About AARC
Established in 2019, Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC) is an independent unit within Academic Analytics, LLC. AARC’s mission is to produce original and open research on higher education, scientometrics, and research policy. We author peer-reviewed journal articles, deposit publicly available data sets, host webinars on recent findings, produce reports on issues of special interest to the higher education research community, and share the Academic Analytics commercial dataset with scholars at no cost (click here to apply for access to use the data in your research).
We are committed to research transparency, openly available data, and open access publication of results. Our goal is to make high-quality and typically closed-access data available to those seeking generative solutions to challenges in academic research policy, management, and equity through independent, data-based inquiry.
AARC projects have been covered in Science News, Nature Index, Inside Higher Education, and other media outlets. For media inquiries, please contact press@aarcresearch.com. The Public Information Officer (PIO) for AARC is the center's Director, Anthony J. Olejniczak.
AARC is administered by Anthony J. Olejniczak, Ph.D., Director, William Savage, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, and a team of Senior Academic Advisors. Learn more about the team below.
Caroline Whitacre, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Advisor
Carol recently retired from the Senior Vice President for Research position at The Ohio State University in Columbus, a position she held for the past 9 years. In her faculty position as Professor of Microbial Infection & Immunity, she spent her career researching the immunology of multiple sclerosis. During her 36 years at Ohio State, she also served as Vice Dean for Research in the Medical Center and as Chair of the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics. She received a Bachelor’s degree and PhD from The Ohio State University.
Richard Wheeler, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Advisor
Richard Wheeler is Professor of English Emeritus and Dean of the Graduate College Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After earning degrees from Cornell College (Iowa) and the State University of New York at Buffalo, he joined the Illinois English Department in 1969 (head from 1987 to 1998). After a year as interim head of Anthropology, he was Dean of the Graduate College from 2000 to 2009. He was Vice Provost from 2006 to 2010 and Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from Spring 2010 through Summer 2012.
George Walker, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Advisor
George E. Walker is currently Professor and Senior Mentor in the School of Business and Leadership, at the University of Charleston WV. Dr. Walker previously was the interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Cleveland State University from June 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013. From January 1, 2010 until May 31, 2012, he was Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at CSU. He has held appointments as Professor of Physics, Chair of the Physics Department, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Indiana University, and Senior Vice President for Research Development and Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School at Florida International University.
Peter Lange, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Advisor
Peter served as Duke University’s Provost for 15 years, working closely with Presidents Nannerl Keohane and Richard Brodhead. He oversaw strategic, programmatic, budgetary, and administrative decision-making under the university’s Responsibility Center Management (RCM) system. During his tenure, Duke executed a sophisticated strategy that combined planning with targeted financial support and deliberate cultural change.
Robert Berdahl, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Advisor
Robert M. Berdahl was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 15, 1937. He received his B.A. degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls in 1959, his M.A. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1961, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1965. His field of specialization is German history and he is the author of The Politics of the Prussian Nobility (Princeton University Press, 1988), the co-author of another book, and the author of numerous articles dealing with German history and, more recently, about American higher education.
Bill Savage, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher, Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC)
Bill was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. After completing military service in the U.S. Marine Corps, he went to Arizona State University for his bachelor’s degree and the University of Hawaii, East-West Center, for a master’s degree. He spent three years in Taiwan studying Chinese and then attended the University of Michigan for his Ph.D. He had a twenty-year career with University Microfilms International (UMI), also known as ProQuest. He was Product Development Manager for UMI Research Collections, an aggregator of primary research materials, and the Director of UMI Dissertations Publishing, the publisher of record for all Ph.D. dissertations accepted in the United States and Canada from 1849 to the present.
Anthony Olejniczak, Ph.D. (he/him)
Director, Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC)
Anthony studies the higher education research enterprise. Through scientometric research, Anthony seeks to promote generative dialogue about equity in scholarly research, access to research resources, and publishing practices across disciplines. An anthropologist by training, Anthony co-founded Academic Analytics in 2005 and has since divested himself all equity interest and managerial roles to direct AARC independently. Anthony earned his B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin (2000) and his M.A. (2004) and Ph.D. (2006) in Anthropological Sciences from Stony Brook University.
Financial Relationship & Conflict of Interest Statement
AARC is a unit of Academic Analytics, LLC, whose data are made available to AARC scholars. AARC Director Anthony Olejniczak co-founded Academic Analytics in 2005 and divested himself of all equity interest and management responsibilities in 2019 to establish AARC. As an employee of Academic Analytics with no other financial relationship or managerial role within the company, Anthony directs AARC independently and without oversight from Academic Analytics management (Anthony chooses projects and collaborators, and Academic Analytics management do not review or approve research outputs). AARC is committed to producing publicly available datasets for all projects and to publish only open access materials.
