Gomez & Day Questions, Paradigms and Methods in ICTD Proceedings of the 12 th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, Montego Bay, Jamaica, May 2013 RESEARCH QUESTIONS, PARADIGMS AND METHODS IN ICT FOR DEVELOPMENT: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SELECTED ICTD LITERATURE, 2000-2010 Ricardo Gomez Assistant Professor University of Washington iSchool rgomez@uw.edu Sheryl A. Day Doctoral Student University of Washington iSchool sagutie@uw.edu Abstract: In this study, we report some of the results of a content analysis of 948 papers from peer-reviewed journals and conferences published between 2000 and 2010 in the academic literature on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD or ICT4D). In particular, we present our analysis of types of research questions asked, preferred research methods, and paradigmatic stances exhibited in the published literature.. The dominant types of research questions are of descriptive, measurement or social change nature, while the preferred paradigmatic stances overall are interpretivist, positivist and pragmatic. The preferred research methods are qualitative, mixed methods and quantitative. Differences over time and differences across different journals and conferences are examined, and an exploratory analysis of combinations of these variables is suggested, to help define the nature of ICTD inquiry in the first decade of the 21st Century. Keywords: ICTD, content analysis, epistemology, research questions, meta analysis Acknowledgements: Authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Adam Taplin, Andrew Brink, Bridget Nowlin, Brittany Fiore-Silvfast, Bryan Dosono, Carl Burnett, Claire Imamura, Deirdre Coyle, Edgar Sioson, Elaine Richman, Elly Krumwiede, Emily Cunningham, Erica Leigh Nelson, Erin Briggs, Erin Mettling, Freeda Brook, Gary Gao, Heather Gillanders, Joel Turner, Jung-Ho Ryu, Kate MacBain, Luis F. Baron, Marissa Lavelle, Megan Willan, Melissa Gill, Meredith Slota, Michael Carpenter, Monica Caraway, Muzammil Hussain, Mychal Ludwig, Patty Northman, Richard Counsil, Ruixue Xia, Sarah Caldwell, Sarah Ganderup, Sarah Wang, Tess Cradick, Tod Robbins, and Whitney Chamberlin, who helped code the 948 papers used in this study, and also to Luis F. Baron who helped with preliminary analysis for this paper. This work expands on an earlier analysis that presented additional findings related to object, contribution and area of focus of ICTD research (Gomez et.al., 2012). 1. INTRODUCTION The field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD or ICT4D) is the successor of the early uses of print, radio, photography and television as media for community development, what was known in the 1970s and 1980s as Development Communication, or DevCom. But in the 1990s, computers and the Internet made possible a new wave of computer- mediated communication, which in the field of international development led to the introduction of community access centers, generically called telecenters, as a way to bring the benefits of computers and the Internet to underserved and marginalized communities.