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The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is the leading professional organization of public opinion and survey research professionals in the U.S., with 1,900 members from academia, media, government, the non-profit sector and private industry.

AAPOR is committed to the principle that public opinion research is essential to a healthy democracy, providing information crucial to informed policymaking and giving voice to the nation’s beliefs, attitudes and desires. In order to ensure that it can continue to play this critical role, AAPOR promotes the sound and ethical conduct and use of public opinion research, along with greater public awareness of these standards.

°encourages researchers to adopt and promote high professional standards

°develops information for the media and public about how surveys are conducted, how to interpret them and how to judge their value

°produces resources on a range of survey and polling issues

°provides educational opportunities in survey research for experienced and beginning researchers, journalists and others

°publishes the authoritative and influential journal Public Opinion Quarterly

Officer bios and contact information:

President Nancy A. Mathiowetz is Professor, Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Prior to joining the faculty at UWM, she was Associate Professor, Joint Program in Survey Methodology (University of Maryland / University of Michigan / Westat, Inc.). Her primary research interests concern the assessment and reduction of measurement error. She has published on various topics related to assessing the quality of survey data, particularly health survey data; her current research efforts are directed at examining substantive and methodological issues related to studies of aging and long term care.

Mathiowetz is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (B.S. in Sociology) and the University of Michigan (M.S. in Biostatistics; Ph.D. in Sociology.)

nancym2@uwm.edu
414.229.2216

Past president Robert P. Daves is a market and opinion research consultant based in Minnesota. His research focuses on public affairs and election polling for the news media, strategic audience research for newspapers and web sites, and market and customer research for industries ranging from finance to health care. He also serves as a senior associate with The Everett Group, specializing in audience analysis and public opinion research for military and other government clients. Prior to his training in public opinion research, Daves worked as a reporter, copy editor and news editor.

Daves was a member of the team that received AAPOR's 2003 Innovator's Award for his work in helping the profession develop measurements to understand non-response bias in surveys. He is the author or co-author of four book chapters about polls and their methodology, and he's the author of a recent article on media polling in Public Opinion Quarterly. He is a past editorial board member of the Newspaper Research Journal and also has served as associate editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, AAPOR's professional journal. Rob earned an M.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in sociology (magna cum laude) from Western Carolina University.

Rob_Daves@yahoo.com
612.822.0085

President-elect Richard A. (Dick) Kulka is Senior Vice President at Abt Associates Inc, where he has corporate oversight for the Survey Methodology and Data Capture Group and Strategic Business Development He has had the good fortune of serving on the staff of four major research organizations that span most of the institutional sectors of AAPOR’s membership--the SRC at Michigan (1975-1980), RTI (1980- 1989; 1994-2005), NORC at the University of Chicago (1989-1994) and Abt Associates. He has been involved in the design, conduct, and analysis of numerous statistical surveys on health, mental health, and other social policy issues for over 25 years, while also conducting a broad range of applied research on survey research methods.

Richard_kulka@abtassoc.com
919.294.7710

AAPOR was founded in 1947 by a group of dedicated public opinion research pioneers, among them Paul F.Lazarsfeld, Herbert H. Hyman, Samuel A. Stouffer, Elmo Roper, Clyde W. Hart, Angus Campbell, George H. Gallup, and Harold D. Lasswell. It has seven regional chapters: the Midwest, New England, New Jersey, New York, Pacific, Southern, and Washington-Baltimore.

AAPOR Disclosure Standards

The American Association for Public Opinion Research believes that the following information should accompany published polls to help readers better judge the poll findings and accuracy:

1. Exact question wording and response options
Includes instruction and explanation texts that might reasonably be expected to affect the response.
2.Population
Definition and description of the sampling frame used to identify this population.
3.Sample selection procedure Method by which the respondents were selected.
4. Size of sample and, if applicable, completion rates and information on eligibility criteria and screening procedures. 5. Method, location, and dates of interviews.
6. When results are based on parts of the sample, instead of the whole.
7.Who sponsored and conducted the poll.
8.Information about the precision of the findings, including, if appropriate, estimates of sampling error, and a description of any weighting or estimating procedures used.

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