09/24/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/24/2024 05:53
Changes in survey coverage and population. For the 2023 cycle, seven institutions were added to the SED universe.
Changes in questionnaire. The following changes were made to the questionnaire in 2023:
New questions.
None.
Changed questionresponse options.
Several question response options were modified to evaluate minor wording changes in the response options intended to improve question clarity. The table below lists the items in two versions, with the existing response items in version A.
Web variables and forms |
Version A wording |
Version B wording |
Location (A38, B1, B4, B5, B5c, B7, B11, B12, B12c, C5, C7, C9) |
Foreign |
Foreign (non-U.S.) |
Postgraduation plan (B2; response option 3) |
I accepted or am employed in a position other than a postdoc or training position |
I accepted or am employed in a position other than a postdoc or training position (including self-employment) |
Employer type (B4, B11; response option K) |
Industry (for profit) |
For-profit company or organization |
Employer type (B4, B11; response option L) |
Nonprofit organization (including private foundation) |
Nonprofit organization (including tax-exempt, charitable organization and private foundation) |
Primary and secondary work activities (B6, B14; response option 3) |
Professional services to individuals (such as healthcare, counseling, financial services, legal services, consulting) |
Professional services (such as health care, engineering, consulting, counseling, financial, or legal services) |
Salary monthly coverage (B9, B16) |
How many months does this salary cover? Number of Months:____ |
Is this salary based on a 12-month year or fewer than 12 months? O 12-month year O Less than 12 months If less than 12 months, Number of Months:____ |
Marital status (C2; response option 1) |
"Never married" option listed first |
"Never married" option listed last |
Parental education (C4, response options 1-8) |
|
|
In the 2023 web instrument, half of the respondents received the wording that had been used in previous years (version A) and half received the version with modified wording (version B). Based on the results of the collected data, the version B wording was recommended for future data cycles as it produced lower item nonresponse rates, and improved clarity.
Due to these changes, trend data in these variables should be used with caution. Additionally, due to the web instrument errors described in the "Measurement error" section above, the primary and secondary work activity and parental education data may not be comparable with prior years' data.
Changes in reporting procedures or classification.
The SED-CIP code list includes over 1,650 fields for the field of study reporting, compared to the 334 field codes collected prior to 2021. The SED-CIP codes are aggregated into 306 detailed fields, 68 major fields, and 16 broad fields, which are used for reporting in the data tables (table A-4). In 2023, minor revisions were made to the major and detailed field taxonomy to improve data utility and alignment with the new trend taxonomy. Specifically, 2 new major fields ("biological and biomedical sciences, general" and "aerospace, aeronautical, astronautical, and space engineering") were added by moving 4 detailed fields and 1 new detailed field was added (table A-5).
This SED-CIP taxonomy includes multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary sciences and multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary studies to capture and track emerging fields and is aligned to the NCSES Taxonomy of Disciplines for comparison with other NCSES surveys. The complete SED-CIP list with corresponding detailed, major, and broad fields is in table A-5. All single-year data tables (table 3-1 through table 9-18) use the new SED-CIP taxonomy.
To facilitate the trend data comparison with prior years, a crosswalk was created of the SED-CIP codes to the historical SED field of study (SED-FOS) codes, which were aggregated into the new trend broad and major fields (see table A-6). The new trend field taxonomy used in the 2023 data tables replaced the historical field taxonomy introduced in the 2021 data tables to align more closely with the new SED-CIP based broad and major fields. In total, the new trend taxonomy aggregates fields into 14 trend broad fields and 62 trend major fields as compared with 8 broad and 35 major fields in the historical field taxonomy.
As an example, the historical field taxonomy previously reported "mathematics and computer sciences" as a single broad field. In the new trend field taxonomy, "computer and information sciences" and "mathematics and statistics" are separately reported as two broad fields, with 2 major fields delineated under computer and information sciences and 4 major fields under mathematics and statistics. In the trend field taxonomy, detailed field "veterinary sciences," previously reported under major field "health sciences," is reported under major field "agricultural sciences" to better align with the new field taxonomy.
This results in generally comparable historical broad and major fields with some limitations. Specifically, each SED-CIP code mapped to a historical SED-FOS code might not be the code the respondent would have chosen from the previously used historical SED-FOS list. For example, it is not known how respondents who reported the new SED-CIP field of "electrical engineering and computer science" in 2022 would have chosen their field under the historical SED-FOS list that includes two separate fields "electrical engineering" and "computer science." For more information, see the working paper Survey of Earned Doctorates Field of Study Taxonomy Changesin 2021 and Impact on Trend Data.
The trend broad and major fields are available from 1958 to the present. The alignment of the historical fine field codes to the new trend broad and major fields is shown in table A-6. A comparison of the historical, trend, and new field taxonomies is shown in table B-2.
Code |
Citizenship category |
0 |
U.S. native born |
1 |
U.S. naturalized citizen |
2 |
Non-U.S. immigrant (permanent resident) |
3 |
Non-U.S. non-immigrant (temporary U.S. visa) |
4 |
Non-U.S., visa status unknown |
U |
U.S. citizen, unspecified |
Blank |
Missing or citizenship unknown |
Respondents who indicated a U.S. birthplace, regardless of what they reported for citizenship status, were assigned code 0.
In 1999, code 4 (non-U.S., visa status unknown) was introduced, and data were back-coded through 1997. Respondents who designated a non-U.S. country for the country of citizenship item but did not respond to the citizenship status item were assigned code 4 for citizenship status. From 1997 to 2003, non-U.S.-born respondents who did not indicate their country of citizenship or citizenship status were assigned to code 4 if three out of four geographic variables-place of birth, place of high school, place of college entry, and postgraduation location-were non-U.S. locations. Beginning with the 2004 SED, the variable "place of baccalaureate institution" replaced "place of college entry" in the assignment of a citizenship code for respondents who did not indicate citizenship status.
For tabulations in this report, code 4 was combined with code 3-that is, counts of doctorate recipients in the temporary visa holder category include non-U.S. citizens with unknown visa status. This is consistent with coding procedures in previous data collections. However, the existence of code 4 allows the microdata user to exclude cases for which visa status is unknown. Prospective data users should note, however, that the number of cases in the code 4 group is not sufficient to warrant analysis as a separate citizenship category.
Non-U.S. citizens who did not report a country of citizenship but reported the same non-U.S. country for three out of four geographic variables-place of birth, place of high school, place of baccalaureate institution, and postgraduation location-were assigned that reported country as their country of citizenship.