{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T13:37:07Z","timestamp":1782826627883,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]],"date-time":"2017-12-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1512345600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to formulate an analytical framework for the information concept based on the semiotic theory.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper is motivated by the apparent controversy that still surrounds the information concept. Information, being a key concept within LIS, suffers from being anchored in various incompatible theories. The paper suggests that information is signs, and it demonstrates how the concept of information can be understood within C.S. Peirce\u2019s phenomenologically rooted semiotic. Hence, from there, certain ontological conditions as well epistemological consequences of the information concept can be deduced.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper argues that an understanding of information, as either objective or subjective\/discursive, leads to either objective reductionism and signal processing, that fails to explain how information becomes meaningful at all, or conversely, information is understood only relative to subjective\/discursive intentions, agendas, etc. To overcome the limitations of defining information as either objective or subjective\/discursive, a semiotic analysis shows that information understood as signs is consistently sensitive to both objective and subjective\/discursive features of information. It is consequently argued that information as concept should be defined in relation to ontological conditions having certain epistemological consequences.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper presents an analytical framework, derived from semiotics, that adds to the developments of the philosophical dimensions of information within LIS.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-05-2017-0078","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]],"date-time":"2017-12-04T05:18:30Z","timestamp":1512364710000},"page":"372-382","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Information as signs"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"74","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3023-0240","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin Muderspach","family":"Thellefsen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Torkild","family":"Thellefsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bent","family":"S\u00f8rensen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref301","year":"1973","journal-title":"Steps to an Echology of Mind"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021041507442699800_ref302","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.1108\/eb026653","article-title":"Information concepts for information-science","volume":"34","year":"1978","journal-title":"Journal of Documentation"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref001","volume-title":"A Realist Theory of Science","year":"1978"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref002","first-page":"1","article-title":"What is \u2018Information\u2019 beyond a definition?","year":"2015"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref003","unstructured":"Brier, S. (2006a), \u201cCybersemiotics: why information is not enough! A transdisciplinary approach to information, cognition and communication studies, through an integration of Niklas Luhmann\u2019s communication theory with C.S. Peirce\u2019s semiotics\u201d, doctoral thesis, CBS, Copenhagen."},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021041507442699800_ref004","first-page":"1","article-title":"The foundation of LIS in information science and semiotics","volume":"6","year":"2006","journal-title":"Liberas"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2021041507442699800_ref303","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"351","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1097-4571(199106)42:5<351::AID-ASI5>3.0.CO;2-3","article-title":"Information as thing","volume":"42","year":"1991","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2021041507442699800_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"684","DOI":"10.1108\/00220410510625921","article-title":"The philosophy of information","volume":"61","year":"2005","journal-title":"Journal of Documentation"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"343","DOI":"10.1002\/aris.1440370109","article-title":"The concept of information","volume":"37","year":"2003","journal-title":"Annual Review of Information Science & Technology"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref007","volume-title":"The Limits of Interpretation","year":"1990"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref008","volume-title":"The Philosophy of Information","year":"2011"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref304","year":"1962","journal-title":"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref305","year":"1980","journal-title":"Autopoesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Paavola, S. (2014), \u201cFibers of abduction\u201d, in Thellefsen, T. and S\u00f8rensen, B. (Eds), Charles Sanders Peirce in His Own Words: 100 Years Of Semiotics, Communication and Cognition, De Gruyter Mouton, Boston, MA, pp. 365-371.","DOI":"10.1515\/9781614516415.365"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref010","volume-title":"Collected Papers","year":"1958\/1966"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref011","volume-title":"The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings","year":"1992"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref012","volume-title":"Reasoning and the Logic of Things: the Cambridge Lectures of 1898","year":"1992"},{"key":"key2021041507442699800_ref013","volume-title":"A General Introduction to the Semeiotic of Charles Sanders Peirce","year":"1996"}],"container-title":["Journal of Documentation"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/JD-05-2017-0078\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/JD-05-2017-0078\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T22:34:00Z","timestamp":1753396440000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/jd\/article\/74\/2\/372-382\/203378"}},"subtitle":["A semiotic analysis of the information concept, determining its ontological and epistemological foundations"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]]},"references-count":18,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,7]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/JD-05-2017-0078"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/jd-05-2017-0078","relation":{},"ISSN":["0022-0418"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0022-0418","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,4]]}}}