ECAR, the subscription research program within EDUCAUSE, has issued a
major report on IT and Research Computing:
IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study
Harvey Blustain, Act IV Consulting, Inc., with Sandra Braman, ECAR
and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Richard N. Katz, ECAR; and
Gail Salaway, ECAR. 147 pages
This study explores the practices and perspectives of IT
organizations that support the academic research enterprise. To
collect, analyze, and distribute information across an expanding
range academic disciplines and geographic locations, research efforts
rely heavily on IT infrastructure, people, and a broad range of IT
services. Ever-larger data sets are being collected and shared,
simulations and visualization are becoming routine tools, and the
co-evolution of science and computing increasingly requires
scientists to have solid grounding in information management. This
ECAR study reports the results of a variety of research initiatives:
a literature review, quantitative and qualitative data from 328
higher education institutions (315 U.S. and 13 Canadian
institutions), and five in-depth cases studies.
ECAR reports (including this one) are typically restricted to
subscribers. For more detail on this report, and how to obtain it,
see: