Call for Papers
Special Section in the Australasian Journal of Information Systems (AJIS)
Social Media: Recent Advances in Applications, Monitoring and Analytics

Motivation and overview

Social media continues to transform contemporary society. The conventional role of the Internet as a medium for information broadcast has been radically disrupted by online social media, which now accommodates unprecedented levels of end-user participation. Its prominent features include equitable representation of all participants (individuals, organisations and governments), adaptable networks/groups of participants, conversations across and within groups, explicit expression of sentiment and increased multimedia content creation. Social media has fostered communication, creativity, social cohesion and advanced freedom of expression. However, it has also been criticised for creation of information silos, lack of credibility, lack of control, psychological issues arising from excessive use, participant abuse and invasion of privacy.

A large body of literature has already focused on various aspects of social media. The honeycomb framework by Kietzmann et al. (2011), social media metrics framework and guidelines by Peters et al. (2013), seven layers of social media analytics by Khan (2015) are notable research outcomes that provide much needed theoretical rigor. However, given the evolving nature of this emerging field, further research is essential to ensure less harm and more good precipitates into society from the increasing use of these technology platforms. Besides society, responsible use of social media can influence sustainable business practice leading to the development of a healthy economy. Recent events, both local and international, provide further impetus for such research endeavours. To this end, this special section aims to contribute a new body of knowledge that addresses current and recurrent issues in social media applications, social media monitoring and social media analytics.

Objectives
The objectives of this special issue are:
• To publish theoretical research on the usage, participation, expansion, evolution, implications and ethics of social media networks, platforms and frameworks.
• To publish applied research addressing current issues in social media applications, such as credibility, information cohesion, improved control and governance.
• To publish applied research addressing current issues in social media monitoring, such as new methods and techniques for monitoring, applications and outcomes from diverse industries and the business value of monitoring.
• To publish recent advances in social media analytics such as sentiment analysis, detection of emotions, prediction of events, privacy preservation, social network analysis and detection/prediction of social network expansion.

Topics
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to,
• Current issues in social media research.
• Theoretical research on the progression and implications of social media.
• Application of information systems theories in social media.
• Case studies of real-world instances of social media applications, monitoring, analytics.
• Systematic literature reviews from an information systems perspective.

Guest editors
• Daswin de Silva, La Trobe University, Australia.
• Susan Bedingfield, Monash University, Australia.
• Damminda Alahakoon, La Trobe University, Australia.

Important dates
• Deadline for paper submission: 1 September 2017.
• Notification of acceptance: 1 December 2017.
• Special issue publication: 1 February 2018.

Author information
For guidelines on submission to this special issue, visit http://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Before making a submission, authors who do not have an account on the AJIS submission portal should first register an account by following this link http://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/user/register
To submit your paper, log in as an author using your AJIS account and “Start a New Submission”. Under the Publication Section, select “Research on Business Analytics Applications” to begin.

References
Khan, G. F. 2015. Seven Layers of Social Media Analytics: Mining Business Insights from Social Media Text, Actions, Networks, Hyperlinks, Apps, Search Engines, and Location Data. Gohar Feroz Khan.
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., and Silvestre, B. S. 2011. "Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media," Business horizons (54:3), pp. 241-251.
Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A. M., Ognibeni, B., and Pauwels, K. 2013. "Social Media Metrics—a Framework and Guidelines for Managing Social Media," Journal of interactive marketing (27:4), pp. 281-298.