Quadrivium: Reconstructive Harmonization of U.S. Higher-Education Survey Data

An integrated database harmonizing multiple NSF/NCSES higher-education surveys into reproducible analytical panels, using Reconstructive Harmonization: each era is reconstructed on its own terms, methodological discontinuities are decomposed into named, quantified components (real growth, definitional change, population expansion, bounded residual), and both are published with documentation a cold reader can use without misreading the discontinuity. Version 4.0 contains three datasets joined into one integrated object. (a) HERD — NSF Higher Education Research and Development survey data (FY 1972–2024) across the 2010 instrument redesign: a 50-year field-level R&D expenditure panel (FY 1975–2024), a Q15/Q16 research-personnel panel (FY 2022–2024), and a Q4/Q5 attribute sibling; this is the expenditure-OUT face (R&D spent, by institution / field / source class). (b) Federal S&E Support — a 53-year (FY 1971–FY 2023) institution-level panel of federal science-and-engineering obligations to higher-education institutions, drawn from the NSF Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions and carrying a native IPEDS UnitID; this is the funding-IN face (federal S&E dollars committed to individual higher-education institutions). (c) GSS — NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (FY 1972–2024), carrying a native IPEDS UnitID across all 53 years: three long-format panels — graduate-student federal support by mechanism and federal agency, enrollment by degree level / gender / race, and postdoctoral plus non-faculty-researcher counts; this is the human-capital face (the federally-supported graduate students and postdocs that research funding trains). The value of the database is the integrated whole: HERD (expenditure-OUT), Federal S&E Support (funding-IN), and GSS (human-capital) are linked on the institution-year hub via the cross-survey institution-identity spine (and, for GSS, the native IPEDS UnitID it carries), so funding committed to an institution can be read against the R&D it spent and the researchers it trained — the funding → people → productivity picture, joined on the same federal agencies (NIH, NSF, DOD, DOE, USDA, NASA). The funding-IN ↔ expenditure-OUT join carries documented misalignments (federal-obligation fiscal-year basis vs. institution reporting-year basis, and institutional-grain differences); each survey also carries its own instrument discontinuities (the 2010 HERD redesign; the 2017 GSS redesign and the 1984–87 / 2014 GSS frame shifts), decomposed in the methods notes. Each dataset is validated against published NSF/NCSES ground truth; GSS reproduces published federal graduate-support counts for all 49 years (FY1975–2023) with zero mismatches and reconciles its 2023 cross-sections cell-for-cell. GSS field names are provisional in v4.0: the dedicated NCSES field-code reference was unavailable at release, so gss_code → field was reconstructed by count-matching each code's 2023 enrollment to published NSF totals — exact and unique for the 91 of 131 codes active in 2023; field_coarse is the Science / Engineering / Health super-broad only, and the ~40 historical-only codes are left NULL (no invented mappings) pending the reference, to be confirmed in a later patch.本数据库采用重构协调法（Reconstructive Harmonization），将多项美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation, NSF）/美国国家科学与工程统计中心（National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NCSES）高等教育调查数据整合为可复现的分析面板数据集：针对每个时期均按其自身语境进行重构，将方法学间断拆解为已命名、可量化的组成部分（实际增长、定义变更、人群扩张、有界残差），且配套文档可供陌生读者准确理解，避免对间断产生误读。 本数据集4.0版本将三份数据集整合为一个统一对象： (a) 高等教育研发（Higher Education Research and Development, HERD）数据集：涵盖2010年调查工具重新设计后的NSF高等教育研发调查数据（1972财年至2024财年），包含三类子面板：50年领域层面研发支出面板（1975财年至2024财年）、Q15/Q16研究人员面板（2022财年至2024财年）以及Q4/Q5属性附属面板；该数据集属于expenditure-OUT（支出流出）维度，即按机构/领域/资金来源分类的研发支出数据。 (b) 联邦科技支持（Federal S&E Support）数据集：源自NSF《高校及非营利机构联邦科技支持调查》的53年（1971财年至2023财年）机构层面面板数据，记录联邦对高等教育机构的科技与工程资金承担额，附带原生的集成高等教育数据系统（Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, IPEDS）单位ID；该数据集属于funding-IN（资金流入）维度，即拨付至单个高等教育机构的联邦科技与工程资金。 (c) 理工科研究生与博士后（Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, GSS）数据集：源自NSF《理工科研究生与博士后调查》（1972财年至2024财年），53年全程均附带原生IPEDS单位ID，包含三类长格式面板：按资助机制与联邦机构划分的研究生联邦资助数据、按学位层次/性别/种族划分的入学人数数据，以及博士后与非教职研究人员数量数据；该数据集属于human-capital（人力资本）维度，即受科研经费资助、由科研经费培养的联邦资助研究生与博士后群体。 本数据库的核心价值在于其整合性：高等教育研发数据集（expenditure-OUT维度）、联邦科技支持数据集（funding-IN维度）与理工科研究生与博士后数据集（human-capital维度）通过跨调查机构识别纽带（以及GSS数据集自带的原生IPEDS单位ID），以机构-年份为枢纽实现关联。因此，可将拨付至某机构的资金、该机构的研发支出以及其所培养的研究人员三者进行联动分析，即形成资金→人才→产出的完整图景，且关联维度统一覆盖以下联邦机构：美国国立卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health, NIH）、美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation, NSF）、美国国防部（Department of Defense, DOD）、美国能源部（Department of Energy, DOE）、美国农业部（United States Department of Agriculture, USDA）以及美国国家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA）。 资金流入维度与支出流出维度的关联存在已记录的对齐偏差：例如联邦资金承担额采用财年口径，而机构报告采用自身报告年度口径，同时存在机构统计粒度差异；每份调查自身也存在工具设计间断：HERD数据集2010年的工具重新设计、GSS数据集2017年的工具重新设计以及1984年至1987年、2014年的调查框架调整，这些细节均已在方法说明文档中完成拆解。 所有数据集均已对照NSF/NCSES发布的官方原始数据完成验证；其中GSS数据集针对1975财年至2023财年共49年的联邦研究生资助人数，实现了零误差复刻，且2023年横断面数据的每个单元格均完成了交叉校验。 4.0版本中GSS数据集的字段名称为临时版本：因发布时未获取到NCSES专属的字段代码参考文档，故通过将每个代码对应的2023年入学人数与NSF发布的总人数进行匹配，完成了gss_code到字段名的重构——在2023年活跃的131个代码中，有91个实现了精准且唯一的匹配；field_coarse仅包含科学/工程/健康这三大超宽泛分类，而约40个仅在历史数据中存在的代码暂设为空值（未进行虚构映射），待获取官方参考文档后将在后续补丁中完成确认。