Previous Research Activities

CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Data Curation for Energy Social Science, Canceled due to COVID-19

This CLIR/DLF sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in Data Curation for Energy Social Science is hosted jointly between CREOS and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR). The original research by the postdoc will be under the direction of Christopher R. Knittel, Ph.D, George P. Shultz Professor of Applied Economics, MIT, Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, MIT and Chris Bourg, Ph.D, Director, MIT Libraries.

A National Forum on Principles of Accessibility and Inclusion for the Design of Library Systems, 2018-2019

The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded $92,170 to host an invitation only workshop in April 2019 and the resulting white paper.

Read more about the National Forum and the original proposal (pdf).

Grand Challenges in Information Science and Scholarly Communication, 2017-2018

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded $108,500 to MIT to host a workshop on March 19-23, 2018 and produce a subsequent white paper.

Grand Challenges Site
White paper: A Grand Challenges-Based Research Agenda for Scholarly Communication and Information Science (pdf)

Collaborative Research: Revealing the Invisible: Data-Intensive Research Using Cognitive, Psychological, and Physiological Measures to Optimize STEM Learning, 2014-2019

The National Science Foundation awarded MIT $365,480 of the $1.6 million total for Collaborative Research: Revealing the Invisible conducted by MIT, TERC, and Landmark College. Virtual learning environments are an increasingly important component of individualized learning in STEM domains.

Read more about Revealing the Invisible.

Harvard University Privacy Tools Project, 2014-2019

The Sloan Foundation awarded $868,954 to MIT Libraries and Harvard University to advance a multidisciplinary understanding of data privacy issues and build computational, statistical, legal, and policy tools to help address these issues in a variety of contexts.

Read more about the Harvard University Privacy Tools Project.

Visiting Scholar Program

2018 (pilot), Philip Cohen, PhD, Professor, Department of Sociology University of Maryland, College Park

The position was sponsored by a group of libraries organized by the Association of Research Libraries — MIT, UCLA, the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Cohen drafted a scholarly communication primer for sociology, which reviews major scholarly communication media, policies, economic actors, and recent innovations as a way to educate and incentivize sociology scholars to consider open access for their work: Cohen also looked at one of the chief barriers identified in the Grand Challenges report is the lack of systematic theory and empirical evidence to design and guide legal, economic, policy and organizational interventions in scholarly publishing and in the knowledge ecosystem generally.