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Standards Report

Standards Report
Mary Losch, Standards Chair
Stephen Blumberg, Associate Chair

To say it's been a busy year for Standards is an understatement. In November, Council charged Standards to create a task force to review the current empirical findings related to online panels utilized for data collection, and to develop recommendations for AAPOR members.  The approach proposed would follow the model of the Cell Phone Task Force report and provide guidelines rather than best practices. The panel is expected to examine when online panels might be best utilized and metrics for judging their quality.  The panel will present an update on their progress at the Annual Conference in May, and the final report is expected to be completed in late 2009.

The members of the Online Panel Task Force are:

Reg Baker, Market Strategies International
David Bakken, Harris Interactive
Stephen Blumberg, National Center for Health Statistics
Mick Couper, University of Michigan
Melanie Courtright, DMS Research
Mike Dennis, Knowledge Networks
Don Dillman, Washington State University
Marty Frankel, Baruch College
Philip Garland, Survey Sampling International
Bob Groves, University of Michigan
Courtney Kennedy, University of Michigan
Jon Krosnick, Stanford University
Paul Lavrakas, Independent Consultant
Michael Link, A.C. Neilsen
Linda Piekarski, Survey Sampling International
Kumar Rau, Gallup
Doug Rivers, Stanford University
Darby Miller Steiger, Gallup
Randall Thomas, Independent Consultant
Dan Zahs, Market Strategies International

Other Standards Committee activities planned for completion this year include:

  • Creation of FAQs based on the recent Cell Phone Task Force report;
  • Distribution of the current status of federal guidelines regarding interviewer falsification;
  • Development of a checklist for reporters and others that includes AAPOR minimal disclosure elements; and,
  • An update on the current activities surrounding human participant training for interviewers in the wake of more institutions viewing survey interviewers as key personnel. Several organizations have developed human participant protection training targeted to survey interviewers, and the Standards Committee will disseminate this information to AAPOR members.

And last, but certainly not least, the Standards Chair and Associate Chair have reviewed 17 allegations of AAPOR Code violations and are managing investigations related to a subset of those allegations.

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