Richard J. Cox is Professor in Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Information Sciences where he is responsible for the archives concentration in the Master's in Library Science degree and the Ph.D. degree. Dr. Cox also served as Editor of the American Archivist from 1991 through 1995 and Editor of the Records & Information Management Report from 2001 through 2007.

He has written extensively on archival and records management topics and has published sixteen books in addition to this one in this area: American Archival Analysis: The Recent Development of the Archival Profession in the United States (1990) -- winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award given by the Society of American Archivists; Managing Institutional Archives: Foundational Principles and Practices (1992); The First Generation of Electronic Records Archivists in the United States: A Study in Professionalization (1994); Documenting Localities (1996); Closing an Era: Historical Perspectives on Modern Archives and Records Management (2000); Managing Records as Evidence and Information (2001), winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2002; co-editor, Archives & the Public Good: Records and Accountability in Modern Society (2002); Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker’s Assault on Libraries (2002); Flowers After the Funeral: Reflections on the Post-9/11 Digital Age (2003); No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (2004), winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2005; Lester J. Cappon and Historical Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory (2004); Archives and Archivists in the Information Age (2005); Understanding Archives & Manuscripts (2006) with James M. O’Toole; Ethics, Accountability, and Recordkeeping in a Dangerous World (2006); Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling: Readings, Reflections and Ruminations (2008); The Demise of the Library School: Personal Reflections on Professional Education in the Modern Corporate University (2010); and Archival Anxiety and the Vocational Calling (2011). Dr. Cox was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 1989.