My thoughts on why social science is important! Thanks to @cossa.bsky.social for the opportunity!!

Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)@cossa.bsky.social · last mo.

#WhySocialScience? Because Asking People Questions Provides Important and Necessary Insights 🧐 - New post from @olsonkm.bsky.social of @unlincoln.bsky.social! Read now ➡️ www.whysocialscience.com/blog/2026/6/...

Get those papers submitted for the Survey Costs special issue of @surveypractice.bsky.social!

Kristen Olson@olsonkm.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Survey people of BlueSky! Submit your papers to the @surveypractice.bsky.social Special Issue on Survey Costs by June 1. Guest edited by myself, @jameswagner254.bsky.social, Jill DeMatteis, John Eltinge, Daifeng Han, Chris Jackson, and Eric Rancourt! www.surveypractice.org/post/3724-20...

So grateful to be selected for the 2026 SRMS service award! Serving our profession - and especially the Survey Research Methods Section of @amstatnews.bsky.social - is a great honor.

Theresa Kim, PhD, MS@tyk314.net · 4mo ago

Congratulations to @olsonkm.bsky.social on earning this year's #SRMS service award within @amstatnews.bsky.social ! #statsky #surveysky

Survey people of BlueSky! Submit your papers to the @surveypractice.bsky.social Special Issue on Survey Costs by June 1. Guest edited by myself, @jameswagner254.bsky.social, Jill DeMatteis, John Eltinge, Daifeng Han, Chris Jackson, and Eric Rancourt! www.surveypractice.org/post/3724-20...

At least no one in a web+mail survey wants to talk with an interviewer! :) Happy to share the paper with anyone who is interested in it.

Kevin Collins@kwcollins.bsky.social · 7mo ago

New from @olsonkm.bsky.social and Jolene Smyth in JRSSSA: "Who prefers smartphone surveys? Revisiting predictors of survey mode preference". Seems like no one wants to actually talk to an interviewer (editorial comment: relatable) academic.oup.com/jrsssa/advan...

ANES Data Release! electionstudies.org/data-center/... The 3-wave ANES panel is now available. It merges data from 3 election studies (2016-2020-2024), the first time the ANES has collected interviews of the same respondents across 3 presidential elections.

New article! About a year ago, I asked ChatGPT 3.5 to calculate the reading level of survey questions. It was totally wrong. And this paper was born! Trent Buskirk and I examine multiple ChatGPT and Claude models for evaluating question reading levels & inputs. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

“ChatBot” is a Two Syllable Word...Or Is It?: Using Generative AI for Survey Question Readability Assessments - Kristen Olson, Trent D. Buskirk, 2025

Market and survey researchers aim to write survey questions so that the target population can understand them. A common recommendation for general population st...

journals.sagepub.com

New paper alert! We examine the effectiveness of sending a follow-up incentive to nonrespondents after an initial prepaid incentive (a sequential incentive). Response rates increased with higher seq incentives, but costs skyrocketed with $5 vs. $1 or $2. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Will One More Dollar Help? The Effect of Sequential Incentives on Survey Participation and Costs in a Concurrent Mixed-mode Survey - Kristen Olson, Amanda Ganshert, Mia Bourek, 2025

Prepaid monetary incentives increase response rates in surveys. Whether offering a second monetary incentive to nonrespondents in web-and-mail surveys increases...

journals.sagepub.com

Survey costs drive almost every data collection decision, but are woefully understudied. @aapor.bsky.social, @amstatnews.bsky.social, and @westatofficial.bsky.social are cosponsoring this important workshop on Survey Costs in February 2026! Submit your abstract today! aapor.org/aapor-2026-s...

2026 Survey Costs Workshop - AAPOR

aapor.org

Survey costs drive almost every data collection decision, but are woefully understudied. @aapor.bsky.social, @amstatnews.bsky.social, and @westatofficial.bsky.social are cosponsoring this important workshop on Survey Costs in February 2026! Submit your abstract today! aapor.org/aapor-2026-s...

2026 Survey Costs Workshop - AAPOR

aapor.org

I'm teaching a research ethics class for upper division undergraduates this semester. Looking for case study examples of ethical issues that aren't the BIG ones (e.g., Tuskegee, Milgram, Zimbardo) in a digestible form for undergrads (news articles, podcasts, videos, shorter articles).

It was an honor to speak in this memorial session for Don Dillman at #JSM25. Don's influences on the science of surveys are extraordinary. But the primary words that people use to describe him at his memorial are kind, generous, honest, humble, and welcoming - I think he did something extra right.

Brady West@bradytwest.bsky.social · last yr.

A word cloud of the responses!

@olsonkm.bsky.social kicks off our session celebrating Don Dillman at #JSM2025 with a discussion of Don’s contributions to survey methodology. Thanks to @statstas.datascience.blue for setting this up! 💯

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the #ESRA25 @esrasurvey.bsky.social conference last week in Utrecht. A fantastic conference all around, with great talks on data collection methods, AI, data donation, questionnaire design, and much more.

Good news! Release 1 of the 2024 GSS is available for download. The 2024 GSS, like 2022, uses web, in-person, and phone modes. For some variables this can complicate analyses of trends. See documentation. Still a prob sample & gold standard survey w/ high resp rates (by contemporary standards).

If you encounter what seems like an implausible survey finding, ask: 1. Were survey respondents selected randomly or was this an opt-in poll? 2. Could the results, especially for young adults, be driven by bogus respondents? Keep this post in mind: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

everything about this is simultaneously absolutely wrong and absolutely perfect

Kathleen Weldon@kathleenweldon.bsky.social · last yr.

A scale for the ages. How exactly is one “a little neutral”?

I give comments to my students of “what’s the denominator?” all the time!This level of precision matters not only for understanding the group about whom one is making inference, but also to suggest whether it’s the whole set of respondents or a subset of them (and all the errors therein).

Ariel Edwards-Levy@aedwardslevy.bsky.social · last yr.

A perennial tip for writing about surveys: the base population (who comprises the group that the survey question is talking about?) is SO important. e.g. a poll finding that X% of "Americans who want to have kids" don't feel financially able to do so is totally different from "X% of all Americans"

🚨 Call for all AAPOR board gamers! 🚨 GAMEPOR is finally officially on the conference schedule, now named "Longitudinal Leisure Study (with board games)". Bring your favorite (and luggage friendly) board games to the conference and come join us for an epic game night! 🎲 #AAPOR @aapor.bsky.social

Looking forward to the #AAPOR25 conference next week! I will be giving papers on visible incentives in mixed-mode surveys, mode preferences in today’s survey landscape, and using generative AI for reading level calculations of survey questions.

American Association for Public Opinion Research@aapor.bsky.social · last yr.

As you pack your suitcase, wait in security lines, or run into other AAPORites in the Uber line, snap a pic and share your journey to #aapor25!

Hey data nerds, ANES 2024 Combined Pre- and Post-Election preliminary data is out now! Have fun! 🤓

American National Election Studies@electionstudies.bsky.social · last yr.

We are thrilled that the amazing @olsonkm.bsky.social will give a keynote at #ESRA25! Title: "From Mail Surveys to Chatbots: Changes in Survey Modes, Methods, and Data Sources Over Time"! Register now for #ESRA25 & be part of the future of survey research!

European Survey Research Association (ESRA)@esrasurvey.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Registration for #ESRA25 conference is now open! We are so excited 🎉 Let's have a big reunion of survey researchers in #Utrecht! ⏰️ The early-bird registration deadline is on May 12 ⏰️ www.europeansurveyresearch.org/conference/u...

This article is a great example for a questionnaire design class!

Emily Guskin@emgusk.bsky.social · last yr.

This is very cool!! www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

We have a paper in this Special Issue of @surveypractice.bsky.social! Spanish translation of self-administered surveys in a rural are with higher concentrations of Spanish speakers yielded very few Spanish language completes, but they came from addresses w/a Hispanic surname indicator on ABS frame.

Here are a few studies I've published using data from Dept. of Educ / IES. None were funded by DoE/IES. Most are with Steve Morgan (often lead), Dafna Gelbgiser, and undergrad or grad students, some of whom went on to work for Dept. of Education. 1st Sue's 🧵, the inspiration for this one.

Prof Dynarski@dynarski.bsky.social · last yr.

Thread of my own work that has used data from Department of Education and columns that have focused on research funded by them 1/N Inequality in college graduation rates Uses data from Education Longitudinal Study, conducted by Department of Education www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/u...

Thread of my own work that has used data from Department of Education and columns that have focused on research funded by them 1/N Inequality in college graduation rates Uses data from Education Longitudinal Study, conducted by Department of Education www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/u...

Over 1,000 submission to Social Science Computer Review in 2024! That's incredible. Please send us your best work! 📝 Follow this account to see the amazing work that we have published. 🏆

Deana A. Rohlinger @deanarohlinger.bsky.social · 2y ago

Final total for the number of manuscripts received by @sscratsage.bsky.social in 2024? 1,020. Up from 785 submissions in 2023.

FANTASTIC ICPSR at U Mich is coordinating the archiving of at-risk federal data (all of it?) You can upload data you have & search for data you don’t have www.datalumos.org/datalumos/

The American National Election Study is an NSF funded publicly available, incredibly rich dataset that tracks American public opinion, vote choice and evaluations of government that has been in the field since 1948. It is an incredible resource for teaching and research and must be protected.

Erin C.@erincikanek.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 The ANES is on the list, because the award description includes the study of 'racial conflict.' The loss of the ANES would be a huge loss for public opinion, and for science.