Survey Materials:FY 1993 Questions and Answers Booklet

R&D Expenditures Survey

Survey Materials

FY 1993 Questions and Answers Booklet

THIS DOCUMENT ANSWERS COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT THE R&D EXPENDITURES SURVEY.

Field of Science Classifications
- How should I assign field classifications for research and development (R&D) performed in interdisciplinary centers?
- What fields should be excluded?
Complex Funding Arrangements
- Should I report expenditures received through cooperative agreements with other institutions?
Organizational Units
- Which organizational units should I include in the survey?
Questionnaire Items
- How should basic research be calculated? How should I report institutional funds?
Data Uses and Availability

Field of Science Classifications

How should I assign field classifications for research and development (R&D) performed in interdisciplinary centers?

Interdisciplinary research should be categorized by individual research project according to the nature of the research performed. When individual projects encompass multiple fields of science and engineering, prorate expenditures to report the proportions of each discipline involved. Do not lump funds together into "other" field categories unless the type of research is actually defined as "other."

How should I allocate research dollars spent for computing or supercomputing services?

Report research dollars spent for computer usage to the individual fields of science and engineering for which the R&D is performed. Do not report these funds in computer science, unless computer science research was performed.

What fields should be excluded?

Exclude fields that are considered to be non-science: education, law, humanities, business, music, the arts, library science, and physical education. Note that you would report separately budgeted R&D for the philosophy of science (a science category), but not philosophy (one of the humanities). The NSF/NCES Crosswalk included with the questionnaire lists all S&E fields.

Complex Funding Arrangements

Should I report expenditures received through cooperative agreements with other institutions?

Report only what your institution actually expends and accounts for when participating in joint research ventures.

Organizational Units

Which organizational units should I include in the survey?

Include research conducted through units that are considered part of your institution's organizational structure. For example, report expenditures from branch campuses, medical schools, agricultural stations, research centers and institutes, and any other units whose expenditures are separately budgeted and are accounted for by your institution's financial system. Exclude R&D expenditures performed by or through outside units such as federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), nonprofit institutions, and private laboratories. Do not report salaries of faculty doing research at outside institutions unless your institution accounts for the funding of that research.

Questionnaire Items

How should basic research be calculated?

The percentage of basic research should be defined at the individual grant level by each principal researcher. Where this is not possible, grants should be reviewed by each department head or other relevant research coordinator.

How should I report institutional funds?

All research dollars reported for your institution should be funds that are separately budgeted for research purposes. Do not include funds not specifically budgeted for research. If your institution does not track underrecovery of indirect costs, use the underrecovery formula included in the questionnaire instructions. Do not forget to include and distribute these funds by detailed field in Survey Item 2.

Data Uses and Availability

How are these data typically used?

Congress and Federal and State government planners use the data for science policy analysis, national and international studies, legislative hearing reports, budget formulation sessions, and other measurements of the adequacy of the Nation's research base. Academic institutions use the information for policy analysis, publicity, and other purposes. Industrial firms often request data to prepare for on-campus recruiting. The data often appear in higher education studies and publications.

How are the data made available?

NSF's annual report, Academic Science and Engineering: R&D Expenditures, compiles detailed data in a comprehensive document, available on request. NSF also produces a smaller Selected Data report to disseminate the most recent data as soon as they are released. Institutional profiles show trend data for responses at the institutional level from all academic S&E surveys.

Detailed data also are available through NSF's electronic Science and Technology Information System (STIS). The Computer-Aided Science Policy Analysis and Research (CASPAR) database provides statistics on CD-ROM. Single- and multi-year data tapes are also available.

For more information, contact Marge Machen at (703) 306-1772.

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