COVID-19 I (2020)

About the Survey

SciOPS conducted the initial COVID-19 survey of academic scientists in May 2020 to look at how COVID-19 policies have influenced academic scientists’ home-life, research, and views on policy. 

Survey Sections

Survey Section 01

Personal Impacts

Section Overview SciOPS conducted the initial COVID-19 survey of academic scientists in May 2020 to look at how COVID-19 policies have influenced academic scientists’ home-life, research, and views on policy. Question Since January 1, 2020, have you personally contributed your expertise to help address the COVID-19 pandemic? Finding About 24% of biologists, 24% of the […]

Survey Section 02

Impacts on Scientific Research

Section Overview SciOPS conducted the initial COVID-19 survey of academic scientists in May 2020 to look at how COVID-19 policies have influenced academic scientists’ home-life, research, and views on policy.  Question Have social distancing and other COVID-19 related policies had a negative impact on your research in any of the following ways? (N=360) Finding The […]

Survey Section 03

Policies, Risks, Preparedness

Section Overview SciOPS conducted the initial COVID-19 survey of academic scientists in May 2020 to look at how COVID-19 policies have influenced academic scientists’ home-life, research, and views on policy.  Question How prepared do you believe each of the following groups were to confront the COVID-19 disease pandemic? (N=359) Finding About 90% of responding scientists […]

Survey Description

This national survey of scientists and engineers on the impacts of COVID-19 on academic research was conducted by the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies at Arizona State University. The project seeks to understand how COVID-19 and related policies impact academic research and funding, issues related to COVID-19 science communication, and regulation of COVID-19 research. The survey collected data on individual background and perceptions of impacts, behavior and expectations due to COVID-19. The population of the survey included tenured and tenure-track academic scientists from three fields (biology, civil and environmental engineering, and biochemistry) at 21 randomly selected universities classified as Carnegie designated research extensive (R1) universities in the United States.

The online survey was administered in English using Sawtooth Software®. 1,968 individuals were invited to participate in the survey via email with a series of personalized email follow-ups. The survey was opened on May 7 and closed on May 29, 2020. It resulted in 373 usable responses, with a response rate of 21% (AAPOR RR4). Responses are mostly from male respondents (63.5%), which is only slightly lower than the gender distribution in the population. The distribution of field also reflects the sampling frame, with 68.9% of respondents working in biology and genetics departments, 9.4% working in biochemistry departments and 21.7% working in civil and environmental engineering departments. The survey sample was weighted by gender and academic field. The measure of sampling error for questions answered by the full sample is plus or minus 5 percentage points.