Assessment of the FY 2016 Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities to Determine Whether Data Meet Current Statistical Standards for Publication

The Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities ( NPRA Survey ) collects information on activities related to research and development that are performed or funded by nonprofits in the United States. The NPRA Survey is part of the data collection portfolio directed by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics ( NCSES ) within the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) . The FY 2016 NPRA Survey was conducted in 2018 with a sample of nonprofit organizations in the United States. The overall response rate was 48 % unweighted and 61 % weighted. Due to a low response rate, particularly for certain subgroups such as hospitals ( 35 % unweighted and 45 % weighted response rate ) , not all of the NPRA Survey data met NCSES ’ criteria for official statistics. NCSES decided to undertake additional assessment in order to determine the subset of NPRA data that would meet the current NCSES statistical standards required for official release. This working paper identifies which data from the FY 2016 NPRA Survey met NCSES ’ statistical standards. This document summarizes the steps taken to conduct this additional assessment, and it also includes detailed information on the data quality comparisons.
Source: NSF - Statistics on U.S. Science and Engineering Resources - Category: Statistics Source Type: news