SRS Home > Survey Descriptions > Survey of Earned Doctorates

Overview  Survey Design  Survey Quality Measures  Trend Data  Availability of Data

1. Overview (2005 survey cycle)

a. Purpose

The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) began in 1957–58 to collect data continuously on the number and characteristics of individuals receiving research doctoral degrees from all accredited U.S. institutions. The results of this annual survey are used to assess characteristics and trends in doctorate education and degrees. This information is vital for educational and labor force planners within the federal government and in academia.

b. Respondents

All individuals, as they receive their research doctorate, are asked to complete the survey; it has been conducted since 1957–58. Each U.S. graduate school is responsible for providing the survey to their graduates and then submitting completed forms to the survey contractor. Respondents are grouped into academic years; for the 2005 SED this year is from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005.

c. Key variables

The SED collects information on the individual's education, characteristics, and postgraduation plans. Some key variables of interest include:

• Academic institution of doctorate
• Baccalaureate-origin institution (U.S. and foreign)
• Birth year
• Citizenship status at graduation
• Country of birth and citizenship
• Disability status
• Educational attainment of parents
• Educational history in college
• Field of degrees (N=279)
• Graduate and undergraduate educational debt
• Marital status, number/age of dependents
• Postgraduation plans (work, postdoc, other study/training)
  • Primary and secondary work activities
  • Source and type of financial support for postdoctoral study/research
  • Type and location of employer
• Race and Hispanic ethnicity (for selected sub-groups)
• Sex
• Sources of financial support during graduate school
• Type of academic institution (historically black institutions, Carnegie codes, control)

2. Survey Design

a. Target population and sample frame

The population for the 2005 survey consisted of all individuals receiving a first research doctorate (second doctorates are not included) from a U.S. academic institution in the 12-month period ending on June 30, 2005. The total universe consisted of over 43,000 persons in over 400 research doctorate-granting institutions.

b. Sample design

The SED is a census of all individuals receiving a research doctorate from a U.S. institution in the academic year (July 1 through June 30 of the next year).

c. Data collection techniques

Survey instruments were mailed to institutional coordinators in the graduate schools who distributed the survey forms to individuals receiving a research doctorate. The institutional coordinators also collected the forms and returned them to the NSF contractor for editing/processing. Follow-up of missing critical items and follow-up of forms not returned is also conducted by the contractor. There is a Web SED option, also.

Because the survey collects a complete college education history, coding of institutions is very important. Because one-third of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities are from foreign countries, a coding manual for foreign institutions of higher education was developed by the U.S. Department of Education, entitled "Mapping the World of Education: The Comparative Database System". This coding frame has been used to code the baccalaureate origins of persons who came to the United States to earn their doctorates.

The survey was conducted by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences under contract to SRS from 1957 to 1997; since then, the National Opinion Research Center (Chicago, IL) has been conducting the survey.

d. Estimation techniques

The survey is a census, which does not require any sampling; weighting is not used to adjust for non-response.

3. Survey Quality Measures

a. Sampling variability

Because this is a census, there is no sampling and consequently no sampling variability.

b. Coverage

Due to the high visibility of doctorate-granting institutions and their high levels of participation in the survey, there is little coverage error of institutions. Because the graduate schools collect the questionnaires from degree recipients at the time of doctoral completion, the universe for doctorate recipients is also quite complete. Comparisons of the institutions and the number of research doctorates covered by the SED with the total number of doctorates (including nonresearch doctorates) reported by institutions to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) confirm that coverage of research doctorates in the SED is excellent. Institutions that begin to confer research doctorates are asked to join the Survey of Earned Doctorates.  If a university that confers research doctorates does not wish to participate in the SED, very slight undercounts may result.

c. Nonresponse

(1) Unit nonresponse - Of the 43,354 new research doctorates granted in 2005, 92 percent of degree recipients returned their survey instruments, approximately one percentage point higher than last year. Limited records (containing field of study, doctorate institution, sex, and baccalaureate degree) for nonrespondents are constructed based on information collected from commencement programs, graduation lists, and other similar public records. Student nonresponse was concentrated in certain institutions. Graduates from 20 of the over 400 institutions in the SED accounted for 40 percent of nonrespondents.

(2) Item nonresponse - Item nonresponse rates in 2005 for the most frequently used variables ranged from 0.1 percent for sex to 7.4 percent for location after graduation. No imputation was performed for missing data items.

Key variables	Item response rate
Sex	99.9
Citizenship	94.0
Country of non-U.S. citizens	93.5
Race/ethnicity	93.5
Postdoctoral Location (U.S. or Foreign)	92.6
Source: NSF/NIH/NEH/USED/USDA/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates

d. Measurement

Measurement error is attributable to several sources, including error (calculated at less than 1 percent) in recording data from respondents to the SED, and error for some variables due to the difficulty of defining some concepts, such as field of specialization. Because an individual may classify his or her field of specialty differently than the department or university does in its institutional reporting, there can be differences in counts of doctorates for some fields between the SED and the NCES Completions Survey (which reports total number of doctorates, research and other, for all fields).

e. Quality profile

A complete methodology report, including a quality profile, for the 2005 SED is available upon request.

A complete list of methodological research concerning the Survey of Earned Doctorates is also available upon request.

4. Trend Data

Each year’s survey data are compiled into the Doctorate Records File and trend data are available back to 1957–58; more limited information (sex, institution, field and year of doctorate) is contained on the Doctorate Records File for PhDs who graduated from 1920–56.

5. Availability of Data

a. Publications

The data from this survey are published annually in Detailed Statistical Tables in the series Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards, all available on the SRS Web site. Additional data from this survey for earlier years are published in Science and Engineering Doctorates: 1960–91 (NSF 93-301). Also available is the interagency report U. S. Doctorates in the 20th Century, which provides and overview of the development of a national resource—the American system of doctoral education—from 1900 to 1999.

Information from the survey is also included in the series Science and Engineering Degrees, in Science and Engineering Indicators, and in Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. NSF also has InfoBriefs on selected topics.

Results are also included in a publication series on all fields of study, Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Summary Report; this interagency report is sponsored by the Federal agencies that support the Survey of Earned Doctorates (6 in 2005). The report is produced by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and is available on their website: http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/issues/docdata.htm

b. Electronic access

Access to tabular data on selected variables is available on the SRS Web site and through WebCASPAR. Access to restricted data for researchers interested in analyzing microdata can be arranged through a licensing agreement.

c. Contact for more information

Additional information about this survey can be obtained by contacting:

Mark Fiegener
Human Resources Statistics Program
Division of Science Resources Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230

Phone: (703) 292-4622
E-mail: mfiegene@nsf.gov