Interview Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). In our June 8, 2007, letter to you (and our January 7, 2008, submission as well), we discussed our plans to conduct in-depth interviews with business respondents to support the development of a redesigned Survey of Industrial Research & Development (SIRD), an annual survey co-sponsored by the Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. The main goal of our testing is to get respondent feedback on issues related to the redesigned SIRD questionnaire, to be called the Business Research and Development Survey (BRDS).

We have now completed 3 of 5 rounds of cognitive testing (with 15-30 respondents each round), each lasting 3 months (2 months in the field, plus a month for summarizing, debriefing and planning the next round). We are enclosing the draft questionnaire module that will be tested in round 4, containing questions about Legal/Intellectual Property issues. Note that this is an update, since the burden hours and procedures for these interviews were approved in the previous letters.

In addition, however, we plan to conduct usability testing of the electronic data collection instrument in Census Taker. Screen shots of the current draft versions of the Financial and Human Resources modules of the BRDS are attached. The usability testing will focus on reporting consistency between the paper and electronic form and the inevitable design changes when moving a form from paper to the Web. The usability testing of the website will focus on the following areas:

-Navigation: ensuring respondents can move easily among data fields and among screens;

-Submission of data/form completion: making sure respondents know how to submit their data online;

-Multiple modules: understanding how companies will interact with the multiple modules and how they will pass them across the company; and

-Data edits: ensuring the edits are clear and not burdensome.

During May-August, 2008, we plan to conduct 2 rounds of usability testing, for a total of approximately 40 usability interviews using concurrent think-aloud methods. We will attempt to obtain interviews with businesses that vary in size, complexity, and type of company. Interviews will be conducted at the business sites by staff from the Establishment Survey Methods Staff (ESMS) in the Economic Directorate of the Census Bureau. Subject area specialists will accompany the usability tester on most, if not all, of the interviews. They will assist with respondent debriefing, especially in cases where additional clarification of the subject matter is required.

Participants will be asked to complete the form using the Census Taker software in order to test the usability and functionality of the overall instrument. Additionally, participants will be given tasks that will test several specific features, such as rare edits, skip patterns, printing, etc. Findings from the testing will be used to revise Census Taker.

Participants will be recruited by ESMS members using a list of R&D companies provided by the Manufacturing and Construction Division. After they are recruited, participants will receive a follow-up reminder of their appointments by fax, telephone or e-mail. All interviews will be audio-recorded with the participants' permission, to facilitate accurate summarization of the results. Participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be seen only by employees involved in the research project. We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study.

These usability interviews will be conducted concurrently with rounds 4 and 5 of the cognitive testing. Some of the respondents will be previous respondents from the earlier rounds, but we also anticipate recruiting additional companies to focus solely on the usability testing.

We estimate that each usability interview will take approximately 1 1/2 hours, which will include 2 respondents (one for each module being tested). Thus, the total additional burden for the usability testing is 60 hours (2 rounds X 1 1/2 hours X 20 respondents per round).

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is:

Kristin Stettler

Establishment Survey Methods Staff

OSMREP, Room 7K132A

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-7596

[email protected]