Responses from surveys don't get turned into numbers that can be analyzed without a bit of work. This guide is designed for beginning survey researchers and provides an overview of basic steps to transform survey questions into data that can be analyzed. This handout is used in some of our introductory courses and workshops.

The PSR guide to finding and hiring survey contractors is based our practicum workshop.  It provides an overview of thinking about survey contracting, and suggestions for locating appropriate services.  Harvard afiliates can also contact the PSR for a more detailed assesment of outside service needs.

Surveys are a special research tool with strengths, weaknesses, and a language all of their own. There are many different steps to designing and conducting a survey, and survey researchers have specific ways of describing what they do.

This handout, based on an annual workshop offered by the Program on Survey Research at Harvard, is geared toward undergraduate honors thesis writers using survey data.

Cognitive tests, pilot tests, focus groups, and other tools can be used to understand how respondents interpret your questions and instructions, understand the meaning of survey questions, and to write better questions.  This type of testing can also evaluate different survey techniques used in the field to increase response or cooperation, and can help you sort out the meaning of survey responses.  These handouts are used in introductory lectures in our courses and workshops.

This PSR Tip Sheet provides some basic tips about how to write good survey questions and design a good survey questionnaire.

This tip sheet will help you understand how to think the population that a survey represents.

This handout accompanied the April 17, 2009 presentation on surveys for honors thesis writers.

This workshop is designed to present a short introduction to survey research for undergraduate students considering using surveys in their honors theses or other research.  This workshop will provide a broad overview of the survey research process and focus on some of the unique aspects of survey data. We will also briefly look at sources for secondary survey data within Harvard and elsewhere, and provide a short introduction to writing survey questions.

Responses from surveys don't get turned into numbers that can be analyzed without a bit of work.  This guide is designed for beginning survey researchers and provides an overview of basic steps to transform survey questions into data that can be analyzed.  This handout is used in some of our introductory courses and workshops.

This PSR Tip Sheet provides the basic language and terminology of survey research.

Other centers and programs at Harvard often use survey data as the focus of research or programming.

National Bureau of Economic Research

The National Bureau of Economic Research is located in Cambridge.  In adition to providing extensive analysis of business and economic data, they operate the Boston area Census Research Data Center, which is available to qualified researchers. Link: http://www.nber.org/

The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey

Provides details of the survey: questions asked, reports, survey methods, and affiliates.  Attempts to find the level of connectedness amongst members of American communities. Link: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro/communitysurvey

The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in American

The Seminar is an ongoing initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the Kennedy School of Government. The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust and community engagement and on developing strategies and efforts to increase this engagement. Link: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro

Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Attempts to improve Greater Boston's governance by connecting scholars, students, and civic leaders.  The Kennedy School has pursued this through promoting community service, producing new ideas, and creating open forums for discussion. Link: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/rappaport

The Institute for Quantitative Social Science

Foster development within the social sciences field; offer advanced statistical and analytical tools. Link: http://www.iq.harvard.edu/

The Institute of Politics Survey Group

Researches the fall and spring polls on student engagement and attitudes toward politics and public service. Link: http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Programs/Surveys

Harvard Opinion Research Program

Assesses people's attitudes with respect to their knowledge, values, and experiences.  Researchers within this program have contributed to over 300 surveys within the US and 15 other countries. Link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/horp

Adapting Statistical Methods for Public Research

The goal of this project is to analyze some existing statistical methods in public health, import relevant ones from other fields, and develop new ones to facilitate the analysis of available data. Link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/burdenofdisease/StatisticalMethods.htm

General Survey Reference

• Biemer, Paul P. and Lyberg, Lars E. Introduction to Survey Quality. Chichester, England: Wiley, 2003.
• Fink, A., The Survey Research Handbook - How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1983.
• Fowler, Floyd J., Jr. Survey Research Methods (2nd.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993.
• Groves, Robert M., F J Fowler, Mick P. Couper, James M. Lepkowski, Eleanor Singer, and R Tourangeau. Survey Methodology. New York, NY: Wiley. 2004.
• Rossi, P., Wright, J., and Anderson, A. (eds.). Handbook of Survey Research. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1983.
• Weisberg, Krosnick, Bowen. An Introduction to Survey Research, Polling, and Data Analysis (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1996.
• Weisberg, Herbert. The Total Survey Error Approach: A Guide to the New Science of Survey Research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Questionnaire Design

• Belson, William A. The Design and Understanding of Survey Questions. Aldershot, Hants, England: Gower, 1981.
• Fowler, F.J. Jr. Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation, Applied Social Research Methods Series Volume 38. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995.
• Payne, Stanley. The Art of Asking Questions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1980.
• Schuman, H. and Presser, S. Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1981.
• Sudman, S., & Bradburn, N. Asking questions: A practical guide to questionnaire design. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1982.

Survey Sampling/Survey Error

• Cochran, William. Sampling Techniques. New York, NY: Wiley, 1977.
• Fink, A. How to sample in surveys. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995.
• Groves, Robert M. Survey Errors and Survey Costs (Wiley Series in Survey Methodology). Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2004.
• Groves, Robert M., et al. Survey Nonresponse (Wiley Series in Survey Methodology). Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2001.
• Henry, G. T. Practical sampling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1990.
• Kalton, G. An Introduction to Survey Sampling. SAGE Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 1983.
• Kish, Leslie. Survey Sampling. New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience, New Ed edition January 20, 1995.
• Lohr, Sharon. Sampling: Design and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1999.
• Lyberg, L., and Kasprzyk, D. Survey Measurement and Process Quality. New York, NY: Wiley, 1997.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

• Use of Human Subjects in Research
• Statement of Policies and Procedures Governing the Use of Human Subjects in Research under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

School of Public Health

• Human Subjects Committee
• Multiple Project Assurance of Compliance with DHHS Regulations for Protection of Human Research Subjects

Medical School

• Committee on Human Studies
• Guidelines for Investigators in Scientific Research

• TESS: Time-sharing Experiment for Social Sciences -- TESS is an NSF-funded infrastructure project that offers researchers opportunities to test their experimental ideas on large, diverse, randomly-selected subject populations.
• Harvard University Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences -- Funding for Faculty Associates, Undergraduates, Graduates, and Visiting Scholars and Graduate Students.
• Harvard University Center for American Political Studies -- Grants and Fellowships include: Dissertation Fellowship in American Politics, Graduate Student Seeds Grants, Undergraduate Thesis Research Grants, and Undergraduate Seed Grants.
• Harvard University GSAS Graduate Guide to Grants -- (GSAS ID/PIN required)
• Kennedy School of Government ResearchCentral -- Funding Opportunities
• Harvard Institute of Politics -- Grants for Harvard Undergraduate student groups.

• Harvard Software Download -- Free software from Harvard Computer Services, available to those with a Harvard ID number and PIN number.
• Summary of Survey Analysis Software -- A comprehensive list of links to survey software compiled by Alan Zaslavky, Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School.
• Dept. of Statistics: Statistical and Mathematical Software Sources
• The R Project for Statistical Computing
• Gary King's Statistical Software

• AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics and Practices
• AAPOR Standards and Best Practices for Survey Research
• AAPOR Standard Definitions: Final Disposition of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys
• AAPOR Position on Reporting Margin of Error for Online and Other Self-Selected Samples
• AAPOR Standards for Preventing and Addressing Interviewer Falsification
• CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research
• NCPP Standards for Disclosure
• Office of Management and Budget Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys
• Faculty of Arts and Sciences Research Conduct and Administration - Use of Human Subjects in Research

• American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)
• American Statistical Association Survey Research Methods Section
• Council for Marketing & Opinion Research
• Council of American Survey Research Organizations
• ESOMAR
• International Association of Survey Statisticians
• National Council on Public Polls (NCPP)
• National Council on Public Polls
• World Association of Public Opinion Research (WAPOR)

• listing of Colleges and Universities with Degree Programs in Survey Methodology
• Mystery Pollster -- Demystifying the Science and Art of Political Polling - By Mark Blumenthal
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
• Political Arithmetik Where Politics and Numbers Meet.  A blog by political scientist Charles Franklin

• Harvard-MIT Data Center -- HMDC is the principal distributor of quantitative social science data from major international data consortia for Harvard and MIT.
• Council of European Social Science Data Archives CESSDA members include major European social science data archives.  Their web page has a clickable map of European archives.
• European Union Guide to Survey Data Archives and Centers
• Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Data Archive -- ICPSR supplies data files for use with statistical software, such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata.
• Kaiser Network Health Poll Search – A free searchable database of question level public opinion data
• Odum Institute for Research in Social Science – The Odum Institute Contains several specialized archives of public opinion data, including many state polls.
• Polling the Nations -- (Harvard ID / PIN required)
• Roper Center for Public Opinion Research -- An archive, preserving the data from polls conducted by many leading survey research organizations for the use of researchers, students, and journalists.
• Virtual Data Center -- An operational, open-source, digital library to enable the sharing of quantitative research data.

• United States Census Bureau
• Bureau of Labor Statistics -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.
• Eurobarometer -- A series of surveys conducted among European countries.  Semi-annual surveys have been conducted since 1974, including some tracking questions on a variety of issues.  This link is to the Public Opinion Analysis office of the European Union.  Eurobarometer data are available through the ICPSR and other archives.
• General Social Survey -- One of NORC's oldest landmark surveys, the General Social Survey has been administered 25 times since its initial fielding in 1972, with core funding from the National Science Foundation.
• The Health and Retirement Study -- A longitudinal study of health, retirement, and aging, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
• National Center for Education Statistics -- The National Center for Education Statistics ( NCES ) collects, analyzes and makes available data related to education in the US and other nations.
• National Center for Health Statistics -- Comprehensive information on births, deaths, aging, disease classification and other health statistics.
• National Election Survey -- NES conducts national surveys of the American electorate in presidential and midterm election years and carries out research and development work through pilot studies in odd-numbered years. Measures can be pooled over time, and both long-term trends and the political impact of historical events can be identified.
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics -- The PSID is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and families, which has been ongoing since 1968.

• Listing of Colleges and Universities with Degree Programs in Survey Methodology
• Mystery Pollster -- Demystifying the Science and Art of Political Polling - By Mark Blumenthal
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
• Political Arithmetik Where Politics and Numbers Meet.  A blog by political scientist Charles Franklin
• The Polling Report
• Pollster.com Beta version of web site incorporating analysis and commentary of polling data
• Public Agenda
• PublicOpinionPros.com An Online Magazine for the Public Opinion Professional (and Anybody Else)
• World Opinion.com News and information about the world of commercial research
• WorldPublicOpinion.org Website from the Program on International Policy Attitudes covering international public opinion