Faculty and instructor profiles

University Research Professor

Jeffrey Parsons

B.Comm., PhD

Phone: 709.864.8183
Email: jeffreyp@mun.ca
Office: BN-3031
jeffrey-parsons-cv
Areas of Expertise

Information Systems

Personal Profile

Dr. Jeffrey Parsons joined Memorial University in 1993, where he served as associate dean (research) from 2003-2007 and 2008-2012.

Dr. Parsons earned an undergraduate degree in business from Memorial and a PhD in information systems from the University of British Columbia. His research interests focus on representing information in ways that better match how humans think about objects in their physical or social environment. His research has been published in journals such as Nature, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, ACM Transactions on Database Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. He holds research grants from NSERC and SSHRC and has served on grant committees for both funding councils.

Dr. Parsons has held editorial appointments at major academic journals (including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research and Journal of the Association for Information Systems). He has served as program chair of the AMCIS, ER, WITS, and DESRIST conferences.
His research interests include: Classification in Conceptual Modeling; Crowdsourcing; Information Quality; Data Management; Design Science; Recommender Systems; Artificial Intelligence; Data Repurposing; and Open Information Environments.

Honours/Awards/Accreditations

2020

  • Best Paper Award, International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST).
  • Outstanding Contribution Award, Special Interest Group on Systems Analysis & Design, Association for Information Systems.
  • AIS Senior Scholars Best Publication Award.

2019

  • MIS Quarterly Best Paper Award
  • Schöller Senior Fellow, Dr. Theo and Friedl Schöller Research Center for Business and Society.

2018

  • AT&T Distinguished Speaker, University of Texas at San Antonio.
  • ER Fellow, International Conference on Conceptual Modeling.

2015

  • Design Science Research Award, INFORMS Information Systems Society.

2014

  • Dean's Research Award, Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

2011

  • University Research Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

2009

  • Dean's Research Award, Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

2008

  • Dean’s Service Quality Award, Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

1996

  • Dean's Research Award, Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Research Highlights
  • Storey, Veda, Roman Lukyanenko, Wolfgang Maass, and Jeffrey Parsons, “Explainable AI: Opening the Black Box or Pandora’s Box?” Communications of the ACM, 2021 (forthcoming).
  • Maedche, Alexander, Shirley Gregory, and Jeffrey Parsons, “Mapping Design Contributions in Information Systems Research,” Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2021, 26pp (forthcoming).
  • Saghafi, Arash, Yair Wand, and Jeffrey Parsons, “Skipping class: improving human-driven data exploration and querying through instances,” European Journal of Information Systems, 2021, 29pp (forthcoming).
  • Lukyanenko, Roman and Jeffrey Parsons, “Design Theory Indeterminacy: What Is it, How Can it Be Reduced, and Why Did the Polar Bear Drown?” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(5), 2020, 1343-1369.
  • Bera, Palash, Pnina Soffer, and Jeffrey Parsons, “Using Eye Tracking to Expose Cognitive Processes in Understanding Conceptual Models,” MIS Quarterly, 43(4), 2019, 1105-1126.
  • Sekhavat, Yoones and Jeffrey Parsons, “CDI: Configurable Data Integration using Property Precedence Relations,” Journal on Data Semantics, 8(1), 2019, 1-19.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons, Yolanda Wiersma, and Mahed Maddah, “Expecting the Unexpected: Effects of Data Collection Design Choices on the Quality of User-generated Content,” MIS Quarterly, 43(2), 2019, 634-647. [Best paper award, 2019; AIS Senior Scholars Best Paper Award, 2020].
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons, and Binny Samuel, “Representing Instances: The Case for Reengineering Conceptual Modeling Grammars” European Journal of Information Systems, 28(1), 2019, 68-90.
  • Maass, Wolfgang, Jeffrey Parsons, Sandeep Purao, Veda Storey, and Carson Woo, “Data-Driven and Theory-Driven Research in the Era of Big Data: Opportunities at the Intersection,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, December 2018, 1253-1273.
  • Sekhavat, Yoones and Jeffrey Parsons, “The Effect of Tracking Technique on User Experience for Augmented Reality Mobile Navigation,” Multimedia Tools and Applications, 77(10), May 2018, 11635-11668. DOI 10.1007/s11042-017-4810-y.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman and Jeffrey Parsons, “Beyond Micro-tasks: Research Opportunities in Surveillance-focused Crowdsourcing,” Journal of Database Management, 2018, 29(1), 1-22.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons, Yolanda Wiersma, Gisela Wachinger, Benjamin Huber, Robert Meldt “Representing Crowd Knowledge: Guidelines for Conceptual Modeling of User-generated Content,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18(4), April 2017, 297-339.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons, Yolanda Wiersma, Renee Sieber, and Mahed Maddah, “Participatory Design for User-generated Content Systems: Understanding the Challenges and Moving Forward,” Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 2016, 28(1), 37-70.
  • Sekhavat, Yoones and Jeffrey Parsons, “SEDEX: Scalable Entity Preserving Data Exchange,” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 28(7), July 2016, 1878-1890.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons, and Yolanda Wiersma, “Emerging Problems of Data Quality in Citizen Science,” Conservation Biology, 2016, 30(3), 447-449.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman and Jeffrey Parsons, “Information Quality Research Challenge: Adapting Information Quality Principles to User-generated Content,” ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality, 2015, 6(1), 3:1-3.
  • Lukyanenko, Roman, Jeffrey Parsons and Yolanda Wiersma, “The IQ of the Crowd: Understanding and Improving Information Quality in User-generated Content,” Information Systems Research, 2014, 25(4), 669-689.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Paul Ralph, “Generating Effective Online Recommendations Using Viewing-time Weighted Preferences for Attributes,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2014, 15(8), 484-513.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Extending Principles of Classification from Information Modeling to Other Disciplines,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2013, 14(5), 245-273.
  • Browne, Glenn and Jeffrey Parsons, “More Enduring Questions in Cognitive IS Research,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2012, 13(12), 1000-1011.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey, Roman Lukyanenko, and Yolanda Wiersma, “Easier Citizen Science is Better,” Nature, 2011, 471, 37.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey, “An Experimental Study of the Effects of Representing Property Precedence on the Comprehension of Conceptual Schemas,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 12(6), 2011, 441-462.
  • Lu, Shan and Jeffrey Parsons, “Ontological Rules for UML-Based Conceptual Modeling: Design Considerations and a Prototype Implementation,” International Journal of Information Systems Modeling and Design, 2(1), 2011, 24-44.
  • Allen, Gove and Jeffrey Parsons, “Is Query Reuse Potentially Harmful? Anchoring and Adjustment in Adapting Existing Database Queries,” Information Systems Research, 21(1), 2010, 56-77.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Using Cognitive Principles to Guide Classification in Information Systems Modeling,” MIS Quarterly, 32(4), 2008, 839-868.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “A Question of Class,” Nature, 455(7216), 2008, 1040-1041.
  • Dobing, Brian and Jeffrey Parsons, “Dimensions of UML Component Use: A Survey of Practitioners,” Journal of Database Management, 19(1), 2008, 1-18.
  • Dobing, Brian and Jeffrey Parsons, “How UML is Used,” Communications of the ACM, 49(5), 2006, 109-113.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Linda Cole, “What Do the Pictures Mean? Guidelines for Experimental Evaluation of Representation Fidelity in Diagrammatical Conceptual Modeling Techniques,” Data and Knowledge Engineering, 55(3), 2005, 327-342.
  • Bajaj, Akhilesh, Dinesh Batra, Alan Hevner, Jeffrey Parsons and Keng Siau, “Systems Analysis and Design: Should We Be Researching What We Teach?” Communications of the AIS, 2005, 15(Article 27), 478-493.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Chad Saunders, “Cognitive Heuristics in Software Engineering: Applying and Extending Anchoring and Adjustment to Artifact Reuse,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2004, 30(12), 873-888.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Attribute-Based Semantic Reconciliation of Multiple Data Sources,” Journal on Data Semantics 1 (LNCS, Vol. 2800), 2003, 21-47.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey, “Effects of Local versus Global Schema Diagrams on Verification and Communication in Conceptual Data Modeling,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(3), 2003, 155-183.
  • Gallagher, Katherine, Dale Foster, and Jeffrey Parsons, “The Medium is not the Message: Advertising Effectiveness and Content Evaluation in Print and on the Web,” Journal of Advertising Research, 41(4), 2001, 57-70. [Reprinted in Canadian Advertising Research Foundation Newsletter, October/November 2003, 1-9].
  • Gallagher, Katherine, Jeffrey Parsons, and Dale Foster, “A Tale of Two Studies: Replicating ‘Advertising Effectiveness and Content Evaluation in Print and on the Web’,” Journal of Advertising Research, 41(4), 2001, 71-81.
  • Dobing, Brian and Jeffrey Parsons, “Using the Internet to Simulate Virtual Organizations in MBA Curricula,” Journal of Information Systems Education, 12(1), 2001, 9-14.
  • Dobing, Brian and Jeffrey Parsons, “Understanding the Role of Use Cases in UML: A Review and Research Agenda,” Journal of Database Management, special issue on “Systems Analysis and Design using UML,” 11(4), 2000, 28-36.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Dale Foster, “Using the Internet to Build Realism in Teaching Requirements Analysis,” Journal of Information Systems Education, 11(3-4), 2000, 141-146.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Emancipating Instances from the Tyranny of Classes in Information Modeling,” ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 25(2), 2000, 228-268.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Using Objects for Systems Analysis,” Communications of the ACM, 40(12), 1997, 104-110.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey and Yair Wand, “Choosing Classes in Conceptual Modeling,” Communications of the ACM, 40(6), 1997, 63-69.
  • Parsons, Jeffrey, “An Information Model Based on Classification Theory,” Management Science, 42(10), 1996, 1437-1453.
  • Wand, Yair, David Monarchi, Jeffrey Parsons, and Carson Woo, “Theoretical Foundations for Conceptual Modeling in Information Systems Development,” Decision Support Systems, 15(4), 1995, 285-304.