IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jamest/v28y1977i6p323-332.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A metatheory for the development of a science of information

Author

Listed:
  • John T. Dow

Abstract

Information science would do well to develop more and better theories, for without adequate theoretical support, we may do a technically brillant job of solving the wrong problems. However, the interdisciplinary nature of what information science is becoming means we must use a metatheory to guide the development of these theories. Without metatheory we cannot compare or unify the theories. A major statement in such a metatheory is to claim that there are three levels that should be used for information theorizing: casual, macroscopic, and microscopic. Use of these levels, and of the rules they imply, simplifies the evaluation of existing theories by making clear when theories are comparable in a meaningful way and, when they are not comparable, by showing what type of transformations are necessary to make them comparable.

Suggested Citation

  • John T. Dow, 1977. "A metatheory for the development of a science of information," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 28(6), pages 323-332, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamest:v:28:y:1977:i:6:p:323-332
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.4630280604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630280604
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.4630280604?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jamest:v:28:y:1977:i:6:p:323-332. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.