Memo for IC#1_Cancer Bulletin Survey

Date: April 19, 2010

To: Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Through: Seleda Perryman, DHHS Report Clearance Officer

Mikia Currie, NIH Program Analyst, OPERA

Vivian Horovitch-Kelley, NCI OMB Project Clearance Liaison, OMAA

From: Nina Goodman, Project Officer

Office of Communications and Education (OCE)

National Cancer Institute/NIH

Subject: 2010 NCI Cancer Bulletin Reader Survey

OMB No. 0925-0046-01, Expiration Date 2/28/13

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) proposes conducting a web-based satisfaction survey of the subscribers of the NCI Cancer Bulletin. The NCI Cancer Bulletin is a biweekly electronic publication of the NCI’s Office of Communications and Education (OCE); it is intended to provide useful, timely information to the cancer community about NCI, its programs and policies, and the latest innovations in cancer research. The objective of this study is to explore the extent to which the Bulletin meets its subscribers’ needs and identify ways in which it may be improved so it continues to meet their needs.

The Office of Market Research and Evaluation (OMRE) within OCE has conducted web-based subscriber surveys of the NCI Cancer Bulletin on three previous occasions—in May 2004, December 2005 and September/October 2007. All of these previous surveys were approved by OMB under either OCE’s previous generic clearance packages 0925-0046 (expiration date 1/31/10 and 10/31/2006) or 0925-0526 (expiration date 2/28/2007). The findings of these surveys have provided useful feedback to NCI, including information related to the composition of its subscribers, the usefulness of different sections of the Bulletin, readers’ level of satisfaction, and suggestions for new content. The current study will be a follow-up to this earlier research and will be conducted through an existing contract with the Academy of Educational Development (AED). Since the last evaluation, the Bulletin has undergone a redesign (e.g., shifting to an online-only publication, integrating social media). Through this current study NCI is interested in continuing to assess areas already evaluated in the previous surveys as well as exploring reactions to elements of the Bulletin’s redesign. Findings from this study will be used to help inform the future development of this biweekly electronic publication.

Background information on Web surveys

Web-based surveys represent a standard state-of-the-art formative research methodology, adapted from marketing and communications research. For this research, a self-administered web-based survey will be used, as it is a methodology frequently used by NCI to conduct satisfaction surveys with stakeholders that is reliable, efficient, and economical. This survey will be accessed on-line at a designated, secure Internet site.

Proposed Research: Web-based satisfaction survey of NCI Cancer Bulletin readers

NCI proposes using a customized Web survey to gather feedback from subscribers of the NCI Cancer Bulletin regarding their satisfaction and thoughts/opinions about different aspects and content of the Bulletin. This survey will also help NCI gather feedback regarding characteristics of its subscribers that are relevant to the development of the Bulletin.

For this research, NCI proposes conducting a web-based satisfaction survey with subscribers of the NCI Cancer Bulletin. The sample for the survey will be the current subscribers of the Bulletin. The Bulletin currently has approximately 50,000 subscribers—up from 35,000 in 2007, the last time the survey was administered. Subscribers include both professionals and members of the general public.

Participants will be asked to answer a brief, self-administered, web-based survey which includes 22 questions. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Areas the questions will assess include the following:

• Composition of subscribers (e.g., professional vs. general public, geographic location)

• Overall satisfaction level of readers

• Depth with which subscribers read the Bulletin

• Extent to which different sections of the Bulletin are read

• Usefulness of different sections of the Bulletin

• Subscribers’ opinions and preferences regarding the length of the articles and the level of detail of the information

• Platforms subscribers use to read the Bulletin (e.g., Web, smart phone, print outs)

• Utility of the Bulletin as a way for staying abreast of cancer-related research and information

• Forms of online communication used by subscribers (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds)

• Other sources subscribers use for cancer news

• Content/information readers would like to see added

The survey will be fielded for approximately 3 weeks. Based on the previous survey, a response rate of approximately 11% is expected for this study, for a total number of about 5,500 respondents.

Estimates of Hour Burden
Types of Respondents	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Response Time	Annual Hour Burden
NCI Cancer Bulletin Subscribers	5,500	1	10 min. (0.17)	917 hr

A short announcement (pre-notice) will run in the Bulletin just prior to sending the initial email invitation during survey fielding to notify readers of the upcoming survey and reassure them of its legitimacy. To recruit participants, all Bulletin subscribers will be sent an email announcing the survey and inviting their participation. The e-mail announcement will include a link to the survey hosted on an NCI server. Up to two additional reminders will be e-mailed to subscribers to invite them to participate and thanking them if they have already completed a survey. As an ongoing reminder, an announcement will be posted on the Bulletin’s Web site while the survey is being fielded. The NCI Cancer Bulletin staff responsible for managing the Bulletin subscriber list will send out all e-mail notifications and reminders to prospective participants.

The survey will present a single question at a time. It will allow respondents to advance through the survey only by answering or skipping each question. Progress indicators will be visible throughout the survey.

Participation will be strictly voluntary and individual respondents will not be identified. Responses will have no personally identifiable information; no names or e-mail addresses will be recorded or linked to the responses nor will any responses to items have any effect on the participants’ eligibility for, or receipt of, services. All data will be collected by the contractor, AED. All information provided by respondents will be maintained in a confidential manner, unless compelled by law. AED will do the analysis of the data and write the report of the findings. Findings in the report delivered to NCI will be reported in the aggregate and no identifiable individual responses will be provided. Representatives from both the NCI and AED Institutional Review Boards will review the research protocol and instruments to ensure that all necessary human subject protection procedures are in place.

The full generic study, approved on February 10, 2010, requested a total of 7,050 burden hours over a three year period. There have been no previous sub-studies approved by OMB under this umbrella submission, totaling zero burden hours requested to date. Approval by OMB of this sub-study would bring the total burden hour requested to date for 0925-0046 to 917, which is approximately 13% of the total burden hours allowed.

Thank you for your consideration of this proposed sub-study 0925-0046-01.

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