Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted via a web-based survey which was open from March 5 to May 31, 2009. Participation in the survey was promoted by e-mail and advertising to readers of The Scientist and visitors to The Scientist web site. It was also promoted by participating member societies to their members. Usable responses were received from 4,738 individuals in the United States. Since many individuals are subscribers to The Scientist, and/or registrants on their web site, and/or members of one or more of the sponsoring societies, it is not possible to compute an accurate rate of response.

Respondents were asked to provide demographic data about themselves in 18 categories, and give their base annual salary and other cash compensation. The responses were carefully filtered to eliminate duplicate or misleading responses. Not every participant provided all of the information requested. If the participant provided income data, plus information concerning at least one demographic characteristic, the response was included in the study.

The survey was conducted and the analysis carried out by AMG Science Publishing (AMG Publishing).

The Scientist and AMG Science Publishing would like to thank the following societies for their sponsorship of this survey and for promoting it to their members: The American Association of Immunologists, The American Physiological Society, The American Society for Cell Biology, The Endocrine Society.