Notice2023-03352
Notice of Intent To Renew a Current Information Collection
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
February 17, 2023
Issuing agencies
National Science Foundation
Abstract
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 Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (OMB Control Number 3145- 0062). In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, NSF is providing opportunity for public comment on this action. After obtaining and considering public comments, NSF will prepare the submission requesting that OMB approve clearance of this collection for three years.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 33 (Friday, February 17, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 33 (Friday, February 17, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10386-10388]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-03352]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Notice of Intent To Renew a Current Information Collection
AGENCY: National Science Foundation; National Center for Science and
Engineering Statistics.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: 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 Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (OMB Control Number 3145-
0062). In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, NSF is providing opportunity for public comment on this
action. After obtaining and considering public comments, NSF will
prepare the submission requesting that OMB approve clearance of this
collection for three years.
DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by April 18,
2023 to be assured of consideration. Comments received after that date
will be considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to the
address below.
For Additional Information or Comments: Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower
Avenue, Suite E7400, Alexandria, Virginia 22314; telephone (703) 292-
7556; or send email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0e7d7e6267637e7a614e607d6820696178"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="daa9aab6b3b7aaaeb59ab4a9bcf4bdb5ac">[email protected]</span></a>. Individuals who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, which is accessible
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (including Federal
holidays).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates
in Science and Engineering.
OMB Control Number: 3145-0062.
Expiration Date of Current Approval: August 31, 2023.
Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to extend an information
collection for three years.
Abstract: Established within NSF by the America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act of 2010 Sec. 505, codified in the National Science
Foundation Act of 1950, as amended, the National Center for Science and
Engineering Statistics (NCSES) serves as a central Federal
clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, analysis, and
dissemination of objective data on science, engineering, technology,
and research and development for use by practitioners, researchers,
policymakers, and the public.
The Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and
Engineering (GSS), sponsored by the NCSES within NSF and the National
Institutes of Health, is designed to comply with legislative mandates
by providing information on the characteristics of academic graduate
enrollments in science, engineering, and health fields. The GSS, which
originated in 1966 and has been conducted annually since 1972, is a
census of all departments in science, engineering, and health (SEH)
fields within academic institutions with graduate programs in the
United States. This request to extend the information collection for
three years is to cover the 2023, 2024, and 2025 GSS survey cycles. The
information collected by the GSS is solicited under the authority of
the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended and the America
COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Data collection starts each fall
in October and data are obtained primarily through a Web survey. All
information will be used for statistical purposes only. Participation
in the survey is voluntary.
The expected frame for the 2023 GSS includes 709 institutions
comprising 797 schools with 876 total Coordinators. The GSS is the only
national survey that collects information on the characteristics of
graduate enrollment and postdoctoral appointees (postdocs) for specific
SEH disciplines at the department level. It collects information on:
(1) Master's and doctoral students' ethnicity and race,
citizenship, gender, source and mechanism of financial support (e.g.,
fellowships, traineeships, assistantships) and enrollment status.
(2) Postdocs' ethnicity and race, citizenship, gender, source and
mechanism of financial support, type of doctoral degree, and degree
origin (U.S. or foreign); and
(3) Other doctorate-holding non-faculty researchers' gender and
type of doctoral degree.
To improve coverage of postdocs, the GSS periodically collects
information on postdocs employed in Federally Funded Research and
Development Centers (FFRDCs) by ethnicity and race, gender,
citizenship, source and mechanism of financial support, and field of
research. This survey of postdocs at FFRDCs will be conducted as part
of the 2023 and 2025 GSS survey cycles. In these years, there will be
an additional 43 coordinators contacted to respond to GSS.
The initial GSS data request is sent to a designated respondent,
the School Coordinator, at each academic institution in the fall. The
School Coordinators gather the data for all of the reporting units at
the institution. Reporting units are comprised of the departments,
programs, research centers, and health care facilities at each
institution. The School Coordinator may upload a file with the
requested data on the GSS website, which will automatically aggregate
the data and populate the cells of the Web survey instrument for each
of the reporting units. This method of data provision is called
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The School Coordinator also may
upload partial data (e.g., student enrollment information) and delegate
the provision of other data (e.g., financial support information) to
the appropriate reporting units at their institution (unit
respondents). Institutions that do not want to use EDI will be able to
complete the survey through manual entry of data (i.e., typing the data
for each response item on every unit) in the Web survey instrument as
in the past.
Data are disseminated annually on the NCSES website <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygradpostdoc">https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygradpostdoc</a> in the form of 93 data tables, a
3 to 5 page InfoBrief, and public use files (<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygradpostdoc/pub_data.cfm">https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygradpostdoc/pub_data.cfm</a>). In addition, current and
historical data are available via the NCSES Integrated Data Tool
(<a href="https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/ids/?utm_source=Main&utm_medium=Main&utm_campaign=Main">https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/ids/?utm_source=Main&utm_medium=Main&utm_campaign=Main</a>).The Data Tool
combines GSS data with academic sector data from both NCSES and the
National Center of Education Statistics and allows for custom querying.
[[Page 10387]]
Use of the Information: The GSS data are routinely provided to
Congress and other Federal agencies. The GSS institutions themselves
are major users of the GSS data. Professional societies such as the
American Association of Universities, the Association of American
Medical Colleges, and the Carnegie Foundation are also major users.
Graduate enrollment and postdoc data are often used in reports by the
national media. With the help of the aforementioned NCSES Data Tool,
NSF reviews changing enrollment levels to assess the effects of NSF
initiatives, track graduate student support patterns, and analyze
participation in science and engineering fields for targeted groups by
discipline and for selected groups of institutions. GSS data are also
used in two congressionally mandated NCSES publications: Women,
Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering
(<a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/wmpd/">https://ncses.nsf.gov/wmpd/</a>) and the National Science Board's Science
and Engineering Indicators (<a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators">https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators</a>). In
addition, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) publish GSS data
annually in the NIH Data Book <a href="https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/">https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/</a> .
Expected Respondents: The GSS is an annual census of all eligible
academic institutions in the U.S. with graduate programs in science,
engineering and health fields. The response rate is calculated based on
the number of reporting units (departments, programs, research centers,
and health care facilities) that respond to the survey. For reference,
in 2021, the GSS population consisted of 21,365 reporting units at 699
academic institutions. Based on recent cycles, NCSES expects the annual
response rate to be around 99 percent.
Estimate of Burden: For each GSS survey cycle, both School
Coordinators and reporting-unit respondents (URs) are asked to provide
an estimate of how long it took them to complete the data collection.
Coordinators at FFRDCs are also asked about the hours required complete
the Web instrument. In the past three GSS cycles (2019-2021 data
collections), the average burden per coordinator was 19.7 hours per
cycle. However, burden varies considerably across respondents. The
amount of time it takes to complete the GSS data depends to a large
degree on the extent to which the school's records are centrally stored
and computerized. It also depends on whether the institution uses
manual data entry or EDI to provide the GSS data, the number of SEH
reporting units that need to be reported by the institution, and the
degree to which URs within the institution are used to collect and
report data.
To estimate burden for the next three GSS data collection survey
cycles (2023, 2024, and 2025), the GSS frame is split by response
method (EDI or manual entry) and the number of reporting units reported
by the institution (more than 15 units are large reporters and 15 or
fewer units are small reporters). Table 1 presents burden estimates
based on observed the size of the institution and burden estimates
collected from the 2019-21 GSS survey cycles. Average burden is
weighted by year and the proportion of institutions that utilize URs in
reporting data to GSS.
The use of URs has a large impact on GSS burden as it requires
multiple individuals at the school to respond to the survey. To address
the variance between schools that use URs and those that do not, UR
burden was calculated and included with the coordinator's burden when
applicable. This calculation is necessary because when a school
utilizes URs, the coordinators' burden is minimal while the response
burden falls to individual URs. Average UR burden was applied to all
units at schools utilizing URs and was then added to the coordinator's
burden.
Table 1--GSS 2019-2021 Total Burden by Institutional Reporting Size, Data Provision Method, and Unit Respondent Status
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Do not use URs Uses URs All coordinators
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Year- Year- Year-
Institution type Average weighted Average weighted Average weighted Average per
coordinators average coordinators average coordinators average cycle burden
per year burden per year burden per year burden (hours)
(hours) (hours) (hours)
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More than 15 units, EDI............................... 314 29.9 19 179.2 332 38.3 12,716
More than 15 units, Manual data entry................. 24 24.7 8 152.8 32 58.1 1,859
15 or fewer units, EDI................................ 350 9.9 5 28.8 354 10.1 3,575
15 or fewer units, Manual data entry.................. 149 7.4 14 22.1 164 8.7 1,427
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Average Estimated Total........................... 836 17.4 46 110.2 882 22.2 19,603
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The expected frame for the 2022 GSS includes 704 institutions
comprising 792 schools with 871 total School Coordinators (some
institutions utilize multiple School Coordinators based on how they are
organized). To estimate the burden for the 2023-2025 GSS survey cycles,
we assume a steady state in terms of the use of EDI but based on recent
cycles we expect the number of School Coordinators to increase by five
each cycle. New schools tend to have small numbers of eligible units
and students, so the five coordinators are added to the small school
manual data entry category. Thus, we expect to have 876 coordinators in
2023, 881 in 2024 and 886 in 2025. The estimated burden per respondent
is approximately 22 hours per School Coordinator; the exact number is
based on the distributions shown in Table 1, adjusted for the
additional coordinators. Given the historically high levels of
participation, a 100 percent school response rate is used in these
estimates. Since the FFRDC postdoc data collection will take place in
2023 and 2025, the estimated burden for those years will increase by 90
hours from 43 FFRDCs (based on 100 percent response rate in 2021 survey
with the average burden of 2.1 hours per FFRDC).
Table 2--GSS Estimated Response Burden
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Respondents
Category (number of school Total burden
coordinators) (hours)
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Total burden for 2023............. 919 19,442
[[Page 10388]]
GSS institutions.............. 876 19,352
FFRDCs........................ 43 90
Total burden for 2024............. 881 19,396
Total burden for 2025............. 929 19,529
GSS institutions.............. 886 19,439
FFRDCs........................ 43 90
Potential future methodological ................. 2,000
studies (across all 3 survey
cycles)..........................
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Total estimated burden.... 2,729 60,367
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Estimated average annual 910 20,123
burden...................
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The total estimated respondent burden of the GSS, including 2,000
hours for potential methodological studies to improve the survey
procedures, will be 60,367 hours over the three-cycle survey clearance
period. NCSES may review and revise this burden estimate based on
completion time data collected during the 2022 GSS survey cycle, which
is ongoing.
Comments: Comments are invited on: (a) whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of NSF, including whether the information shall have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of NSF's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, use, and clarity of the information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of
information technology; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who are to respond, including
through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Dated: February 13, 2023.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2023-03352 Filed 2-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P
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