[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 45 (Monday, March 9, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11340-11342]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-04579]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request; Survey
of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering
AGENCY: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics,
National Science Foundation.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
(NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing
plans to request renewal of the Survey of Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (OMB Control Number 3145-
0062). In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, NSF is providing opportunity for public comment on this
action. After obtaining and considering public comments, NSF will
prepare the submission requesting that OMB approve clearance of this
collection for three years.
DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by May 8, 2026
to be assured consideration. Comments received after that date will be
considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to address below.
ADDRESSES: Contact Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance Officer, U.S.
National Science Foundation, Randolph Building, 401 Dulany Street,
Alexandria, VA 22314; 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, between 8:00a.m. and 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday
through Friday. You also may obtain a copy of the data collection
instrument and instructions from Ms. Plimpton.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates
in Science and Engineering.
OMB Control Number: 3145-0062.
Expiration Date of Current Approval: September 30, 2026.
Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to extend an information
collection for three years.
Abstract: Established within 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 Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and
Engineering (GSS), sponsored by the NCSES within NSF and the National
Institutes of Health, is designed to comply with legislative mandates
by providing information on the characteristics of academic graduate
enrollments in science, engineering, and health fields. The GSS, which
originated in 1966 and has been conducted annually since 1972, is a
census of all departments in science, engineering, and health (SEH)
fields within academic institutions with graduate programs in the
United States. This request to extend the information collection for
three years is to cover the 2026, 2027, and 2028 GSS survey cycles. The
information collected by the GSS is solicited under the authority of
the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended and the America
COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Data collection starts each fall
in October and data are obtained primarily through a Web survey. All
information will be used for statistical purposes only. Participation
in the survey is voluntary.
The expected frame for the 2026 GSS includes 645 institutions
comprising 725 schools with 793 total Coordinators. The GSS is the only
national survey that collects information on the characteristics of
graduate enrollment and postdoctoral appointees (postdocs) for specific
SEH disciplines at the department level. It collects information on:
(1) Master's and doctoral students' ethnicity and race,
citizenship, gender, source and mechanism of financial support (e.g.,
fellowships, traineeships, assistantships) and enrollment status.
(2) Postdocs' ethnicity and race, citizenship, gender, source and
mechanism of financial support, type of doctoral degree, and degree
origin (U.S. or foreign); and
(3) Other doctorate-holding non-faculty researchers' gender and
type of doctoral degree.
To improve coverage of postdocs, the GSS periodically collects
information on postdocs employed in Federally Funded Research and
Development Centers (FFRDCs) by ethnicity and race, gender,
citizenship, source and mechanism of financial support, and field of
research. This survey of postdocs at FFRDCs will be conducted as part
of the 2027 GSS survey cycle. In this year, there will be an additional
41 coordinators contacted to respond to the GSS.
The initial GSS data request is sent to a designated respondent,
the School Coordinator, at each academic institution in the fall. The
School Coordinators gather the data for all of the reporting units at
the institution. Reporting units are comprised of the departments,
programs, research centers, and health care facilities at each
institution. The School Coordinator may upload a file with the
requested data on the GSS website, which will automatically aggregate
the data and
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populate the cells of the Web survey instrument for each of the
reporting units. This method of data provision is called Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI). The School Coordinator also may upload partial
data (e.g., student enrollment information) and delegate the provision
of other data (e.g., financial support information) to the appropriate
reporting units at their institution (unit respondents). Institutions
that do not want to use EDI will be able to complete the survey through
manual entry of data (i.e., typing the data for each response item on
every unit) in the Web survey instrument as in the past.
Data are disseminated annually on the NCSES website (https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/graduate-students-postdoctorates-s-e) in the form
of approximately 100 data tables, and approximately 60 supplemental
tables available on the NCSES table builder (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/builder/gss), a 3 to 5 page InfoBrief, and public use files (https://ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data/microdata/graduate-students-postdoctorates-s-e). In addition, current and historical data are available via the
NCSES Data Tools (https://ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data). These data tools
combine GSS data with academic sector data from both NCSES and the
National Center of Education Statistics and allow for custom querying.
Use of the Information: The GSS data are routinely provided to
Congress and other Federal agencies. GSS data are also used in two
congressionally mandated NCSES publications: Characteristics of
Scientists and Engineers (CES) (required under 42 U.S.C. 1885(d)) and
the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators
(https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators) (42 U.S.C. 1863(j)(1)). The GSS
institutions themselves are major users of the GSS data. Professional
societies such as the American Association of Universities, the
Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Carnegie Foundation
are also major users. Graduate enrollment and postdoc data are often
used in reports by the national media. With the help of the
aforementioned NCSES Data Tools, NSF reviews changing enrollment levels
to assess the effects of NSF initiatives, track graduate student
support patterns, and analyze participation in science and engineering
fields for targeted groups by discipline and for selected groups of
institutions. In addition, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
publish GSS data annually in the NIH Data Book (https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/).
Expected Respondents: The GSS is an annual census of all eligible
academic institutions in the U.S. with graduate programs in SEH fields.
The response rate is calculated based on the number of reporting units
(departments, programs, research centers, and health care facilities)
that respond to the survey. For reference, in 2024, the GSS population
consisted of 23,121 reporting units at 635 academic institutions. Based
on recent cycles, NCSES expects the annual response rate to be around
98 percent.
Estimate of Burden: For each GSS survey cycle, both School
Coordinators and reporting-unit respondents (URs) are asked to provide
an estimate of how long it took them to complete the data collection.
Coordinators at FFRDCs are also asked about the hours required to
complete the Web instrument. In the past three GSS cycles (2022-2024
data collections), the average burden per coordinator was 20.8 hours
per cycle. However, burden varies considerably across respondents. The
amount of time it takes to complete the GSS data depends to a large
degree on the extent to which the school's records are centrally stored
and computerized. It also depends on whether the institution uses
manual data entry or EDI to provide the GSS data, the number of SEH
reporting units that need to be reported by the institution, and the
degree to which URs within the institution are used to collect and
report data.
To estimate burden for the next three GSS data collection survey
cycles (2026, 2027, and 2028), the GSS frame is split by response
method (EDI or manual entry) and the number of reporting units reported
by the institution (more than 15 units are large reporters and 15 or
fewer units are small reporters). Table 1 presents burden estimates
based on the observed size of the institution and burden estimates
collected from the 2022-2024 GSS survey cycles. Average burden is
weighted by year and the proportion of institutions that utilize URs in
reporting data to GSS.
The use of URs has a large impact on GSS burden as it requires
multiple individuals at the school to respond to the survey. To address
the variance between schools that use URs and those that do not, UR
burden was calculated and included with the coordinator's burden when
applicable. This calculation is necessary because when a school
utilizes URs, the coordinators' burden is minimal while the response
burden falls to individual URs. Average UR burden was applied to all
units at schools utilizing URs and was then added to the coordinator's
burden.
Table 1--GSS 2022-2024 Total Burden by Institutional Reporting Size, Data Provision Method, and Unit Respondent Status
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Do not use URs Uses URs All coordinators
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Institution type Avg. Year-weighted Avg. Year-weighted Avg. Year-weighted
coordinators avg. burden coordinators avg. burden coordinators avg. burden
per year (hours) per year (hours) per year (hours)
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More than 15 units, EDI............................... 332 32.2 10 171.1 342 36.1
More than 15 units, Manual data entry................. 20 25.8 8 78.5 28 40.3
15 or fewer units, EDI................................ 320 8.2 3 30.2 322 8.3
15 or fewer units, Manual data entry.................. 125 6.8 8 16.1 133 7.4
Average Estimated Total............................... 798 18.4 28 88.9 825 20.8
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The expected frame for the 2026 GSS includes 645 institutions
comprising 725 schools with 793 total School Coordinators (some
institutions utilize multiple School Coordinators based on how they are
organized). To estimate the burden for the 2026-2028 GSS survey cycles,
we assume a steady state in terms of the use of EDI but based on recent
cycles we expect the number of School Coordinators to increase by five
each cycle. Because newly eligible schools tend to have small numbers
of eligible units and students, we have added five coordinators to the
small school manual data entry category. Thus, we expect to have 793
coordinators in 2026, 798 in 2027, and
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803 in 2028. The estimated burden per respondent is approximately 21
hours per School Coordinator; the exact number is based on the
distributions shown in Table 1, adjusted for the additional
coordinators. Given the historically high levels of participation, a
100 percent school response rate is used in these estimates. Since the
FFRDC postdoc data collection will take place in 2027, the estimated
burden for those years will increase by 86 hours from 41 FFRDCs (based
on 100 percent response rate in the 2023 survey with the average burden
of 2.1 hours per FFRDC).
Table 2--GSS Estimated Response Burden
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Respondents (#
Category of school Total burden
coordinators) (hours)
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Total burden for 2026................... 793 16,886
Total burden for 2027................... 839 17,009
GSS institutions.................... 798 16,923
FFRDCs.............................. 41 86
Total burden for 2028................... 803 16,960
Potential future methodological studies .............. 2,000
(across all 3 survey cycles)...........
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Total estimated burden.............. 2,435 52,855
Estimated average annual burden..... 812 17,618
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The total estimated respondent burden of the GSS, including 2,000
hours for potential methodological studies to improve the survey
procedures, will be 52,855 hours over the three-cycle survey clearance
period. NCSES may review and revise this burden estimate based on
completion time data collected during the 2025 GSS survey cycle, which
is currently in the field.
Comments: Comments are invited on: (a) whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of NSF, including whether the information shall have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of NSF's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, use, and clarity of the information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of
information technology; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who are to respond, including
through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Dated: March 5, 2026.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2026-04579 Filed 3-6-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P