Survey Practice October 2011
Measurement in Public Opinion Polls
Survey Practice will publish a special topic issue on measurement in public opinion polls in December 2011. In the previous issue of Survey Practice, an article by David Moore provided context on the topic. The SP editors invite responses to this article, other empirical articles related to the topic, and all forms of comments and thought pieces. We expect that many articles will not have data and that some authors may want to comment on the topic rather than present research findings. Both short and long articles and comments will be published. The deadline for the articles/comments is Tuesday November 22. Please contact us at survprac@indiana.edu if you have questions about the special issue.
New Editor for Survey Practice
The Survey Practice Advisory Committee is seeking a new editor for Survey Practice. John Kennedy will step down as editor next May after four years. If you are interested, please send an email message stating your interest and a CV to Frank Newport, Survey Practice Advisory Committee Chair, at frank_newport@gallup.com.
October Issue Contents
Survey researchers are beginning to explore the use of social media for survey recruiting and distribution. Bryan Rhodes and Ellen Marks demonstrate how Facebook was used to locate respondents for longitudinal survey. They also provide information on the characteristics of the respondents who were located and the respondents who participated after being located on Facebook.
The article by Mary Losch and her colleagues continues the research into the relative strengths of address-based sampling compared to RDD. Their findings indicate that ABS improved coverage and can be used effectively for smaller projects.
In another article on telephone survey sampling, Benjamin Skalland looked at the cell vs. landline cost ratios for rare population surveys. He provides a cost-ratio formula that could be used to estimate costs based on the rarity of the target population.
David Crow and his colleagues surveyed alumni from their university using multiple modes. Their paper presents information about the differences and similarities across modes, along with the costs of using each mode.
Tom Wells and Charles DiSogra conducted an experiment that examined running tallies and order effects. They found some primacy effects but the results are not statically significant.
As always, we welcome your comments and hope that you will send articles to SP. Please contact us (survprac@indiana.edu) if you have questions.
Editors
- John Kennedy
- Andy Peytchev
- David Moore
- Diane O’Rourke