Measuring the Science and Engineering Enterprise Priorities for the Division of Science Resources Studies (2000) / Chapter Skim
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3 Dimensions of Relevance
3 Dimensions of Relevance
Pages 37-56
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From page 37... ...
A statistical agency should, working with data users, define the concepts that it will measure in order to meet their information needs. These concepts and how to measure them should be continuously reviewed and revised as issues change, and as analysis reveals weaknesses in current measures and suggests alternate measures that 37 might better capture information of use to constituents.
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From page 38... ...
As the Committee on National Statistics has advised, a statistical agency's mission "should include responsibility for assessing the needs for information of its constituents" in order to ensure that the data and information it provides continue to be relevant over time (NRC 19921. SRS Data Users While SRS data are widely used, the evolution of the SRS portfolio described in the previous chapter has not been sufficient recently to allow the `division to provide all the data needed by national policymakers as they deliberate questions about resources in a fastchanging world.
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From page 39... ...
Graduate deans widely use data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates and other administrators use SRS data on university R&D and academic facilities. In SRS surveys for which university administrators are respondents, SRS obtains very high response rates-around 95 percent because the data are, in turn, used by these administrators.
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From page 40... ...
A statistical agency must carry out user needs assessments on a regular basis in order to ensure that the data it provides is currently relevant. A proactive agency, however, will actively engage its constituents in a variety of ways to review and revise its data collection portfolio on an ongoing basis, maintaining important data series, yet also addressing newly emergent data needs.
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From page 41... ...
SRS should utilize the information obtained in these ways to review and revise existing surveys or enhance the data they provide through temporary survey supplements, quick response panels, or tightly-focused qualitative analyses. Organizing a Dialogue with Data Users and Policymakers One of the principal means for generating feedback from customers on the issues they face and the way they address them with SRS data is to establish advisory panels (called "special emphasis panels")
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From page 42... ...
Feedback through Outreach, Dissemination, and Customer Service In spite of public relations and information dissemination efforts, according to one person interviewed, "SRS still isn't known well by the communities who should know it." SRS has made a significant effort to establish an accessible web site that allows interactive access to data by a wide audience. SRS also has a loyal following for data from many of its surveys, such as the Survey of Earned Doctorates, which annually generates a long list of data requests from repeat as well as onetime data users.
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From page 43... ...
Opportunities In Analysis to Improve Data The analysis of its data provides SRS with additional opportunities for interacting with data users and policymakers and gathering information that will yield strategies for improving data. As is well known in the federal statistical community, a statistical agency enhances its understanding of the uses and limits of its own data by using them.
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From page 44... ...
Dissemination of analyses provides an opportunity for additional feedback from data users and policymakers. It is difficult for a statistical agency to know a priori all of the issues that matter to its customers since important issues are ever changing.
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From page 45... ...
To strike the appropriate balance between maintaining and disrupting time series in any given situation, SRS should draw on the advice of its data users through its survey advisory committees to establish what action would best meet their needs. When structural changes like these are not the issue, there are ways to address current issues without disrupting time series.
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From page 46... ...
The Committee on National Statistics asserts that an effective statistical agency promotes data linkages in order to enhance the value of data sets for analyzing current policy, program, and research issues (NRC 19921. Science and technology policy analysts and researchers interviewed for this study also expressed a desire for more cross-survey analysis to provide better interpretations of the changing components of the science and engineering enterprise and how they interrelate.
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From page 47... ...
For example, the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development reports federal obligations of $31.4 billion in 1997 for research and development performed by industry, while the Survey of Industrial Research and Development reports that the federal government was the source of just $23.9 billion in industry R&D expenditures (NSF l999b, NSF l999h)
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From page 48... ...
The universities, however, knowing the original source of these funds, report them as federally-funded R&D expenditures. SRS should continue these investigations and take steps in the near term to explain these differences to data users and consider implementing questionnaire or data collection changes that will help resolve the discrepancies.
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From page 49... ...
. SED GSPSE NSCG Biological Science Fields Biological Science Fields Biological Science Fields Biochemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry and Biophysics Biomedical Sciences Biophysics l Biophysics l Biotechnology Research Bacteriology Plant Genetics Botany Botany Plant Pathology Plant Physiology Botany, Other Anatomy Anatomy Biometrics & Biostatistics Biometry and Epidemiology Cell Biology Cell and Molecular Biology Cell and Molecular Biology L Ecology l Ecology I Ecology Developmental Biology/ Embryology Endocrinology L Entomology | Entomology and Parasitology | Biological Immunology Molecular Biology Microbiology Microbiology, Immunology, Microbiology and Virology Neuroscience Nutritional Sciences Nutrition Nutritional Sciences Parasitology Toxicology Genetics, Human & Animal Genetics Genetics, Animal and Plant Pathology, Human & Animal Pathology Pharmacology, Human & Pharmacology Pharmacology, Human & Animal Animal Physiology, Human & Animal Physiology Physiology, Human & Animal Zoology, other Zoology Zoology, General Biological Sciences, General Biology, General Biology, General Biological Sciences, Other Biology, not elsewhere Other Biological Sciences classified 49
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From page 50... ...
to data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients to examine further the predictive power of the GRE with regard to career outcomes. SRS data could be linked to an array of other education, career, and productivity data.
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From page 51... ...
Data Currency A third dimension of relevance for statistical agencies relates to whether data collected by such agencies are current, or are perceived to be, during their "shelf life," the period of time from the date they are made public until the date when data from the next survey cycle are released. Using the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR)
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From page 52... ...
Thus, approximately 23 months elapsed between the survey reference date and the data release date. Given the two-year periodicity of the survey, then, the ~ 995 data were the most recent data available on the population of Ph.D.
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From page 53... ...
of the National Academies found in utilizing data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients that the data were not sufficiently current to provide timely measures of the rapidly changing environment for the education and labor market for scientists and engineers. COSEPUP concluded "The National Science Foundation should continue to improve the coverage, timeliness, and clarity of analysis of the data on the education and employment of scientists and engineers in order to support better national decisionmaking about human resources in science and technology" (NAS 19951.
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From page 54... ...
Survey of Doctorate Recipients* 1 23 I n/a 1 23 ~n/a ~22 Survey of Graduate Students and 1 ~i ~16 ~ 6 ~ 3 Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering Survey of Earned Doctorates 16 ~ 7 ~ ~ 7 1 ~ Survey of Scientific and Engineering n/a 12 n/a 17 R&D Facilit~esat Colleges and I Un~vers~hes Survey of Research and Development in 19 17 23 15 13 Industry Survey of Research and Development 15 16 14 15 13 Expenditures at Universities and Colleges Survey of Federal Support to 20 21 20 20 16 Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Inshtut~ons Survey of Federal Funds for Research 20 21 20 19 14 and Development *
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From page 55... ...
Research will be required to determine which of these or other options is feasible and costeffective for each of the SRS surveys. Given the interest in timely data for many important policy issues related to science and engineering resources such research is a high priority.
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