The Center for Information and Communication Studies (CICS) was established in June 1989 to be a focal point for research related to information systems and services. The center has performed research for the federal government, state and local governments, and business and industry. Projects have ranged from strategic planning efforts to information system and service evaluations, to modeling of scientific and technical communication. Staff of the center have been actively involved in proposal development and project performance with faculty and staff in other centers and departments at the university.

Areas of interest to the center include information systems design, information organization and retrieval in very large databases, directories and locator tools in a networked environment, information usage, communication patterns, cybersecurity, information system design, development of measures and methods for evaluating information system performance and effectiveness, usability testing, and scientific communication.