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Activity Number:
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125
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Monday, August 3, 2009 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Government Statistics
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| Abstract - #303926 |
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Title:
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Obtaining User Needs While Protecting Individually Identifiable Data for the Survey of Earned Doctorates
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Author(s):
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Stephen Cohen*+ and Mark Fiegener
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Companies:
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National Science Foundation and National Science Foundation
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Address:
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4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA, 22230,
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Keywords:
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Confidentiality ; Disclosure ; Individually Identifiable Data ; Customer Focus
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Abstract:
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Steps taken by the Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) of NSF to strengthen the confidentiality protections applied to the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) impacted the reporting of data about underrepresented minorities. SED data users reacted negatively to these changes, and to the consequent diminished utility of two SED reports. In response, SRS initiated efforts to learn more about the data needs and uses of the SED data user community, and to solicit feedback that would inform efforts to increase the utility of these reports while still protecting the confidentiality of respondent data. This paper describes the process by which SRS collected information about data users' preferences for particular attributes of different disclosure protection alternatives and report formats, and then used this information to redesign statistical tables.
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