two stellar hires will bring significant research skill this summer.

“I’m very proud that we have assembled such a group of young talents, from the best business schools and IS programs, who are working on timely and important topics such as AI, technology and social justice, social media, online platforms and fintech,” says Tan, who currently serves as chair of the ISOM Department.

Tan’s tally

Tan joined the Foster School faculty full-time in 2000, after earning PhDs from the UW in physics (1993) and information systems (2000).

During his two-plus decades at Foster, he has produced research of the highest quantity and quality. His record adds up to more than 80 published papers to date, the vast majority gracing the most important journals in the fields of information systems and operations management, including Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and Operations Research.

Tan has earned numerous accolades for research and leadership. In 2017, he received the Best Paper Award in Information Systems from Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Fellow Award from INFORMS, considered to be the most prestigious award in the field of information systems.

In 2015, Tan was named a Chang Jiang Scholar by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Foundation, one of a select few international researchers chosen for outstanding contributions to the disciplines of science, engineering, medicine and management. And in 2013, he received the Management Science Meritorious Service Award and the AIS Best Publication Award.

At Foster, Tan has won about every research award on offer. Among them, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (2018), the Andrew V. Smith Award for Excellence in Research (2016), the Dean’s Faculty Research Award (2006) and the Dean’s Junior Faculty Research Award (2005).

He has received the Pacific Banking School Dean’s Leadership Award (2017) and is a six-time recipient of the school’s PhD Program Mentorship Award (most recently in 2021).

Tan and Xiao-Ping Chen, the Philip M. Condit Endowed Chair in Business Administration, were instrumental in establishing the Foster School’s Institute for Global Business and Finance Innovation, in partnership with the University of Science and Technology in China (USTC). He served as associate director from 2017 to 2020.

A senior editor of Information Systems Research and Production and Operations Management, Tan’s own prolific research explores a vast range of topics including online social networks, mobile commerce, digital distribution channels, information security, fintech, AI and data pricing, sharing economy, microcharity, online opinion, healthcare IT, digital distribution channels, online trust and pricing of Internet services.