Dec 6 -- The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans to request renewal of the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR). NCSES is providing opportunity for public comment on this action. After obtaining and considering public comment, NCSES will prepare the submission requesting that OMB approve clearance of this collection for three years. Written comments on this notice must be received by February 6, 2023 to be assured of consideration.
NCSES is the primary sponsor of the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR); the National Institutes of Health (NIH) serves as a co-sponsor. The SDR has been conducted biennially since 1973 and is a longitudinal survey. The 2023 SDR will consist of a sample of individuals under 76 years of age who have earned a research doctoral degree in a science, engineering, or health (SEH) field from a U.S. academic institution. The purpose of this panel survey is to collect data to provide national estimates on the doctoral science and engineering workforce and changes in their employment, education, and demographic characteristics. NCSES uses these data to prepare essential congressionally mandated reports (explained below). Government agencies and academic researchers use SDR data and publications to make planning decisions regarding science and engineering research, training, and employment opportunities. Employers also use the SDR to understand trends in employment sectors, industry types, and salary. Students who want to learn about the relationship between graduate education and careers often obtain valuable information from the SDR. Data and publications from the SDR are available to the public on the NCSES website:
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctoratework/. The first SDR longitudinal data products were released in 2022.
The SDR will collect data by web survey, mail questionnaire, and computer-assisted telephone interviews beginning in June 2023. The survey will be collected in conformance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2018 and the individual's response to the survey is voluntary. NCSES will ensure that all information collected will be kept strictly confidential and will be used only for statistical purposes.
NCSES uses the information from the SDR to prepare two congressionally mandated reports: Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities and Science and Engineering Indicators. NCSES publishes statistics from the SDR in many reports, primarily in the biennial series, Characteristics of Scientists and Engineers with U.S. Doctorates. As with prior SDR data collections, a cross-sectional public release file of collected data designed to protect respondent confidentiality will be made available to researchers on the NCSES website:
https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/datadownload/.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) previously directed that NCSES enhance and expand the sample to measure employment outcomes by the fine field of degree taxonomy used in the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). NCSES initiated this change in the 2015 cycle and has since maintained it by developing a detailed field of degree taxonomy based on the SED fine fields that is aggregated to a level that is reportable and sustainable. (For information defining these fields, see the survey technical notes.) The SDR sample is drawn using the SED as a frame. The SDR uses a fixed panel design with a sample of new doctoral graduates added to the panel in each biennial survey cycle. The sample stratification, allocation, and estimation precision targets are described in the survey description.
For the 2023 SDR, a statistical sample of approximately 130,000 individuals with U.S. earned doctorates in science, engineering, or health will be contacted. The sample consists of all eligible cases from the previous cycle (115,000) after removing cases that have never responded (6,700), including those from the 2017 SDR new sample and the 2019 SDR supplemental sample, as well as a sample of 10,000 new doctoral graduates. In addition, the sample includes 5,000 cases that will be part of a non-production bridge panel designed to quantify the potential impact of question wording modifications on key survey estimates. For 2023, the new graduate sample received their U.S. doctorate between July 2019 and June 2021. Across the full sample, NCSES estimates approximately 88% of individuals will reside in the U.S. and the remaining 12% will reside abroad. NCSES expects the overall 2023 SDR response rate to be approximately 70 percent.
SDR
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctoratework/
NSF indicates to AEAStat: "The SDR’s ICR is currently being prepared by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics with plans to submit it for public review in April 2023. The SDR will be largely unchanged from its 2021 design, except that all of the COVID-related items will be removed from the questionnaire and items pertaining to retirement will be added. Copies of the SDR questionnaires from past cycles can be found at
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctoratework/. No substantive changes to the data collection methodology are currently planned."
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-26422