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Each issue of the newsletter will highlight how one of the nation’s statistical agencies or units is using the SAP as a tool for evidence building. This newsletter features the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) is a principal statistical agency within the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF). As one of the 13 principal federal statistical agencies, NCSES follows guiding principles and practices that ensure it provides accurate, timely, relevant, and objective information for public and policy use. NCSES produces high-quality statistical data on research and development (R&D); the science and engineering workforce; U.S. competitiveness in science, engineering, technology, and R&D; and the condition and progress of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the United States.
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NCSES was reauthorized from the original mandate in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 by Section 505 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Since then, the agency has grown to sponsor 16 active surveys that collect data on R&D spending and personnel, college graduates, recent doctorate recipients, and the educational and training characteristics of the nation’s workforce. Many of NCSES’s datasets are publicly available through public-use microdata files on the agency’s website. Data tables are available for each of NCSES’s surveys. Data tools are also available that allow for analysis of NCSES data on R&D as well as on the education and employment of the STEM workforce.
NCSES also makes several datasets available through the SAP that provide detailed information about the characteristics of the STEM workforce in the United States and of recipients of higher education degrees in STEM fields. For example, the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) includes data on individuals with a bachelor's or advanced degree, with a special focus on individuals trained or employed in science or engineering. In the past, data from the survey were used in published research to study changes over time in STEM fields, such as attrition in nursing, as well as wage differentials between immigrants with temporary visas and those with permanent resident status.
Three other NCSES datasets that are available through the SAP focus on individuals with doctoral degrees. The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) is an annual census of research doctorate recipients from U.S. academic institutions. The Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) provides demographic, current employment, and career history information from individuals with a U.S. doctoral degree in a science, engineering, or health field. The Early Career Doctorates Survey (ECDS), conducted in 2017, gathered in-depth information about individuals who earned their first doctoral degree (PhD, MD, or equivalent) in the past 10 years and worked at academic institutions or Federally Funded Research and Development Centers. In the future, the National Training, Education, and Workforce Survey (NTEWS) will also be available through the SAP.
In addition, NCSES sponsors multiple datasets available through the Census Bureau with access through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (FSRDCs). They include the Annual Business Survey (ABS) and datasets within the Research and Development Surveys (RADS), which include the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Survey and its predecessor surveys.
NCSES data are being used to answer policy- and industry-relevant research questions related to the U.S. STEM workforce. Over the past year, the SAP has been used by academic researchers and university administrators to access NCSES data to research a number of equity issues, including factors that influence the decision of foreign female students to stay in the United States after completing their doctoral degrees; potential barriers to STEM careers by race and ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and gender; minority representation in U.S. university faculties; and the relationship between different postdoctoral experiences and job satisfaction among STEM early career doctorates.
NCSES looks forward to seeing additional applications from researchers seeking NCSES data to support their research and evidence building.
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