SED 2017 Brief Guide for Institution Contacts

S urvey of Earned Doctorates

SED 2017 Brief Guide for Institution Contacts

Welcome!

The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) is an annual census of all research doctorate recipients from U.S. educational institutions. The goal is to gather objective data about doctoral graduates, which help improve graduate education by providing governmental and private agencies with the information necessary to make program and policy decisions. In addition, participating institutions receive data about their own doctorate recipients which can be used for program evaluation and improvement. The survey is conducted by the National Science Foundation in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The survey’s data collection activities are contracted to RTI International.

Each institution that awards research doctorates appoints an institution contact (IC) who helps facilitate the administration and completion of the SED. Over the past few decades, ICs have successfully ensured extremely high response rates – above 90 percent – for the more than 50,000 research doctorate recipients who graduate each year. This commitment to data quality is critical to ensuring the integrity of these comprehensive data on research doctorates.

ICAT website

The SED Institution Contact Administrative Tool (ICAT) https://sed-ncses-icat.org contains all the information necessary for Institution Contacts (ICs) to administer the SED on their campus. On the website, ICs can obtain survey materials to distribute to graduating research doctorates, transmit various SED forms and files, and maintain contact information for key personnel responsible for SED administration.

IC contact information

If you are new to the IC role or your contact information has changed, please update your contact information in the ICAT so there will be no interruption in delivery of materials to you.

Types of doctorates to include

The SED includes research doctorates only; for this survey research doctorate is a doctoral degree that requires the completion of an original intellectual contribution in the form of a dissertation or an equivalent culminating project (such as a musical composition), and that is not primarily intended as a degree forth practice of a profession.

The PhD is the most common research doctorate degree. Recipients of professional or practitioner/applied doctorates – including the MD, DDS, JD, PsyD, DMin, PharmD and DPH degrees – are NOT included in the SED. However, in some institutions, there are some doctoral degree programs that may be equivalent to the PhD, such as the Doctor of Science, Doctor of Engineering, and the Doctor of Education; these should be included in the SED ONLY if the National Science Foundation has determined that these particular degrees at your institution are research degrees.

If your institution has a medical school, make sure that any research doctorates awarded through the medical school are included in the survey. If you have any questions about whether or not to include a degree awarded by your institution, please call us toll-free at 1-877-256-8167.

Table 1. Types of research doctoral degrees recognized by the Survey of Earned Doctorates
Abbrev iation	Degree title
PhD	Doctor of Philosophy
DA	Doctor of Arts
DBA	Doctor of Business Administration
DDes	Doctor of Design
DEng, DESc, DES	Doctor of Engineering or Engineering Science
DFA	Doctor of Fine Arts
DHL	Doctor of Hebrew Letters
DMA	Doctor of Musical Arts
DME	Doctor of Music Education
DML	Doctor of Modern Languages
DNSc	Doctor of Nursing Science
DPH	Doctor of Public Health
DSc, ScD	Doctor of Science
EdD	Doctor of Education
JCD	Doctor of Canon Law
JSD, SJD	Doctor of Juridical Science
STD	Doctor of Sacred Theology
ThD	Doctor of Theology
SOURCE: NSF, NIH, USED, USDA, NEH, NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2014.

Best practices for ICs

1. Distribute the survey link 3-4 months before graduation. The online survey is the preferred method of data collection. Your institution’s exit survey can be linked with the SED to allow graduates to complete both at once; contact the HelpDesk for more information.

2. Include completing the SED in the graduation checklist for research doctorates.

3. Monitor completions and follow-up regularly with doctoral recipients who have not yet completed the survey.

   1. Set up a list of graduates, and mark when they complete.

   2. Monitor completions online through the ICAT, emailed Certification of Completions, or upon receipt of completed paper questionnaires.

4. As soon as possible after each graduation, provide the final list of doctorate recipients through the ICAT.

5. Provide accurate contact information for survey nonrespondents so RTI can follow-up with them.

Step-by-Step Instructions

If your graduates will complete the SED on the web:

1. 3-4 months before graduation, post the SED survey link, https://sed-ncses.org, for each student applying for graduation or award of a research doctorate, bundled with other exit materials if possible.

2. Monitor web survey completion status on ICAT for each upcoming graduate and prompt students to complete.

3. Immediately after each graduation date, use the Excel template on ICAT to upload a final list of graduates. Alternatively, you may use a Word document or an annotated commencement program.

If your graduates will complete the SED on paper questionnaires:

1. 3-4 months before graduation, distribute the SED paper questionnaire to each student applying for graduation or award of a research doctorate. Additional paper questionnaires can be requested on the ICAT.

2. Track survey completions among the list of expected graduates and prompt them to complete.

3. Store completed questionnaires in a secure location.

4. On each completed paper questionnaire, check that the graduation date on the cover is correct and complete. If not, draw a line through it and write the correct month and year of the student’s official graduation.

5. Complete a transmittal form, available on the ICAT website, and send it to the address below along with the questionnaires.

6. Send all paper questionnaires to RTI in the provided prepaid FedEx materials. Contact the

HelpDesk at 1-877-256-8167 or SED@rti.org for more FedEx mailing materials. The address to ship to is:

Survey of Earned Doctorates - National Science Foundation

C/O RTI International

Attn: Data Capture – 021577 5265 Capital Boulevard

Raleigh, NC 27690-1653

SED 2017 timeline

Graduation eligibility period for SED 2017 July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017

Web instrument available for SED 2017 May 19, 2016

Information packet for SED 2017 mailed to IC late June 2016 Missing information rosters sent TBA

Deadline to send all graduation lists and completed paper surveys TBA Data collection closes December 15, 2017

SED@rti.org

ICAT website: https://sed-ncses-icat.org/

1-877-256-8167