Planning Meeting, The Future of Social Science Data Collection

Household survey response rates have been steadily declining over the last 20-25 years. Efforts to raise response rates have used monetary incentives or repetitive attempts to obtain completed interviews, but these strategies increase the costs of surveys and are often unsuccessful. What accounts for the decline in responsiveness to traditional surveys and what can be done about it?

Russell Sage Foundation and the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) have partnered to conduct a planning meeting on the future of social science data collection. Organized by Constance Citro, director of CNSTAT, this planning meeting will analyze the deterioration in social science data collection, evaluate possible solutions, and explore new, non-survey methods of gathering social information. The meeting will draw together experts in survey design, social scientists who use survey data, government officials and academics, and private sector sponsors of surveys for research and policy analysis. Papers commissioned for the CNSTAT planning meeting will cover what is known and not known about causes of the decrease in response rates to surveys, the threats to accurate inference due to increasing non-response, and different methods for data collection that could circumvent these problems, such as expanded use of administrative data, automatic data capture through monitors, and mixed mode data collection. The planning meeting will be held November 18, 2009.