Nonsubstantial Change Request for Survey of Earned Doctorates

MEMORANDUM

DATE: April 28, 2009

TO: Rochelle W. Martinez, Office of Management and Budget

FROM: Lynda T. Carlson, Director, Division of Science Resources Statistics/SRS

VIA: Suzanne Plimpton, NSF Clearance Officer

SUBJECT: Nonsubstantial Change Request for Survey of Earned Doctorates

SRS is requesting a nonsubstantial change to the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) forms clearance to add 2 questions to provide indicators of involvement in governmental stimulus funding activities for researchers and future policy makers.

SRS has added these two items to the 2010 SED data collection instrument to collect data on the possible effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) on the financial support received by doctorate recipients during and/or immediately following their graduate studies. To help test the validity of these two questionnaire items, SRS will conduct research studies to assess the degree to which doctorate recipient responses about ARRA-related sources of financial support are consistent with data collected from other sources about the actual sources of their support.

In one of these studies, the responses of doctorate recipients to the new questionnaire item A7 – “During 2009 or 2010, did any of your financial support come from the Federal stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)?” – will be compared with the associated records from the NSF and NIH files concerning ARRA funding. In a second study, the responses of doctorate recipients who have definite plans to new questionnaire item B6 – “Will any of the financial support for your postgraduate plans come from the Federal stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)?” – will be compared with NIH and NSF records on ARRA funding.

Attached are 2 files:

-Attachment 1 to the SF-83 which is a revised data collection form, with the new A7 and B6 questions highlighted in green.

-Attachment 2 to the SF-83 which is a detailed listing of the changes to the SED questionnaire. The 2 changes for questions A7 and B6 are highlighted in yellow.

Attachments (2)

cc: Nancy Leach, SRS

Mark Fiegener, SRS