At a Glance

Funder:

National Science Foundation

Project Time Frame:

1993-

Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System

Since 1993, Mathematica has provided rigorous methodological and statistical services and comprehensive, integrated database management for the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). Funded by the Division of Science Resources Statistics of the National Science Foundation (NSF), SESTAT is an integrated system of data covering the employment, educational, and demographic characteristics of scientists and engineers in the United States. It provides critical information that can be used to monitor the status of these resources for our country.

The SESTAT database integrates data collected through three national sample surveys supported by NSF: the National Survey of College Graduates, the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the National Survey of Recent College Graduates. Mathematica's expertise and methodological and statistical rigor ensure that the information from these surveys is of the highest possible quality. We also assist with dissemination of the data by creating public use files.

Mathematica has made a major contribution to the reliability and validity of the SESTAT measures through behavior coding, cognitive interviews, focus group discussions, and extensive pretesting that employs methodological experiments. Our survey methodologists, statisticians, and technical experts have established standard documents, processes, and procedures for SESTAT surveys, including survey instrument development, fully integrated Blaise multimode electronic data collection, and guidelines for response rate calculations, editing, proxy selection, survey eligibility determination, and imputation.

Ongoing review and development of statistical procedures for sample selection, response rate calculation, imputation, weighting, overlap variable construction, and variance estimation ensure the quality of the SESTAT data.