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Online Surveys

Surveys can be a useful way to gauge the opinions of your readers, but they often require approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before they can be conducted. This page describes the requirements for running a survey that requires OMB approval.

Developing a Survey

Your survey should be written as a short-term customer satisfaction survey or a generic questionnaire.

Your questionnaire should not ask for any personally identifying information, such as a respondent's name or address. If you must ask for this type of information, please contact Julia Moody at the Golden Field Office and explain why you need this information and how it will be used.

Office of Management and Budget Approval

OMB approval is necessary for all surveys, forms, questionnaires, or other vehicles that collect information from 10 or more respondents from the general public—consequentially, all online surveys directed at the general public require OMB approval. OMB Approval is not required if surveys are conducted internally among federal staff members within your own department.

If you don't know whether your survey requires OMB approval or not, contact Julia Moody at the Golden Field Office before you begin work on your survey. She can be contacted by email or by phone at 303-275-4867.

If you don't require OMB approval, then you do not need any additional approval to run your survey.

Requesting Office of Management and Budget Approval

If you need OMB approval, you must follow these steps. You must have a final draft of your survey questions before you begin this process.

  1. Send a final copy of your survey to the Web Coordinator for your program and Drew Bittner. Explain that you are submitting the survey to OMB.
  2. A DOE employee representing your Office or Program should e-mail Grace Sutherland to obtain the template for the generic EERE clearance request letter.
  3. Modify the template letter to suit your survey. You will need to explain how the survey results will be used and what burden, measured in hours, it will pose to the public. To calculate an estimate of the burden, you need to know:
    • How many people will be targeted by this survey
    • Approximately what percentage of this group you estimate will take the survey
    • The approximate length of time it will take to take the survey
  4. Submit the letter and your survey questions to Grace Sutherland. She will review this information and may recommend changes. Once she approves your letter and questionnaire she will submit it to OMB for final approval.

It takes OMB two weeks, on average, to approve a survey. Depending on the circumstances, your survey may take less or more time to be approved.

Reporting to the Office of Management and Budget

If your survey required OMB approval, you will be required to prepare a summary of the survey results for OMB after your survey is completed. When you're finished analyzing the survey results, contact Grace Sutherland with:

  • The time period during which your survey was conducted
  • How many people were contacted for your survey OR how many people visited the page where the survey was posted
  • How many people responded to your survey
  • A brief 1-2 paragraph summary of the survey results.

Additional Resources

More information is available about surveys and OMB approval on other federal sites: