AuntMinnie SalaryScan methodology and FAQs

How was the data collected?

The data in AuntMinnie.com SalaryScan is collected between January and March of each year and published in May.

AuntMinnie.com members were asked to complete an online SalaryScan Survey that included questions on various aspects of their compensation packages, including the region where they are located, their years of experience, and their area of specialization. More than 4,000 radiology professionals filled out the survey describing their salaries.

How is the data filtered?

For each category you select (job title, years of experience, area of specialization, region), SalaryScan examines all the data that match your criteria, and returns only data that match your criteria.

For quality control, outliers in the raw survey data were filtered using variability from a standard deviation per job category before being incorporated into SalaryScan. Standard deviation describes the distribution of responses around the mean. The smaller the standard deviation, the more consistent the dataset around the average. Thus a large standard deviation creates a wide distribution of responses.

Any data that were more than three standard deviations from the mean were excluded from SalaryScan results, subject to the sample size for that category. Further deletions were made for inconsistent data responses indicated by prior survey submissions. This filtering methodology was employed to remove outlying data from the survey sample, and the resulting dataset represents 99% of the sample population.

All data reflect only those respondents who stated that they were full-time employees.

I didn't get a chance to fill out the survey this year. Is it too late for me to participate?

AuntMinnie re-opens SalaryScan to data collection every year. The next SalaryScan Survey will be sent out in January.

I got a "small sample size warning" when searching for data in my profession and region. What should I do?

Expand your search so that you're casting a wider net for data. For example, if you had been searching using the "2-5 Years" experience level, you might want to change your search to "Search all experience levels."

I can't find my job title among the "Choose a profession" choices. What should I do?

Try using a more general profession, and modifying it with the "Search modality specializations" category. For example, if you are a sonographer, use the "Radiologic Technologist" profession, with an "Ultrasound" modality specialization. If you are a nuclear medicine physician, try "Radiologist" as the profession, and "Nuclear Medicine" as the specialization.

How did AuntMinnie determine different regional classifications?

U.S. regions were determined according to U.S. Census regions and classifications. International regions were based on United Nations regional classifications.

Does AuntMinnie retain any information about me if I fill out the SalaryScan Survey?

No. All SalaryScan Survey respondents remain completely anonymous.