GenIC Request

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0920-0974)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2016 Customer Service Feedback Survey Pilot

PURPOSE:

Since 1950, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Series (MMWR) has been the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. MMWR rapidly publishes content of interest and importance to CDC’s major constituents, with the primary objective to inform public health decision making. MMWR readership predominately consists of public health practitioners, including, but not limited to, educators, epidemiologists, health educators, laboratorians, nurses, physicians, policy analysts, researchers, scientists and students. Since its beginning in 1950, MMWR has received very little reader feedback, although its subscriber population is currently 248,388 weekly notifications sent via GovDelivery email subscription service.

MMWR proposes to pilot test a customer satisfaction feedback survey of its readership that will collect information that will be used to: 1) define the MMWR readership, 2) assess gaps in reach, 3) assess satisfaction of current MMWR approaches and 4) improve delivery, content and format of MMWR. Opinions and feedback gathered from MMWR patrons through the customer satisfaction feedback survey will inform MMWR of how the MMWR is used, the degree of product satisfaction, the impact on readers and the improvements needed for future issues.

Pilot testing the survey with a small sample of the MMWR readership will help to ensure the accuracy and reliability of this customer service feedback survey and identify and correct any issues with sampling, administration, survey design and data analysis.

Feedback received from the pilot testing will inform the final stages of development of the MMWR customer service feedback survey tentatively planned for launch in fall 2016.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents to the pilot test will be voluntary subscribers to the MMWR Series who receive weekly notifications via the GovDelivery email subscription service. MMWR Series subscribers include medical and public health practitioners, including, but not limited to, educators, epidemiologists, health educators, laboratorians, nurses, physicians, policy analysts, researchers, scientists and students.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software) [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: ________________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [x] No

BURDEN HOURS

The customer satisfaction feedback survey will be web-based and include 27 questions. The survey will be sent to 1,500 MMWR readers and we anticipate an approximate 20% response rate or 300 individuals to complete the survey. For the 1,500 potential respondents to read the request to participate, it will take 1 minute. Individuals who choose to complete the survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete the survey through the web-based Survey Monkey. The estimate for burden hours is based on results from volunteer CDC employee participants taking the survey. The average time it took for volunteers to read the instructions was 1 minute and to complete the survey, was approximately 15 minutes.

Given 1,500 potential respondents with 1 minute to read the request to participate and 300 respondents to take 15 minutes to complete the survey, the total response burden will be 100 hours. There will be no cost to the respondents other than their time to respond to the survey.

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individuals	1,500	1 min	25
Individuals	300	15 min	75
Totals	1,800		100

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is ___$2772.60____

There ae no equipment or overhead costs. The average annualized cost to the Federal Government to collect this information is $2772.60. This estimate is based on the time required for one senior CDC scientist (GS-14) to supervise, a CDC scientist (GS-12 equivalent) and ORISE Fellow (GS 9 equivalent) to design the pilot survey, develop the web-based survey, implement the pilot survey, analyze the data, and develop recommendations for improvement for MMWR based on survey results.

Staff or Contractor	Hours	Average Hourly Rate	Cost
FTE (GS 12): survey design, create web-based survey, implementation, analysis, and reporting (GS-9 equivalent)	30	$35.70	$1071.00
ORISE Fellow (GS-9 equivalent)	30	$24.62	$738.60
FTE supervisor (GS-14): Provide oversight to the contractor and guidance on instrument development and data analysis. Provide feedback on the final report.	15	$64.20	$963
Totals			$2772.60

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [x] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

The MMWR 2016 Customer Satisfaction Feedback Survey Pilot will be administered as a web-based survey. An invitation email with a link to the survey will be sent to a random sample of 1,500 of the current 248,388 subscribers on GovDelivery subscribed to MMWR. These surveys will be distributed across e-mail domains proportional to the number of readers in each domain. Using a stratified, random sampling, we subset the list of e-mails based on domain (e.g. *.com, *.edu, *.gov) to insure that our sampling efforts cover the diverse readership. This will be used as a proxy for readers in the general public, education, and government.

To accurately reflect all the potential responses we would receive from the readership as a whole, we need a total of 300 responses. Assuming a ~20% response rate, this will require the survey to be sent to 1,500 readers. If we receive greater than 20% response rate across all domains, we will have an adequate representative sample of each grouping. This will allow us to do analysis to understand the spread of demographics.

Respondents will be given 2 weeks to respond to the survey. A reminder email will be sent twice: one at the beginning of week 2 and one on the day that the survey closes. Respondents will have to complete the survey in one sitting. Respondents cannot return to edit or complete the survey and the survey does not track individual responses.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [X] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Instructions for completing Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Provide a brief description of the targeted group or groups for this collection of information. These groups must have experience with the program.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Provide answers to the questions.

Gifts or Payments: If you answer yes to the question, please describe the incentive and provide a justification for the amount.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group)

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time and divide by 60.

FEDERAL COST: Provide an estimate of the annual cost to the Federal government.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents. Please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them. If the answer is yes, to the first question, you may provide the sampling plan in an attachment.

Administration of the Instrument: Identify how the information will be collected. More than one box may be checked. Indicate whether there will be interviewers (e.g. for surveys) or facilitators (e.g., for focus groups) used.

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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