2023 USASpending academics Survey 1

Follow-Up Exploratory Survey for 29 Researchers and Students Who Visited USASpending.gov between 08/1/2022 – 08/04/2023.

1. Identifiers

This section allows us to get to know you better so we can provide you with a better user experience in the future.

1. How did you first hear about USASpending.gov?

2. Are you:

A researcher: An independent researcher, A researcher with a for-profit institution, A researcher with non-profit institution, An academic researcher (professor) What department are you in? Do you primarily conduct research, teach, or both? For research, what are your areas of interest if any? What courses do you teach if any? What data do you use in your research? (Please be as specific as possible)

A student: Are you an undergraduate? Are you a graduate Student? Master’s Doctorate What department are you in? What is your major or main area of study (or research)?

2. Purpose

This section relates to the purpose of your use of USAspending.gov:

1. How many times do you visit USASpending.gov in a typical month? (On a scale of 1 to 5+).

2. What do you access USAspending.gov for?

• Just browsing and not downloading (If they select this, the survey skips to Section IV - Feedback).

• Downloading data for research (If selected, the survey continues to the next question – 3, then section III - Data).

1. What are your objectives for accessing the data?

• Producing an academic publication (journal, book, dissertation)

• Teaching a class

• Writing a grant proposal

• Other (Please specify)

3. Data

This section relates to the data collection, quality, and accessibility for analysis:

1. What type of computer do you use to access and download USAspending.gov data? Please give as much detail as possible (e.g., desktop or laptop, model number, system specifications such as ram, processor model, and hard drive capacity).

2. How do you access the data that you use? (The respondents can pick 1 or as many as all 4 options)

• By selecting custom filters using Advanced Search?

• Are you successful accessing data through this method?

• How would you rate your experience (1-5),

• Would you recommend it to other researchers?

• Would you recommend any changes to this method?

• By selecting custom filters for award data?

• Are you successful accessing data through this method?

• How would you rate your experience (1-5),

• Would you recommend it to other researchers?

• Would you recommend any changes to this method?

• By selecting custom filters for account data?

• Are you successful accessing data through this method?

• How would you rate your experience (1-5),

• Would you recommend it to other researchers?

• Would you recommend any changes to this method?

• By using the prepackaged award data archive?

• Are you successful accessing data through this method?

• How would you rate your experience (1-5),

• Would you recommend it to other researchers?

• Would you recommend any changes to this method?

• By using the USASpending.gov API endpoints?

• Are you successful accessing data through this method?

• How would you rate your experience (1-5),

• Would you recommend it to other researchers?

• Would you recommend any changes to this method?

3. Do you need to convert the data into a different format after downloading it? If so,

• What format do you convert the data into?

• What programming tools do you use to convert and analyze the data?

4. What data elements from which downloaded files do you primarily use for your research?

5. Have you ever experienced any issues identifying the meaning of a column from a download using the data dictionary? If so,

• how did you address this challenge?

• How did it impact how you used the data in your research?

6. Have you encountered data quality issues that prevented you from addressing a research question? If so, please provide some details?

7. Are the resources on USAspending.gov sufficient for you to perform your research? If not, what additional resources, or improvements to existing resources, would you recommend we bring to USAspending.gov?

4. Feedback

This section relates to your satisfaction with USASpending.gov:

1. How would you rate your overall level of satisfaction with USASpending.gov (1-5)?

2. Would you recommend USASpending.gov to other researchers?

3. Are there any topics for which you would like to have access to additional training resources?

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