Stanford Institute for Excellence in Survey Research (SIESR)
International leadership in survey research excellence.
Mission
These are exciting times for survey research. Never before has so much survey research been done, and never before has it had so much impact on academic scholarship, government policy-making, and business decision-making. More than $20 billion is now spent each year conducting surveys in the United States alone, and terrifically important statistics such as the unemployment and inflation rates are derived from them. But as the use of surveys has expanded, so too has the need to strengthen the methods by which they are designed, administered, and analyzed. Leadership is needed, and the Stanford Institute for Excellence in Survey Research was created within the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences to provide it.
Initiatives
A gathering of the entire available scholarly literature on best practices in survey research data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. Thousands of publications document best practices, but this literature is scattered across disciplines. The Ball of Knowledge brings that evidence together in one place.
Reports on American public opinion on the issues that matter, drawing only on high-quality surveys done using best practices as identified by the Ball of Knowledge. Directed by Frank Newport and Jon Krosnick and overseen by a Board of Advisors of accomplished survey professionals from academia and the news media.
Methodological advice for Stanford faculty, staff, students, and organizations on campus who conduct surveys. Consultation begins with a 45-minute session with our survey experts, continues through follow-up appointments as the project develops, and includes reviews of draft questionnaires.
A two-quarter course in survey research methods, offered every other year, in which students design, field, and analyze an original survey.
Leadership
Jon A. Krosnick
Co-Chair of the SIESR Faculty Committee
Co-Director of The Public Pulse
Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences, Stanford University
Michael Tomz
Co-Chair of the SIESR Faculty Committee
Faculty Director of the Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences
William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
Frank Newport
Co-Director of The Public Pulse
Gallup Senior Scientist; Editor in Chief of the Gallup Poll, 1990–2018
Looking Ahead
The list of ways an academically housed institute can contribute to survey research goes on much longer than the work we have underway today. We intend to document how accurate surveys really are, to show the public how widely survey data is used and to what effect, to give judges and juries guidance on how to evaluate surveys submitted as evidence, to map public opinion state by state, and to bring the field together around the methodological questions it has not yet answered.
Contact and Support
Stanford Institute for Excellence in Survey Research
30 Alta Road, Stanford, CA 94305
siesr-info [at] stanford.edu
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