Dear friends and colleagues,

Artificial intelligence is changing how people discover, evaluate, and engage with scholarly resources. We see evolution in research and teaching behaviors, not just the tools people use. 

Researchers and learners increasingly begin with questions rather than keyword searches. They expect conversational exploration, faster orientation to unfamiliar topics, and support as they move between research environments. These changes affect not only where research begins but how people learn to ask questions, evaluate sources, build understanding, and develop original ideas. We are studying these changes through our work at Ithaka S+R, and we are actively exploring how best to support shifting behaviors with AI at JSTOR.

For decades, JSTOR has helped people discover trusted scholarship, understand scholarly context, benefit from library-supported access, and connect with original sources. As using AI becomes part of the research, teaching, and learning process, grounding the work in those principles becomes even more important.

But how?

We are working to help scholarship remain discoverable, attributable, and connected to original sources while supporting the foundational habits of inquiry and source evaluation wherever students and scholars do their work. This means exploring whether carefully governed AI-supported experiences can strengthen the research process while preserving the practices it depends on. 

We are taking a two-pronged approach. 

First, we continue to invest in responsible and thoughtful use of AI to support users’ work on JSTOR. Already, more than 15% of users engage with our AI-enabled research capabilities. This fall, we are releasing a dynamic new AI-assisted search experience. We will roll it out slowly across institutions to support feedback and learning. As always, on-platform AI experiences are optional and can be turned on or off by library administrators.

Second, we are looking beyond our platform to other AI-enabled environments that students and scholars are using in their work. People use tools that make their work easier, more convenient, and more insightful. Strengthening research and learning in this context means ensuring that the research experience includes access to trusted, high-quality content with clear provenance that respects copyright holder rights and access entitlements. We are actively engaged with a small number of companies so we can begin to explore how best to work together, starting with a focus on academic journals. We will continue to share lessons and directional insights as our AI experiments evolve. 

On this point, I invite you to dive deeper into our thinking and work by reviewing two recent publications: AI is changing research behaviors: How JSTOR preserves thinking and learning by JSTOR product leaders Ashank Rai and Beth LaPensee and Postsecondary Value in the Age of AI by Ithaka S+R managing director Martin Kurzweil. 

Please be in touch—whether you’d like to ask a question, share an idea, or explore opportunities to collaborate. Feel free to reach out to me or your day-to-day ITHAKA contacts.

Sincerely,

Kevin Guthrie