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The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is a professional organization of more than 2,000 public opinion and survey research professionals in the United States and from around the world, with members from academia, media, government, the non-profit sector and private industry. AAPOR publishes three academic journals:
Public Opinion Quarterly
',
Survey Practice
' and the
Journal for Survey Statistics and Methodology
'. It holds an annual research conference and maintains a " Code of Professional Ethics and Practices", for survey research which all members agree to follow. The association's founders include pioneering pollsters Archibald Crossley,
George Gallup George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984) was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a successful statistical method of survey sampling for measuring public opinion. Life and career ...
, and
Elmo Roper Elmo Burns Roper Jr. (July 31, 1900 in Hebron, Nebraska – April 30, 1971 in Redding, Connecticut) was an American pollster known for his pioneering work in market research and opinion polling, alongside friends-cum-rivals Archibald Cross ...
. AAPOR's stated principle is that public opinion research is essential to a healthy democracy, providing information crucial to informed policy-making and giving voice to people's beliefs, attitudes and desires. Through its annual conference, standards and ethics codes and publications, AAPOR seeks to promote a better public understanding of the role of public opinion research in a democracy, as well as the sound and ethical conduct and use of public opinion research.


Standards and ethics

Promoting standards and ethics is central AAPOR's mission. The individuals who are members of AAPOR agree to observe the organization's Code of Professional Ethics and Practices that define and mandate the proper practice of public opinion and survey research with the appropriate use of research results. The Code is designed to express fundamental principles that apply to the conduct of research regardless of an individual's membership in AAPOR. Adherence to the principles and actions set out in the Code is possible for of all public opinion and survey researchers, whether they are AAPOR members or not. Under the Code, practitioners of survey research are expected to conduct their research with care, taking all reasonable steps to assure the reliability and validity of the results and communicate their methods and findings accurately with appropriate detail. The AAPOR code details the standards for dealing with research participants and identifiable information. And it indicates the need to provide clients with all information regarding possible research limitations and the need for disclosure. The latest revision was approved in May 2015.


Transparency Initiative

In October 2014, AAPOR launched the Transparency Initiative (TI) to encourage research organizations to disclose their methodological procedures fully and rigorously when reporting survey-based findings. AAPOR established a set of principles for disclosure and then invited organizations to apply to join the TI effort and be recognized for their promise to comply with the guidelines. Joining the TI does not imply any judgment about the quality or rigor of the methods being disclosed. The purpose of TI is to promote understanding of the relationship between methodology and survey quality, increase adherence to AAPOR's Code of Professional Ethics and Practices and enable members of the media and the public to evaluate survey quality.


Presidents


The AAPOR Awards

Each year, AAPOR presents a portfolio of awards to recognize distinguished work in the profession, as well as to further the education of students and early career researchers; these awards are the highest honors given by the AAPOR.


Reports

As needed, AAPOR may commission a working group to address topical issues relating to the survey research industry. These working groups produce reports to introduce new methods, address methodological concerns or provide guidance on the application of specific research methods. Here are some of those Task Force Reports: * January 1, 2008 – Pre-Election Polling in New Hampshire: What Went Wrong? * April, 2008 – AAPOR Cell Phone Task Force Report * March 30, 2009 – An Evaluation of the Methodology of the 2008 Pre-Election Primary Polls: Report of ad hoc AAPOR Committee on the 2008 Presidential Primary Polling * May 16, 2009 – Report to the AAPOR Standards Committee on the status of Human Subjects Protection Training Requirements * March 24, 2010 – AAPOR Opt In Online Panel Task Force Report * October 28, 2010 – AAPOR 2010 Cell Phone Task Force Report * October 7, 2012 – AAPOR Statement on Understanding a "credibility interval" * May 17, 2013 – AAPOR Report on Non-Probability Sampling * September 2, 2013 – Polling and Democracy: Report of the AAPOR Task Force on Public Opinion and Leadership * May 12, 2014 – Mobile Technologies for Conducting, Augmenting and Potentially Replacing Surveys: Report of the AAPOR Task Force on Emerging Technologies in Public Opinion Research * May 30, 2014 – Social Media and Public Opinion Research: Report of the AAPOR Task Force on Emerging Technologies in Public Opinion Research * September 8, 2014 – Current Knowledge and Considerations Regarding Survey Refusals * February 12, 2015 Task Force Report on Big Data


See also

* Council of American Survey Research Organizations * European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research *
Survey methodology Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...
* World Association for Public Opinion Research


References


External links

* {{Authority control Professional associations based in the United States Quantitative research Statistical organizations in the United States Organizations established in 1947 1947 establishments in the United States Public opinion research companies in the United States