We’re proud to be associated with a newly published article in the scientific journal PNAS Nexus, titled “Protecting the Integrity of Survey Research.” The article suggests 12 steps to improve the integrity, utility and understanding of public opinion surveys, centered around three themes: transparency, clarity and correcting the record.

In sum, the paper calls on survey researchers to be transparent in describing their work, so the research community can independently assess their methods and claims; to be clear and precise in describing their work, including its limitations; and to be willing to issue clarifications and corrections as needed. It encourages all those involved in the survey enterprise – including practitioners, scholars, survey vendors, leaders of professional associations, journal editors, reporters and publishers – to adopt and promulgate these scientific norms.

The paper is an outcome of a two-day virtual conference among 20 senior survey researchers, convened in November 2021 by Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and co-hosted by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The proceedings were coordinated by Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the APPC, who together lead-authored the paper.

Co-authors include Ashley Amaya of the Pew Research Center; Henry E. Brady of the University of California, Berkeley; René Bautista of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago; Joshua D. Clinton of Vanderbilt University; Jill A. Dever of RTI International; David Dutwin of NORC; Daniel L. Goroff of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; D. Sunshine Hillygus of Duke University; Courtney Kennedy of the Pew Research Center; Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates; John S. Lapinski of the University of Pennsylvania; Michael Link of Ipsos; Tasha Philpot of the University of Texas, Austin; Ken Prewitt of Columbia University; Doug Rivers of Stanford University; Lynn Vavreck of the University of California, Los Angeles; David C. Wilson of the University of California, Berkeley; and Marcia K. McNutt.

PNAS Nexus is an open-access sibling journal to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published by the NAS in partnership with Oxford University Press. See the article here, and please share it with your circles.