The Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey has focused since its inception on capturing an accurate picture of faculty members’ practices, attitudes, and needs. In the fifth triennial cycle, fielded in fall 2012, the survey focused on research and teaching practices broadly, as well as the dissemination, collecting, discovery, and access of research and teaching materials. Findings from this cycle of the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey will provide colleges and universities, libraries, learned societies, and academic publishers with insight into the evolving attitudes and practices of faculty members in the context of substantial environmental change for higher education.

The development of the 2012 questionnaire was guided by an advisory committee of librarians, publishers, policy makers, and a scholarly society executive. The overall project was supported by some 20 colleges and universities, learned societies, and publishers / vendors.

Major topics covered by the survey include:

  • Research processes: The processes through which scholars perform their research, focusing principally on the use of research materials in secondary and primary research.
  • Teaching practices: The pedagogical methods that faculty members are adopting and the ways that they draw on content and support services in their teaching.
  • Scholarly communications:Formal and informal methods by which scholars communicate with each other, the ways in which the types of materials and information exchanged in these processes are evolving, and needs for various kinds of publishing support services.
  • The library: How faculty members perceive the roles and value of their institutional library, touching on the roles the library plays in supporting many of the above activities.
  • Scholarly societies:How faculty members perceive the roles and value of their primary scholarly society, including in supporting both formal and informal communications between scholars.

In addition to the report of findings which is available for download, the underlying dataset is being deposited with ICPSR for preservation and access.

Advisory Committee

  • D. Russell Bailey, Providence College;
  • Al Bertrand and Peter Dougherty, Princeton University Press;
  • Linda Downs, College Art Association;
  • Brinley Franklin, University of Connecticut;
  • Judy Russell, University of Florida;
  • Peggy Seiden, Swarthmore College;
  • Charles Watkinson, Purdue University Press

Sponsors

  • American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
  • American Historical Association
  • Claremont University Consortium
  • College Art Association
  • Community College of Rhode Island
  • Credo Reference
  • DePaul University
  • Ex Libris
  • Lafayette College
  • Modern Language Association
  • National Council of Teachers of English
  • ProQuest
  • Providence College
  • Roger Williams University
  • SAGE
  • SUNY Potsdam
  • Swarthmore College
  • Texas A&M University
  • University of Florida
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Faculty Survey News Coverage

Scholars Increasingly Use Online Resources but Value Traditional Formats Too

Digital Research, Not Teaching

Ithaka Survey: Humanities Faculty Love The Library; Scientists Less Enthusiastic

CNI Closing Plenary Session

The Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey US 2012: First Release of Key Findings

Deanna Marcum, Judith C. Russell, and Roger C. Schonfeld

CNI Presentation