Science Impact
The survey examines the perspectives and experiences of academic scientists regarding the influence of the current U.S. political environment since January 2025 on their research, institutions, and careers.
Survey Overview and Demographics
General Overview
Study Date: 20.11.25–12.01.26
Geographic Coverage: United States
Expertise:
- 39.5% Biology
- 15.1% Civil and Environmental Engineering
- 7.4% Geography
- 21.5% Public Health
- 9.5% Chemistry
- 6.9% Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Response Overview
Sample Size: 1352
Valid Responses: 265
Response Rate: 21
Date initial findings posted: 02.25.26
Most recent update: 02.25.26
Days survey in field: 53
Survey Demographics
Respondent Demographics:
- 42.7% Female
- 57.1% Male
- 100% Academic
- 0% Industry
Language(s): English
About the Survey
The survey examines the perspectives and experiences of academic scientists regarding the influence of the current U.S. political environment since January 2025 on their research, work environment, careers, and opinions on science policy, public trust, and competitiveness.
Survey Sections
Survey Section 01
Scientists’ Research
In this section, we asked about changes in scientists’ professional activities, research involvement, and career considerations since January 2025.
Survey Section 02
Scientists’ Research Environment
In this section, we asked questions regarding recent federal policy changes and administrative actions that may have affected scientists’ research environment, including those related to thier lab, team or university since January 2025.
Survey Section 03
Scientists’ Opinions on Science Policy, Public Trust and Competitiveness
In this section, we asked scientists how recent federal changes and administrative actions since January 2025 may have affected the academic research environment in the United States.
Survey Description
This national survey of academic scientists in the US was conducted by the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies (CSTEPS) at Arizona State University. The survey was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Arizona State University.
The sample for this survey were all members of our SciOPS panel. The SciOPS panel was recruited from a random sample of PhD-level faculty in six fields of science. Contact information for academic scientists and engineers in the fields of biology, geography, civil and environmental engineering, chemistry, and computer and information science and engineering was collected from randomly selected Carnegie-designated Research Extensive and Intensive (R1) universities in the United States (US). Contact information for academic scientists in the field of public health was collected from all Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accredited public health schools. The full sample frame for recruiting the SciOPS panel includes contact information for around 18,500 faculty members of which 1,370 agreed to join the SciOPS panel. This represents an AAPOR recruitment rate (RECR) of 7.5% (RR4).
This national survey obtained a total of 280 usable responses, representing an individual survey completion rate of 21.0% (RR4) and an AAPOR Cumulative Response Rate (CUMRR) of 1.6%.
Sample weighting and precision: The sample of respondents for this survey was weighted by the inverse of selection probabilities and post-stratified probabilities by gender, academic fields, and academic ranks to represent the full sample frame for recruiting SciOPS panel members as closely as possible. A conservative measure of sampling error for questions answered by the full sample of respondents is plus or minus 5.9 percentage points at a desired confidence interval of 95%. These weighting adjustments assume that respondents and nonrespondents with a given demographic characteristic will provide similar responses.
