New information technologies are transforming teaching, learning, and research in academia, and Ithaka’s mission is to accelerate the productive uses of these technologies for the benefit of higher education around the world. Ithaka’s research unit exists to serve the academic community in its shift to an increasingly electronic environment in two ways. First, we develop strategic information in an actionable form that allows individual organizations to adapt to this new environment. Second, there is much knowledge that is isolated in individual organizations, and we seek whenever possible to share this knowledge broadly. Our work is generally structured around specific commissioned projects, but our purpose is to benefit the entire community by providing its leaders with strategic information that helps to accelerate and improve the transition to an electronic environment.  We are guided in these efforts by our Research Advisory Committee.

Our research projects have utilized a variety of methodological approaches, from economic analyses and survey techniques to historical and ethnographic methods, and when necessary we bring on additional expertise to meet the needs of our projects. Findings from our research projects generally have broader relevance for the higher education and scholarly communication communities, so we share findings as broadly as possible, publishing articles and presenting findings at a variety of conferences.

Below is a list of research projects we have undertaken, grouped by areas of interest. We present findings from these projects as soon as they become available, and links to publications and presentations, along with a project description, may be found on each project page. We welcome questions and comments about our existing work and expressions of interest for future directions. For more information, please contact Roger Schonfeld (rcs@ithaka.org).

1. Journal Transition to Digital Format

• Nonsubscription Side of Periodicals
• Economics of Scholarly Publishing
• The Impact of Digitization on Citation Patterns
• Paper Repositories
• Lessons Learned from JSTOR’s early development

2. Mass Digitization and the Future of the Book

• Systemwide View of Library Collections

3.  Primary Source Material in a Digital Environment

• Image Use and Provision at Liberal Arts Colleges
• Lessons Learned from Aluka

4. Serving the Needs of Faculty and Other End-Users

• Librarian Study
• Image Use and Provision at Liberal Arts Colleges
• Faculty Studies
• The Impact of Digitization on Citation Patterns

5. Teaching and Learning

• Image Use and Provision at Liberal Arts Colleges
• Lessons Learned by NITLE

6. Preservation and Archiving

• Stewardship
• Paper Repositories
• Lessons Learned from Portico