|
SESTAT is a comprehensive and integrated system of information about the employment, educational and demographic characteristics of scientists and engineers in the United States and is intended for both policy analysis and general research, having features for both the casual and more intensive data user. SESTAT is maintained by the National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS).
In addition to this CD-ROM and the SESTAT WEB site (http://srsstats.sbe.nsf.gov/), the following products contain information from SESTAT: |
WebCASPAR is a data base system containing information about academic science and engineering resources and is newly available on the World Wide Web. Included in the data base is information from several of SRS's academic surveys plus information from a variety of other sources, including the National Center for Education Statistics. The system is designed to provide multiyear information about individual fields of S&E at individual academic institutions. The system provides the user with opportunities to select variables of interest and to specify whether and how information should be aggregated. Information can be output in hard copy form or in Lotus, Excel or SAS formats for additional manipulation by the researcher.
The Division of Science Resources Studies, like all Federal agencies, is bound by the Privacy Act of 1974 to protect the confidentiality of the records it maintains about individuals. Further, even when data are not covered by the Privacy Act, it may be necessary to assure respondents (both individuals and institutions) that we will not divulge the information they provide to us except in a format that will not permit identification of the respondent. We are, of course, obligated to honor all such assurances.
In some cases protection of confidentiality is fairly straightforward. We may simply need to delete identifying information (such as name and address) from the records. In other cases, however, such straightforward methods may not be adequate. This is true for most of SRS's microdata files that contain information about individuals.
When we believe that we cannot issue a data file containing complete records from a survey, we attempt to develop a public use file that provides researchers with as much microdata as feasible, given our need to protect respondent confidentiality. We achieve this goal by suppressing selected fields and/or recoding variables.
In some cases SRS staff believe that protection of respondent confidentiality would require such extensive recoding that the resulting file would have little, if any, research utility. In these cases we do not issue a public use file. However, we have developed a variety of methods to assist individuals in using the data in this situation. In some cases, researchers are able to state their needs for tabulations or other statistics with sufficient specificity that necessary summary information can be provided without the need for access to microdata. In other cases, NSF and the researcher can execute a license agreement that permits the researcher to use the data file in Washington, DC, at NSF. Recently, NSF has experimented with a system in which researchers submit computer programs in SAS from a remote location. Staff at NSF run the programs and inspect them to ensure that respondent confidentiality is adequately protected.
Researchers interested in obtaining additional information about using confidential data sets are requested to contact:
Chief Statistician
Division of Science Resources Studies, Room 965
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone: (703) 306-1780 Ext. 6906
Internet: sestat@nsf.gov