Each September the Computing Research Association surveys academic departments in the United States and Canada that offer the Ph.D. in computer science or computer engineering. The annual CRA Taulbee Survey collects data on enrollment in the undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. computing programs; employment of Ph.D. graduates of these programs; and number and salaries of faculty in these programs.

This is the 29th year that CRA has tracked the production and employment of Ph.D.s in the computer science field. For the past 13 years, computer engineering data have also been incorporated into the survey. The traditionally high response rate to the survey makes the data especially useful; the data are used widely, not only by CRA's members but also by other organizations and institutions.

The following tables show the results in a format comparable to that used in previous CRA surveys. This year, for the first time, CRA asked for salary data on non-tenure-track teaching faculty (e.g., instructors, lecturers, etc.). Information from all of the surveys returned will be published in the final report in March. In the tables that group the departments by rank, the groupings are based on the 1993 National Research Council ranking of research-doctorate programs in the United States, released in 1995.

Each department was asked to report the minimum, mean, and maximum salary for each rank (full, associate, assistant, non-tenure track teaching faculty) and the number of persons at each rank. The salaries are those effective as of January 1, 2000. For U.S. departments, nine-month salaries are reported in U.S. dollars. For Canadian departments, twelve-month salaries are reported in Canadian dollars. Respondents were asked to include salary supplements such as salary monies from endowed positions.

The minimum and maximum of the reported salary minima (and maxima) is self-explanatory. The range of salaries in a given rank among departments that reported data for that rank is the interval ["minimum of the minima," "maximum of the maxima"]. The mean of the reported salary minima (maxima) in a given rank is computed by summing the departmental reported minimum (maximum) and dividing by the number of departments reporting data at that rank. The average salary at each rank is computed by summing the individual means reported at each rank and dividing by the number of departments reporting at that rank.