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Of all of Richard P. Feynman's views on life and science, perhaps the most practical and sagely advice on the scientific process is given in the transcribed text of his speech given at Caltech in 1974, under the title "Cargo cult science" ([9] Feynman, 1997). This lecture attempted to outline key risks and issues with carrying out "science that isn't science", i.e. becoming ritualistic in the sense of carrying out what appears to be scientific methods, but which in fact has little scientific basis or rigour. What strikes me when I read this article are the salient parallels that can be drawn with the state of computer science (CS) and information systems (IS) research today, and leads me to ponder: is the field computer science and information systems in danger of becoming much like a cargo cult science?
I believe it is. The key reason for my view is the fact that whilst much good and worthwhile research goes on in these fields, we do not seem to be able to reconcile and achieve a consensus view on what CS and IS research is. More disturbingly, I feel that we may be forgetting and diverging from the science behind these disciplines, i.e. the systematic approach of analysing objects, concepts and artefacts, which leads to codify and create knowledge of the world around us based upon the derivation of principles and the generation of causes. This issue has, of course, appeared many times over the years in the CS and IS fields, at conferences and in journals under the banner of philosophy of science or research methodology ([3] Bjorn-Andersen, 1985). Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] shows these and other related issues along with some generalised aspects of Feynman's cargo cult concerns. Hence, the boundaries that define this question are those aspects of the philosophy and research methodology in our science, teaching and education, research dissemination, and collaboration and funding.
On the first point, I strongly believe along with Feynman, that there needs to be more scientific and academic rigour assigned to the generation and dissemination of research, which at the very least should be traceable, provable and defendable. Methodology must also precede computation and the generation and improvement of computer systems performance also. Authors...