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Expertise National Network of State Polls
To discuss your next survey, contact: Dr. Ronald E. Langley, Director Updated 04-12-2005 |
The University of Kentucky Survey Research Center conducts socially significant research with public policy implications as well as research of theoretical or academic interest. UK-SRC has conducted more than 450 studies since it was established in 1979. UK-SRC's client base includes local and state government agencies, private and non-profit groups, and university researchers. The survey center provides the expertise, resources, facilities, and staff for research using telephone surveys, face-to-face interviews, web surveys, and mailed questionnaires. Expertise Clients benefit from the multidisciplinary background of UK-SRC's professional staff. Currently, staff hold graduate-level degrees in political science, economics, social psychology, public administration, business management, and marketing. In addition to the professional staff, UK-SRC employs more than 50 highly trained, experienced project managers, telephone interviewers, field interviewers, and data-entry specialists. Interviewers are given extensive background training on each survey project. UK-SRC has experience with a wide variety of subject populations, including prisoners, adolescents, the elderly, teachers, business owners, recovering substance abusers, and parents of children with special education needs. Topics of interviews have ranged from the ordinary to extremely sensitive, personal questions regarding drug abuse, race relations, domestic violence, and sexual practices. Resources UK-SRC has adapted the CATI package for use on laptop computers during field research. Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) and Computer-Assisted Self Interviewing (CASI) ensure data quality by reducing interviewer effects. CASI is particularly effective for field projects involving at-risk populations or surveys with extremely sensitive personal questions regarding drug use and sexual behaviors. For telephone surveys, the center utilizes a modified, list-assisted Waksberg random-digit-dialing procedure for contacting non-institutionalized adults. Other sampling strategies and procedures are used as needed. Data Archive Quality and Service Questionnaires are developed and designed in close cooperation with clients to ensure that valid, reliable data will be obtained. Surveys are pretested, and well-developed coding procedures are followed for open-ended questions. The WinQuery Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system is a major component of the survey center's quality control. It provides interviewers and (in the case of CASI) respondents a user-friendly format and virtually eliminates potential errors that could occur with a separate data-entry step. It provides an exact report on the disposition of each call made, and the call-scheduling algorithm helps ensure that respondents represent the target population. Face-to-face interviews are conducted using strict quality-assurance and extensive tracking procedures. In multi-wave studies (conducted over a period of time) these procedures typically yield an 85 percent or better response rate. For field projects, follow-up verification calls are standard procedure. Quality controls for mailed questionnaires, including multiple mailings, follow-up postcards, and postage-paid return envelopes, ensure high response rates. For data entry, 100 percent verification is standard procedure. UK-SRC conducts verification checks of all data prior to issuing the final report on the project. The Kentucky Survey
"The Survey Research Center's commitment to customer service and attention to detail match its expertise in developing highly effective survey instruments." "Without the excellent reputation and readily available expertise of UK's Survey Research Center, we would not have gotten the grants." "We've used UK-SRC survey results to evaluate trends, establish new programs, and enact laws increasing annual funding for wildlife conservation by over $1 million." "The Survey Research Center was responsible for a 61 percent response rate on our mail survey of engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design faculty across North America. This was more than double the response of other survey research on perceptions of creativity." |
