CIRCUMSTANCES MAKING COLLECTION OF INFORMATION NECESSARY
On September 11, 1993, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” which clearly defined his vision that the Federal agencies will put the public first. To accomplish this, President Clinton called for a “revolution within the Federal government to change the way it does business.” He expected this process to require continual reform of government practices and operations to the end that, “when dealing with the Federal agencies, all people receive service that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.”
Section 1(b) of this E.O. requires agencies to “survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services” and Section 1(a) requires agencies to “survey front- line employees on barriers to, and ideas for, matching the best in business.” These Presidential requirements established an ongoing need for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to engage in an interactive process of collecting information and using it to improve program services and processes.
The Division of Information Systems (DIS) of NSF has been conducting usability studies on Research.gov (http://www.research.gov), NSF’s grants management system that provides access to research-related information and grants management services. These studies were prompted by feedback received from the research community, ForeSee ratings (ForeSee is an online tool that helps measure customer satisfaction, and research.gov is covered by the Department of Interior’s “American Customer Satisfaction Index [ACSI] E-Government Website Customer Satisfaction Surveys – OMB approval number 1090-0008), and the amount of time and resources required by the Foundation’s IT help desk to field Research.gov inquiries. In order to make justifiable, money-saving improvements to the system, the usability team would like to gather information and feedback from the user community on the type of people who use the system and how the system could be improved to better meet their needs.
HOW, BY WHOM, AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH INFORMATION IS TO BE USED
The survey will primarily target the research community, but also the general public. The data collected will be used to make improvements and enhancements to the Research.gov system, with the goal of increasing efficiency, productivity, and end-user satisfaction.
USE OF AUTOMATION
The survey will be available via SurveyMonkey, a web-based survey tool. The survey will be linked from both the Research.gov and FastLane.gov websites (https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/) and will be entirely voluntary.
EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION
Not applicable.
SMALL BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS
Not applicable.
CONSEQUENCES OF LESS FREQUENT COLLECTION
Not applicable.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES FOR COLLECTION
Not applicable.
FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE.
The agency’s notices, as required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d), were published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2011, at 76 FR 2151 and May 10, 2011 at 76 FR 27093 and no comments were received.
OUTSIDE CONSULTATION
It is estimated that the survey will take no more than 15 minutes to complete.
GIFTS OR REMUNERATION
Not applicable.
CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED TO RESPONDENTS
Yes, this is stated in the opening sentences of the survey: “This survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Your answers are anonymous… .” Identifying information is collected at the end of the survey, but it is voluntary. The identifying information is collected by a separate form and will be used for future usability studies; it is not tied to the survey data in any way.
QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE
No questions of a sensitive nature will be asked.
ESTIMATE OF BURDEN
Each respondent will submit only one survey response. There are two general types of respondents: 1) Researchers, and 2) the general public. The “researcher” group is comprised of NSF-funded research faculty at research universities and general participants within the community who use NSF’s grants management services or administrative functions. The “general public” group is comprised of non-researcher users of Research.gov, who come to the site for Research.gov news and other features, not to use its grants management services. It is anticipated that the majority of respondents will be from the research community as only a small amount of the general public visits Research.gov. Only the research community uses the FastLane website. It is anticipated that the average response time for a respondent from the community will be fifteen (15) minutes. This estimate is based on the survey length and time required to complete similar surveys in the past. NSF estimates the number of research and general public responses to the survey to be 150. The total burden hours are estimated to be 38: (150 researchers x 15 minutes / 60 minutes).
ANNUALIZED COST TO RESPONDENTS
In April 2011, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a table of average faculty salaries by field and rank at doctoral institutions for the academic year of 2012-2013. The data was collected from the “Annual survey by the American Association of University Professors.” The salaries are rounded to the nearest $100 and adjusted to a nine-month work year.
Cost to Respondents
Average salary of faculty (researchers) as described above |
$90,838.67 |
Hourly salary based on 1,560 annual hours (40 hours per week for 39 weeks) |
$58.23 |
Estimate of survey burden (researchers) |
38 hours |
Cost to researcher respondents |
$2,212.74 |
CAPITAL/STARTUP COSTS
Not applicable.
ANNUALIZED COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The table below estimates the cost to the government associated with the Research.gov and FastLane User Profile survey. Costs include contractor support and the participation of federal government employees. Federal employee hourly rate was calculated from OPM’s Salary Table 2014-DCB for salaries effective January 2014. The hourly wage for a GS-13-9 was used. The total cost is estimated at $5,544.34.
Cost to the Federal Government
Contractor support for survey data collection and analysis |
$1560 |
Hourly salary of federal government employee (GS-13-9) |
$54.58 |
Hours, federal government employee review and oversight |
73 |
Cost of federal government employee review and oversight |
$3,984.34 |
Cost to the Federal Government |
$5,544.34 |
CHANGES IN BURDEN
Not applicable.
PUBLICATION OF COLLECTION
The data collected from this survey will not be made public.
SEEKING APPROVAL TO NOT DISPLAY OMB EXPIRATION DATE
Not applicable.
EXCEPTION(S) TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT (19) ON OMB 83-I
There are no exceptions.
STATISTICAL METHODS
B.1.
Universe and Sampling Procedures
Expected respondents will be from one of two categories: Researchers or grant administrators and the general public. It is anticipated that the most of the respondents will be NSF-funded research faculty at research universities, along with general participants within the research community who use NSF’s grants management services. The general public category is comprised of those who come to Research.gov for news and other search features, but not to use its grants management services.
B.2.
Survey Methodology
The survey will be web-based, and a link to the survey will be available on http://www.research.gov and https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/.
B.3. Methods to Maximize Response
Every effort will be made to maximize the participants’ response to the survey. The survey will be highlighted on the Research.gov and FastLane websites with eye-catching graphics and informational text. Questions will be relevant, brief, and explicit. The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.
B.4. Testing of Procedures
This time estimate for survey completion is based on the survey length and time required to complete similar surveys in the past. The survey will be tested internally at NSF to validate functionality.
B.5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects of Data Collection
Stephanie Yee, project manager in DIS, is the point of contact for data collection and analysis – [email protected].
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | JFELDMAN |
| Last Modified By | Plimpton, Suzanne H. |
| File Modified | 2014-02-24 |
| File Created | 2014-02-24 |