The Common Ground Media Lab is an independent research lab dedicated to exploring how digital technologies transform the creation, validation, and circulation of knowledge. We study the infrastructures of scholarly communication—platforms, algorithms, and data systems—and design human-centered alternatives that support openness, inclusivity, and democratic participation in knowledge-making.
The Knowledge Experience (KX) is the Lab’s central research framework. It approaches knowledge not as static information, but as a living process shaped by participation, reflection, and feedback. KX theory examines how digital architectures influence authorship, collaboration, and learning—and how new forms of AI can enhance, rather than replace, human agency in meaning-making.
CGScholar is a digital ecosystem for scholarly communication developed by the Common Ground Media Lab at the University of Illinois Research Park. Combining publishing, peer review, community interaction, and analytics, CGScholar enables researchers to produce, validate, and share knowledge within a unified environment. With over 200,000 users and 27,000 published works, it serves as both a platform and a living research project on how social media architectures can be reimagined for academic use.
CyberScholar is an applied research project examining the role of AI in writing, assessment, and learning. Developed under the Lab’s Human-Centered AI framework, CyberScholar explores how artificial intelligence can scaffold reflection and cognitive growth without displacing human thought. It combines data-driven insights with ethical transparency to model new standards for responsible educational AI systems.
Hosted by the Common Ground Media Lab, this Network is an interdisciplinary research consortium examining the social, legal, and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence. It brings together scholars from the humanities, law, education, and computer science to explore how AI can advance human autonomy, equity, and collective well-being. The Network promotes a vision of AI as a co-creative partner in building more inclusive knowledge societies.
The Lab partners with universities, research centers, and public-interest organizations internationally. Collaboration opportunities include co-authored research projects, pilot testing of digital tools, and participation in shared data studies or funded initiatives. We also host postdoctoral researchers, graduate fellows, and visiting scholars interested in experimental design-based research in digital knowledge systems.
Our training and capacity-building programs translate research into practice through hands-on workshops and masterclasses. Topics include:
Open access and research impact strategies
COPE-aligned peer review and publication ethics
AI and data literacy for researchers
Digital publishing infrastructures and metadata design
The Lab’s current areas of inquiry include:
Knowledge Ecologies: The social and technical infrastructures enabling collective intelligence and open participation.
Scholarly Communication Systems: The evolution of peer review, publication, and dissemination in digital environments.
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: Designing AI systems that enhance creativity, learning, and ethical reflection.
Learning and Assessment Design: Exploring formative assessment and reflexive pedagogy through digital tools.
Digital Knowledge Economies: Building sustainable systems of value, reward, and recognition in open knowledge ecosystems.
The Lab is the research and technology arm of Common Ground Research Networks, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1984. While Common Ground’s Research Networks build global scholarly communities through conferences, journals, and books, the Media Lab provides the experimental and technological foundation—designing the systems that sustain those communities in the digital age.