STATISTICAL METHODS
DESCRIBE THE POTENTIAL RESPONDENT UNIVERSE
The Scientific Collections Survey is to sample all eligible institutions. An eligible institution is any institution with a scientific collection that is supported by or used by persons supported by the National Science Foundation. There are over 850 institutions that fall into one or both of these categories. The expected response rate is 85% of the institutions surveyed.
PROCEDURES FOR THE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
The IWGSC’s goal is to distribute the survey to ALL organizations who meet the criteria of maintaining Federally supported, object-based, scientific collection(s). The organizations were selected through IWGSC membership and consultation with the Committee on Science. As part of the IWGSC, the National Science Foundation will survey all organizations with a scientific collection that is supported by or used by persons supported by the National Science Foundation. As the survey will be distributed to all institutions that meet the above criteria, sampling of the potential respondent universe will not be conducted. The IWGSC seeks an 85% response rate. The survey will be administered only one time to meet the OSTP-OMB request (Appendix 1) to focus on the current status of federally supported object based scientific collections.
METHODS TO MAXIMIZE RESPONSE RATE AND MINIMIZE NON-RESPONSE RATE
STPI will work with agency representatives to develop a follow up plan that may include telephone interviews and follow up emails to maximize response rate. Analysis of non-respondents may take place along the following dimensions: Institution (Program within institution, size of institution) and Collection type (size of collection, using the typology created by the NSTC/COS/IWGSC).
TESTS OF PROCEDURES OR METHODS TO BE UNDERTAKEN
A pilot survey was distributed to four selected agencies. Upon completion, the nine participants from the selected agencies were interviewed via telephone. Comments and concerns from these nine interviews were recorded and corresponding improvements were made to the final version of the survey instrument as necessary. Pilot survey results were also tabulated for the purpose of improving the final survey instrument.
NAMES AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS OF CONSULTANTS
The collection and analyses will be performed by the Science and Technology Policy Institute under the direction of Pamela Flattau, 202-419-3735.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Modified | 2006-08-02 |
| File Created | 2006-08-02 |