The challenges involved in establishing a research technique

Many research techniques are well-accepted within the Information Systems (IS) discipline. From time to time, however, a researcher investigates a question that requires a novel approach. It is then incumbent on the researcher to justify that approach. The IS discipline has accumulated a large corpus of published works. A project is being undertaken whose purpose is to establish the conceptual foundations for a research technique for the critical analysis of published works, and to develop methodological guidance for its application. This article discusses the challenges that have confronted that undertaking.