Boundary objects are abstract or physical artefacts that exist in the liminal spaces between adjacent communities of people. The theory of BOs was originally introduced by Star and Griesemer in a study on information practices at the Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology but has since been adapted in a broad range of research contexts in a large number of disciplines including the various branches of information science. The aim of this review article is to present an overview of the state of the art of information science research informed by the theory of BOs, critically discuss the notion, and propose a structured overview of how the notion has been applied in the study of information.

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This paper reflects on the relationship between who one designs for and what one designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting "International Development" with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the tool's function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the project's artefacts and processes. We examine the project's role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals.

The Information Schools, also referred to as iSchools, have a unique approach to data science with three distinct components: human‐centeredness, socially responsible, and rooted in context. In this position paper, we highlight and expand on these components and show how they are integrated in various research and educational activities related to data science that are being carried out at iSchools. We argue that the iSchool way of doing data science is not only highly relevant to the current times, but also crucial in solving problems of tomorrow. Specifically, we accentuate the issues of developing insights and solutions that are not only data‐driven, but also incorporate human values, including transparency, privacy, ethics, fairness, and equity. This approach to data science has meaningful implications on how we educate the students and train the next generation of scholars and policymakers. Here, we provide some of those design decisions, rooted in evidence‐based research, along with our perspective on how data science is currently situated and how it should be advanced in iSchools.

We studied paternal exposure to Agent Orange and its dioxin contaminant (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) and preterm birth, intrauterine growth retardation, or infant death in veterans of Operation Ranch Hand, the unit responsible for spraying herbicides during the Vietnam war. A Comparison group of Air Force veterans who served in Southeast Asia during the same time period and who were not occupationally exposed to herbicides was included. We studied children conceived during or after the father's service in Southeast Asia and based exposure on paternal dioxin measured in 1987 or 1992 extrapolated to the time of conception of the child. We assigned each child to one of four exposure categories: Comparison and three Ranch Hand categories (Background, Low, High). Children in the High (relative risk = 1.3) and Background (relative risk = 1.4) categories were at increased risk of preterm birth. The risk of intrauterine growth retardation was not increased in any exposure category. The risk of infant death was increased in all Ranch Hand children, with the greatest increases in the High (relative risk = 4.5) and Background (relative risk = 3.2) categories. These patterns indicate that the increases in the relative risk of preterm birth and infant death may not be related to paternal dioxin level.