In this paper, we propose a new method to analyze the performance degradation by timing jitters in the receivers of intensity modulation/direct detection digital optical communication systems where pulse-shaping filters are used to minimize intersymbol interference. The results obtained from the proposed analytical method show that conventional analytical methods underestimate the influence of timing jitters on the receiver performance. Using the proposed anlaytical method, we derive an analytic equation for approximated power penalty due to timing itters and obtain an exact power penalty by numerical analyses. Assuming Gaussian or uniform probability density function for timing jitters, we also show that assumption of Gaussian distribution for timing jitters yields more performance degration than that of uniform distribution.