The Impact of Information Technology on Academic Scientists' Productivity and Collaboration Patterns

This study investigates the impact of information technology (IT) on productivity and collaboration patterns in academe. Our data combine information on the diffusion of two noteworthy innovations in IT—BITNET and the Domain Name System (DNS)—with career-history data on research-active life scientists. We analyzed a random sample of 3,114 research-active life scientists from 314 U.S. institutions over a 25-year period and find that the...