Making sense of CSCW

Knowledge of any research field is mainly gained through reading published research documents. This research analysed published documents in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) to determine the scope, structure and meaning of the terminology used in this research field. The research resulted in a hierarchy of terminology and a dictionary of definitions. Future research will determine the value of these structures for new researchers, experienced researchers, and practitioners. During the investigation of prior research no technique was identified to undertake such a study. A hierarchical terminology technique (HTT), which is a form of content analysis process, was developed to structure a hierarchy of concepts to expose the relationships between terms. This technique includes terminology identification, analysis and presentation to show the scope of a research field and to present terminology and definitions to improve consistency. This technique can be used in other fields of study.