ALMA Cycle 4 User Survey

The fifth ALMA user survey was conducted between the 22nd of September and the 24th of October 2016. A total of 297 users (representing 4% of the users who were sent the questionnaire) responded to the survey. This survey addressed many stages of ALMA: from proposal development, SB generation, Helpdesk, data delivery, reduction and processing. 

Overall, the users showed a relatively high level of satisfaction. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being best and 5 being worst), the overall satisfaction across all ALMA regions was generally rated ~2 or better for all the topics. The highest rate was given to communication with contact scientists for SB preparation, with an average rate of 1.05, followed by Quality of F2F support and the ALMA data quality with average rates of 1.11 and 1.28, respectively. On the other side, the lowest rate was given to the usefulness of the Proposal review panel-Science assessment and SnooPI SB follow up, with average rates of 2.16 and 2.19, respectively. Users' lack of familiar with the relative new SnooPI may be a major reason for its low rating.

In addition to the overall ratings the users provided numerous comments which are currently undergoing analysis and will be taken into account to improve the tools and procedures in future cycles.

The complete ALMA User Satisfaction Survey is provided at this link.

The ALMA observatory sincerely thanks all users that took the time to answer this survey and provide valuable comments.