Methodology

The project expanded from a 12-month study into a multi-year project, spanning 32 months with three distinct phases in each year of the pandemic: 2020, 2021, and 2022. Primary data collection was conducted through a multi-cohort longitudinal survey that ran from May 2020 through December 2022. The survey was designed to be completed within a few minutes and aimed to capture a broad range of pandemic impacts on individuals, academic departments, and geoscience employers. In 2022, during Phase 3, additional depth and context were added to the study through oral history interviews and a three-part webinar series, which gathered best practices on how individuals, academic departments, and geoscience employers navigated pandemic-related impacts.

Multi-cohort longitudinal survey

The longitudinal survey served as the primary data collection tool for this research study, with participants being accepted into the survey from May 2020 through July 2022. Participants were onboarded into the survey after completing a consent form to verify their age (18 or older), residency in the United States, and their role as leaders of geoscience companies, organizations, or academic departments, or as geoscientists themselves (including students, retirees, and unemployed geoscientists). Geoscientist participants had the opportunity to update their occupational status by selecting one of seven occupational cohorts on each survey: post-secondary faculty, K–12 faculty, geoscience students, non-academic geoscientists, geoscience post-doctoral fellows, geoscience retirees, and unemployed geoscientists.

All study participants followed a similar onboarding process. After completing the initial consent form, participants were invited to provide information about their occupational status in February 2020 on the benchmark survey, and then were added to the list of participants receiving the ongoing update surveys.

Survey onboarding flow by major cohort

Due to the rapidly changing conditions relative to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Phase I and II of the study involved bi-monthly surveys sent via email to participants to gather feedback on their current occupational status. Starting in 2022, during Phase III, participants received monthly invitations to provide feedback on their occupational status. The surveys were focused on demographic and factual information, without inquiries related to health impacts or prospective views, in order to maintain strict adherence to point-in-time factual measurements of individuals to ensure appropriate exemption from ongoing human subject’s review. Organization surveys allowed for the exposition of topics such as changes to curriculum or workflow, but did not collect or retain prospective or attitudinal data.

All identifying information, such as contact and demographic information, was stored in a separate offline database to limit confidentiality breach risk. Study participants were assigned unique tokens that linked them to their survey data. Survey data was aggregated into cohorts (i.e., academic departments, employers, academic faculty, non-academic geoscientists, students, etc.), and where sufficient data existed, further analyzed within sub-groupings.

A standard set of questions was developed and asked on each survey, and once a month additional questions were included to gain deeper insights into how individuals and organizations were adapting to workplace and instructional changes. Whenever possible, similar or identical questions were included across surveys for different cohorts to obtain both individual and organizational perspectives on specific topics.

The standard set of questions asked on each survey included the following topics:

Academic departments

• Instructional environments (teaching modes for labs, courses, field activities)
• Research activities (research cohorts and modes)
• Department operations (budget cuts, faculty searches, staffing impacts)
• Outlook (institutional status for the next academic term)

Geoscience employers

• Business operations (financial performance, productivity)
• Staffing impacts (changes in permanent and temporary staff, travel, and field activities)
• Strategies for addressing COVID-19 impacts
• Work environment options for employees

Individuals (i.e., academic faculty, students, post-doctoral fellows, K–12 faculty, non-academic geoscientist, retired geoscientist, unemployed geoscientists)

• Employment / enrollment status
• Occupational affiliation (non-students only)
• Educational affiliation including school, degree, and fellowship/scholarship information (students only)
• Work or instructional environment (location, mode)
• Instructional modes for courses, labs, and field experiences
• Work and research activities (modes, COVID-19 restrictions, protocols)
• Engagement with co-curricular and professional development activities
• Institutional plans for the next academic term (faculty and students only)
• Degree completion impacts and plans for the next academic term (students only)

Recruitment and retention strategies

Each phase of the study included new recruitment efforts to onboard additional participants into the survey and other data collection components. During Phase I, invitations to participate in the survey were sent to over 800 U.S. degree-granting and community-college geoscience programs for distribution to their faculty, students, and alumni. Invitations to participate were also sent to AGI’s member societies and to AGI’s network of over 124,000 geoscience professionals. Project staff also solicited the following 25 organizations to assist in additional efforts to raise awareness of the study through social media, posts to listservs, and newsletters to their membership. These organizations included AGI member society organizations as well as other state and local geoscience organizations.

• Alabama Geological Society
• American Association of Geographers
• American Association of Petroleum Geologists
• American Meteorological Society
• Association for Women Geoscientists
• Association of Earth Science Editors
• American Geophysical Union
• American Institute of Professional Geologists
• Association of American State Geologists
• Central Oregon Geoscience Society
• Earth Science Information Partners
• Geochemical Society
• Geological Society of America
• Geoscience Information Society
• International Medical Geology Association
• National Association of Geoscience Teachers
• National Association of State Boards of Geology
• National Ground Water Association
• New York State Geological Association
• Society of Economic Geologists
• Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
• The Geological Society of Washington
• Utah Geological Association
• Vermont Geological Society

In Phases II and III, additional recruitment was conducted through AGI’s network of contacts, outreach partnering organizations, and AGI’s member societies. In-person recruitment efforts for the ongoing survey and for the oral history and webinar series components of the study were also made through presentations at the annual meetings of the Geological Society of America and American Geophysical Union.

Because the study spanned over two and a half years of data collection, retention efforts were put in place to help keep survey participants engaged throughout the study. These strategies included monthly emails to study participants that highlighted the latest study results, social media posts, and emails to AGI’s network of contacts featuring AGI’s Geoscience Currents data briefs that provided the recent analysis of survey data. Survey results were also presented at webinars, research forums, and at the annual meetings of the Geological Society of America and American Geophysical Union to aid in recruitment and retention efforts and to disseminate the information to the wider geoscience community.

Survey participation

The survey included a total of 97 academic departments, 119 geoscience employers, and 1,648 individuals as participants. Participants were not required to complete every survey, and in fact over the course of the study, participants tended to respond more frequently during periods of increased pandemic activity or significant changes in their lives. As such, participants were flagged as active or inactive depending upon survey completion frequency. Active survey participants were defined as those who completed at least two surveys during the study. There were 84 active participants representing academic departments, 98 active participants representing geoscience employers, and 1,441 active survey participants who were individuals.

To calculate response rates in a way that took into consideration the participants' varying survey completion rates, a chained response rate methodology was used. The number of active participants (those who completed at least two surveys) was divided by the total number of consents for each cohort. The chained response rate was 87% for academic departments and individuals, and 82% for geoscience employers.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Survey participants by cohort

Chained response rate by cohort

Demographics of geoscience academic departments

A total of 97 geoscience academic departments from 4-year and 2-year higher education institutions participated in the study, providing insights about how the pandemic affected departmental operations and instructional environments. Approximately one-third of academic departments were in each major Carnegie Classification category, with 35% in doctoral universities, 31% in master’s colleges, and 34% in baccalaureate or associate’s colleges. The majority of departments granted bachelor’s degrees (82%), while 43% granted master’s degrees and 28% granted doctoral degrees. Academic departments were located in 35 states and Puerto Rico, with the largest representation of departments located in New York, California, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

Comparing the representation of academic departments in the study with AGI's Directory of Geoscience Departments revealed similar representation at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSI), lower representation among Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions (AANAPISI), and slightly higher representation among Native American-serving non-tribal institutions (NASNTI). In the study, there was no representation of academic departments from Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI), historically Black colleges or universities (HBCU), or Alaska Native-serving institutions or Native Hawaiian-serving institutions (ANNH).

Links to relevant survey data charts

Academic departments by institutional Carnegie Classification

Academic departments by degree granting status

Academic departments by state

Academic departments in minority-serving institutions

Demographics of geoscience employers

A total of 119 geoscience employers participated in the study, providing insights into how the pandemic affected their business operations, staffing, and hiring between 2020 and 2022. These employers were located in 35 states and Puerto Rico, with the highest concentrations in California, Texas, and Colorado. Most employers (74%) were small employers with 50 or fewer employees, while 26% had over 50 employees.

Geoscience employers represented 11 industry sectors. According to data from the 2021 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections dataset, the four primary sectors within which geoscientists work are professional, scientific, and technical services (40%), government agencies (28%), mining and oil & gas extraction (5%), and educational services (17%). Geoscience employers participating in the study showed similar representation to federal data in the professional, scientific, and technical services and government agencies sectors. However, there was an over-representation of employers in the mining and oil & gas extraction and the non-profit organizations (i.e., other services, except public administration) sectors compared to the federal data. Sectors represented by employers in the survey included professional, scientific, and technical services (44%), government agencies (21%), non-profit organizations (i.e., other services, except public administration) (14%), mining and oil & gas extraction (13%), and educational services (3%). Given AGI’s promotion of the Geoscience COVID-19 study to its member societies, the high proportion of non-profit organizations relative to federal data participating as employers in the study is not surprising. In addition, the lower representation among the educational services sector was because academic departments were included in a separate survey cohort.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Geoscience employers by state

Employer size by number of employees

Employment sectors of geoscience employers vs employed geoscientists in the US

Demographics of individual survey participants

A total of 1,648 individuals participated in the study, providing insights into how the pandemic affected their workplace and instructional environments from 2020 through 2022. At the time they joined the study, participants consisted of non-academic geoscientists (over a third), academic faculty at colleges and universities (just over a quarter), and students (14%). Over the course of the pandemic, there were changes in the occupational types of participants, particularly for graduating students and early-career geoscientists who transitioned into new jobs, enrolled in new degree programs, or experienced periods of unemployment. Unfortunately, participation of post-doctoral fellows was particularly low (2% of the study participants at the time of survey consent) throughout the study, despite targeted attempts at recruitment and retention.

Most geoscientists working in non-academic occupations worked in core geoscience occupations at the time of survey consent (96%), with most working as geoscientists, and 20% working as geoscience managers. Those working in non-core occupations frequently reported using their geoscience knowledge and skills in their job or working within the profession in a non-core capacity. In terms of representation across industry sectors, when compared with the 2021 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections dataset, study participants were over-represented in the following sectors: government agencies, especially state governments (26% vs 11%) and federal government agencies (13% vs. 7%), non-profit organizations (i.e., other services, except public administration) (8% vs 2%), colleges and universities (12% vs 8%), and mining and oil & gas extraction (8% vs. 5%), and educational services (3%). Survey participants were under-represented relative to the federal data in the professional, scientific, technical services sector (22% vs. 40%), educational services (0% vs 9%), and local government agencies (4% vs 10%).

In terms of age distribution, individual survey participants were relatively evenly distributed across age brackets. Gender distribution was nearly equal between male and female participants, with an additional 1% of participants identifying as non-binary. Participants were predominantly non-Hispanic (90%) and White (88%). Hispanic participants accounted for 4% of the total, while 4% belonged to other under-represented racial groups. Study participants were under-represented when compared to the 2019 occupational data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for environmental scientists and geoscientists which indicated that 12% of the occupation was of Hispanic heritage and 5% was Black or African-American. In terms of citizenship, 95% of participants were U.S. citizens while 4% were either permanent residents or non-permanent residents.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Participants by occupational type at time of survey consent

Occupations of non-academic geoscientists at time of survey consent

Employment sectors of non-academic geoscientists vs employed geoscientists in the US

Participants by age at time of survey consent

Participants by gender

Participants by Hispanic heritage

Participants by race

Participants by citizenship status

References

Gonzales, L., Keane, C., 2020. Diversity in the Geosciences, Geoscience Currents, 2020-023, American Geosciences Institute. https://www.americangeosciences.org/geoscience-currents/diversity-geosciences

Oral histories

In 2022, during Phase III of the study, we conducted 40 oral history interviews to capture the firsthand experiences of geoscientists as they navigated the impacts of the pandemic on their work and research activities. Interviewees shared strategies they used to overcome pandemic-related challenges and discussed the new opportunities for work and research that arose as a result of changes brought about by the pandemic. The oral histories included the experiences of geoscience employers, academic departments, academic faculty, recent geoscience graduates, post-doctoral fellows, non-academic geoscientists, and K–12 educators. Oral history contributors were provided the option to publicly release their transcripts to the study’s project website and 16 contributors agreed to do so.

Oral histories are invaluable for providing insight into changes within organizations and communities that are often challenging to capture through traditional surveying techniques (Webster, 2016). Oral histories offer unique perspectives into cultural shifts and nuances within organizations and communities that may not be fully expressed through surveys alone due to variances between expression of values versus actual actions (Corritore et al., 2020). The oral histories focused on the interviewees’ experiences related to pandemic impacts on their work and research activities, including strategies for overcoming pandemic-related challenges, and new opportunities for work and research that arose from the pandemic. For employers and departments, there was an additional focus on how they navigated restrictions and revenue setbacks to ensure operational continuity. These focused interviews provided valuable insights into the consistent changes, adaptations, activities, and behaviors of survey participants and their respective organizations.

Candidates for the oral histories were recruited from the existing pool of survey participants as well as from the broader geoscience community. Oral history applicants completed a consent form and initial screening process to ensure that they met the criteria for the oral history interview, namely, residing in the United States, being over 18 years old, and working within the geosciences or representing a geoscience academic department or employer. Oral history interviews were recorded, machine-transcribed and manually checked and corrected for clarity and accuracy. The transcripts were used for qualitative analysis to extract relevant trends in changes to work and research environments over the course of the pandemic. Interviewees who agreed to publicly release their oral history transcript were given the opportunity to review and lightly edit their transcripts for clarity and accuracy for public record.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Oral history participants by cohort

References

Corritore, Matthew, Amir Goldberg, Srivastava, Sameer. 2020. The New Analytics of Culture. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-new-analytics-of-culture

Webster, Jessica Wagner. 2016. “Filling the Gaps”: Oral Histories and Underdocumented Populations in The American Archivist, 1938–2011. The American Archivist. 79 (2): 254–282. doi: 10.17723/0360-9081-79.2.254

Webinar series

In Fall 2022, during Phase III of the study, project staff organized and hosted a three-part webinar series that focused on gathering the best practices and adaptations to overcoming pandemic-related impacts across academic and workforce sectors. As the focus of the webinar series was on data collection rather than dissemination, the format of the events was centered on discussion topics which the panelists and attendees reflected upon and shared their experiences. The first webinar focused on insights from recent graduates and postdocs, the second on academic faculty and departments, and the third on geoscience employers. The series included 11 panelists who represented the study’s main cohorts. The series attracted 150 registrants and 43 attendees, primarily from the US higher education sector.

The webinars were recorded and machine-transcribed, and the transcripts were manually checked and corrected for clarity and accuracy. The transcripts were used for qualitative analysis to extract both the challenges faced by individuals, departments, and employers and the strategies they used to overcome and navigate through the pandemic-related obstacles they encountered.

Links to relevant survey data charts

Webinar series participants by cohort and employment sector