[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 139 (Friday, July 21, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33929-33931]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-15326]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Submission for OMB review; comment request.

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SUMMARY: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and as part of its 
continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) is inviting the general public and 
other Federal agencies to comment on this proposed reinstated 
information collection. NSF is forwarding the proposed submission to 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance simultaneously 
with the publication of this second notice. The full submission may be 
found at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by August 21, 
2017, to be assured consideration. Comments received after that date 
will be considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to address 
below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance 
Officer, National Science Foundation,

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4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1265, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone 
(703) 292-7556; or send email to [email protected]. Individuals who use 
a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, which is accessible 
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (including federal 
holidays).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is the second notice for public 
comment; the first was published in the Federal Register at 81 FR 35805 
and no comments were received. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper 
performance of the functions of the Foundation, including whether the 
information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 
Foundation's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of 
the collection of information on those who are to respond, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    Title of Collection: 2017 Early Career Doctorates Survey.
    OMB Approval Number: 3145-0235.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to reinstate an 
information collection for three years.
    Abstract: Established within the NSF by the America COMPETES 
Reauthorization Act of 2010 Sec.  505, codified in the National Science 
Foundation Act of 1950, as amended, the National Center for Science and 
Engineering Statistics (NCSES) serves as a central Federal 
clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, analysis, and 
dissemination of objective data on science, engineering, technology, 
and research and development for use by practitioners, researchers, 
policymakers, and the public. The Early Career Doctorates Survey (ECDS) 
will become part of an integrated survey system that meets the human 
resources statistics part of this mission.
    The Early Career Doctorates Project was established to gather in-
depth information about early career doctorates (ECD), including 
postdoctoral researchers (postdocs). Early career doctorates are 
critical to the success of the U.S. scientific enterprise and will 
influence U.S. and global scientific markets for years to come. Despite 
their importance, current surveys of this population are limited, and 
extant workforce studies are insufficient for covering all doctorates 
who contribute to the U.S. economy. The NSF's Survey of Earned 
Doctorates and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients are limited to 
individuals who received research doctorates from U.S. academic 
institutions, thereby excluding individuals who earned professional 
doctorates and those who earned doctorates from institutions outside 
the United States but are currently employed in the United States. The 
NSF's Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and 
Engineering (GSS) provides aggregate level data for all postdocs and 
nonfaculty researchers regardless of where they earned the degree. 
However, the GSS is limited to science, engineering, and selected 
health (SEH) fields in U.S. academic institutions and their related 
research facilities and is collected at the program rather than the 
individual level.
    Through its multi-year Postdoc Data Project, NCSES determined the 
need for and the feasibility of gathering information about postdocs 
working in the United States. However, efforts to reliably identify and 
gather information about postdocs proved difficult due to substantial 
variation in how institutions characterize postdoc appointments. As a 
result, NCSES expanded the target population to include all individuals 
who earned their first doctorate within the past 10-years. Expanding 
the population to doctoral degree holders ensures a larger, more 
consistent and reliable target population. Unique in scope, the key 
goals of the ECD Project are:
     To broaden the scope and depth of national statistics on 
the ECD population both U.S. degreed and non-U.S. degreed, across 
employment sectors and fields of discipline
     To collect nationally representative data from ECD that 
can be used by funding agencies, policy makers, and other researchers 
to better understand the labor market and work experiences of recent 
doctorate recipients
     To gather the diverse definitions for ECD to allow for 
analysis within and across employment sectors
    The current focus of the ECD Project is to conduct a survey of ECD 
working in three areas of employment: U.S. academic institutions in the 
GSS, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and the 
National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Programs. NCSES, 
under full clearance (OMB #3145-0235), has conducted a pilot survey 
with data collection period spanning July 2014 to March 2015. The Pilot 
ECDS data was released in January 2017.
    Beginning in August 2017, NSF will request lists of ECD from 
approximately 350 institutions nationwide, and sample 22,855 
individuals from these lists. Sample members will be invited to 
participate in a 32-minute web-based questionnaire. The survey topics 
cover: educational achievement, professional activities, employer 
demographics, professional and personal life balance, mentoring, 
training and research opportunities, and career paths and plans. 
Participation in the survey is voluntary.
    The survey will be collected in conformance with the Privacy Act of 
1974, the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical 
Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2002, and the Federal Cybersecurity 
Enhancement Act of 2015. The NSF will ensure that all individually 
identifiable information collected will be kept strictly confidential 
and will be used for research or statistical purposes.
    Use of the Information: The NSF will publish statistics from the 
survey in several reports, including the National Science Board's 
Science and Engineering Indicators and NCSES's Women, Minorities, and 
Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. These reports 
will be made available electronically on the NSF Web site. Restricted-
use and public use data files will also be developed, and will be made 
available to interested researchers from government, professional 
associations, and other organizations. Restricted-use data may be 
obtained under a license agreement.
    Expected Respondents: There are five groups who contribute to the 
estimated total burden hours of the 2017 ECDS data collection. Three 
groups assist in the development of an accurate list of ECD: 
Institutional high authority (HA), communication coordinator (CC), and 
list coordinator (LC). The fourth and fifth groups consist of the 
individual early career doctorates (ECD) and ineligible respondents. At 
the first stage of sampling, the 2017 ECDS will select approximately 
350 institutions. At each institution, a high authority (HA) will 
authorize the institution's participation in the study, designate a 
list coordinator (LC) and a communication coordinator (CC), and provide 
a letter of support for the survey. The primary responsibility of the 
LC is to prepare a list of ECD working at the institution. The LC will 
provide a list of all ECD, that is, individuals working at their 
institution who earned their first doctorate or doctorate-equivalent 
degree within the past 10 years, including postdocs, non-faculty 
researchers, tenured or tenure-track faculty members. The primary

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responsibility of the CC is to coordinate all ECDS-related 
institutional communications. In the second stage, the 2017 ECDS will 
select a sample of up to 22,855 ECD to participate in the survey with 
the goal of attaining 18,000 eligible ECD respondents. The HA, with the 
help of the CC, will notify the sampled individuals of their selection 
and NSF will survey these individuals.
    Estimate of Burden: In the 2017 ECDS, taking into account all five 
respondent types (HA, CC, LC, ECD, and ineligible respondents), we 
estimate the total respondent burden to be 12,641 hours. We estimate a 
total burden of 157 hours for HAs, 470 hours for CCs, 2,400 hours for 
list coordinators, 9,600 hours for ECD, and 14 hours for ineligible 
respondents. These estimates use the burden information collected 
during the Pilot ECDS and assume that 300 institutions will participate 
(approximately 86%) during stage 1 of the 2017 ECDS data collection, 
240 of the participating institutions (80%) will send pre-notification 
emails to potential respondents in stage 2 of data collection, and that 
the 22,855 sample size will result in 18,000 eligible responding ECD 
and 410 ineligible respondents. The amount of time for eligible 
responding ECD to complete the 2017 ECDS questionnaire may vary 
depending on an individual's circumstances; however, NCSES estimate it 
will take approximately 32 minutes. The below table shows the estimated 
burden by stage and respondent type.

                            Estimated Burden by Stage and Respondent Type: 2017 ECDS
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                                                                                                     Estimated
                         Respondent type                          Sample members    Minutes per    total  burden
                                                                                    respondent         hours
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Stage 1: Frame Creation:
    High Authority (HA).........................................             350              20             117
    Communication Coordinator (CC)..............................             350              60             350
    List Coordinator (LC).......................................             300             480           2,400
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
        Subtotal................................................  ..............  ..............           2,867
Stage 2: Individual Survey
    High Authority (HA) Communication...........................             240              10              40
    Coordinator (CC)............................................             240              30             120
    Early Career Doctorate (ECD)................................          18,000              32           9,600
    Ineligible Respondents......................................             410               2              14
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
        Subtotal................................................  ..............  ..............           9,774
            Total...............................................  ..............  ..............          12,641
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    Updates: Relative to the first notice, there are three substantive 
changes: (1) The first notice included the statement that ``NSF will 
request lists of ECD from approximately 390 institutions nationwide, 
and sample 24,000 individuals from these lists'' was based on the 
initial sample design plan. Based on additional analysis, the final 
sample sizes decreased to a sample of approximately 350 institutions 
and 22,855 individuals. (2) The first notice also stated ``Sample 
members will be invited to participate in a 40-minute web-based 
questionnaire.'' Since the first notice, NCSES further revised the 
Pilot ECDS questionnaire to reduce the time needed to complete the 
survey to 32 minutes. (3) NCSES reduced the estimated burden to 12,641 
hours from the 19,900 hours provided in the first notice. This 
reduction in the estimated burden was a result of the smaller sample 
sizes, a reduction in the time to complete the survey, and a change in 
the expected response rate.
    NSF may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless 
the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control 
number and the agency informs potential persons who are to respond to 
the collection of information that such persons are not required to 
respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

    Dated: July 17, 2017.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-15326 Filed 7-20-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7555-01-P