About the Annual Survey

Introduction

The Annual Survey of the Mathematical Sciences collects information each year about departments, faculties, and students in the mathematical sciences at four-year colleges and universities in the United States. Definitions of the various groups surveyed in the Annual Survey can be found on the Departmental Groupings  page.

The American Mathematical Society created this series of surveys in 1957 and conducts them annually. Guidance is provided by the Data Committee, a joint committee of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The current chair of the Data Committee is Polly Phipps, Senior Research Statistician,Office of Survey Methods Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Data Committee is assisted by James W. Maxwell, AMS Associate Executive Director for Special Projects and Survey Analyst Colleen Rose. Comments or suggestions regarding the Survey reports may be directed to the chair of the Data Committee.

Reports

Annual Survey data is published three times a year in the Notices of the AMS  as the First, Second, and Third Reports. The Doctoral Degrees Conferred Report is also published in the Notices of the AMS .

First Report

The First Report of the Annual Survey is published in the February issue of the Notices of the AMS .  It gives a broad picture of new doctoral recipients from U.S. departments in the mathematical sciences, including their employment status. The First Report also presents salary data for tenured and tenure-track faculty members in U.S. departments of mathematical sciences in four-year colleges and universities. This report is based on information collected from two questionnaires distributed to doctorate-granting departments in May.

Doctoral Degrees Conferred

The names of the doctoral recipients and their thesis titles are published in “Doctoral Degrees Conferred” in the February issue of the Notices of the AMS . This list is supplemented by additional new doctorates which are reported after the original list is compiled. The supplemental listing appears at the end of this second report of the Annual Survey in the August issue of the     Notices of the AMS.

Second Report

The Second Report of the Annual Survey is published in the August issue of the Notices of the AMS .  It provides an update to the information on the new doctoral recipients reported earlier in the First Report.
 
The Second Report is based on data, including starting salaries, from the new doctoral recipients who responded to a follow-up questionnaire, the Employment Experiences of New Doctoral Recipients (EENDR). The EENDR is sent in early October to the individual new doctoral recipients whose addresses are known.   Prior to the 2000 Annual Survey, the Second Report contained a third section presenting information about the faculties and instructional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels in these departments. 

Third Report

The Third Report of the Annual Survey is published in the November issue of the Notices of the AMS.   It presents information about the faculties and instructional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including data on fall course enrollments, majors, graduate students, and departmental faculty.

Information about departments is gathered on a questionnaire called the Departmental Profile. The Departmental Profile is mailed in November to all departments in Groups I, II, III, IV, VA, and M and to stratified random sample from Group B.  Standard statistical projections are made using the data from the respondents.  

Prior to the 2000 Annual Survey, this data was presented as part of the Second Report.