Weaving a web of recruitment

Research Results

As the project progresses, we will share the results of our research that we feel might be of interest to our LIS community. If you would like more information about the research reported below, please contact Laurie Bonnici <ljbphd@yahoo.com>, Project Athena Co-Principal Investigator

To begin the process we are reporting the results of two baseline surveys based on a Pew Charitable Trust's national study on the status of doctoral education are reported below.

Survey #1

Data from the first distribution of the Project Athena Doctoral Candidates Survey was collected and analyzed in the spring of 2003. This survey was created by adapting a Pew Foundation instrument used for similar purposes in other disciplines to fit the LIS discipline.

Response Rate: Eight responses from five schools were received after three follow-ups, for a response rate of 26%; the original Pew survey had a response rate of 57%.

An analysis of the low response rate indicated three contributing factors:

  1. Access to the survey website was inhibited by complex pass codes.
  2. Completion of the survey averaged over 45 minutes (pre-test results)
  3. Email contact addresses used for potential respondents may have been infrequently used accounts as many were no longer full-time students.

Results: The low response rate led to a revision of the instrument and its administration as Survey 2.

Survey #2

The revised version of the Project Athena Doctoral Candidates Survey was distributed in the spring of 2004. The 44% response rate was a marked improvement, with the data set including twenty-four responses from seven schools.

Results: The valid results obtained will be useful as baseline data.