The Nelson Diversity Surveys (NDS) are a collection of data sets that quantify the representation of women and minorities among professors, by science and engineering discipline, at research universities.
They consist of four data sets compiled by Donna Nelson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma during fiscal years (FY) 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2012 through the Diversity in Science Association.
[1] Data sets like the NDS, along with similar research available through the NSF, allowed URM faculty to track the progress of diversity efforts in the STEM fields.
The Nelson Diversity Surveys made it possible for the first time to know the level and rate of faculty diversification, disaggregated by race, by rank, and by gender.
A new program to increase the representation of women and minorities among professors was implemented[7] and PhD and MS research was based on data revealed by the NDS.