Trent Buskirk’s Saturday afternoon Pedagogy Hour was one of many highlights of the 2024 MAPOR conference. His talk, “They are Large, but should they be in Charge? Exploring the Possibility and Implausibility of Large Language Models in Survey Science”, addressed many topics about the use of AI in survey research, specifically through the lens of large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Trent has asked us to post his slides for your use beyond the conference, and they are now available here.
2024 Annual Conference
49th Annual Conference
Friday, November 22 – Saturday, November 23, 2024
Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown (600 N. State Street)
“Bridging Trends from our Past with Insights for Tomorrow”
Our conference will focus on two important issues facing public opinion research in 2024 – the 2024 election and the acceleration of artificial intelligence. We will explore public opinion trends on social and political issues to understand the election and the key issues that affected the outcome. We will also consider how the rise in artificial intelligence may affect our field and how we collect, analyze and report public opinion data.
Friday morning short course:
“Beyond the Basics: Advanced Questionnaire Design for Writing Questions about Events and Behaviors”
Jennifer Dykema University of Wisconsin–Madison, MAPOR Fellow
Nora Cate Schaeffer, University of Wisconsin–Madison, MAPOR Fellow
Friday afternoon keynote address:
“Young Women and Men in the U.S.: A Political Mismatch?”
Lydia Saad, Gallup, Director of U.S. Social Research
Saturday afternoon pedagogy hour:
“They are Large, but should they be in Charge? Exploring the Possibility and Implausibility of Large Language Models in Survey Science”
Trent Buskirk, Old Dominion University, Professor and Data Science Fellow
Early registration discount ends November 8th at 11:59 p.m. CST
- Non-student early-bird registration for in-person attendees: $130 ($155 after November 8th).
- Student early-bird registration: $50 ($75 after November 8th).
MAPOR is committed to supporting conference attendance regardless of your financial situation. If you have concerns about the costs for the conference registration or travel expenses related to the conference please visit https://www.mapor.org/support-grants/ to learn more about support grant opportunities.
To help us keep the conference affordable, we encourage you to reserve your hotel room using our conference block at Embassy Suites. Rooms are $209 for a room with 1 King bed or $229 for a room with 2 Double Beds (plus taxes).
MAPOR 2024 Conference Call for Abstracts
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s
November 22-23, 2024
Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown
600 N. State Street
Call for Abstracts
Submit By July 26th, 2024
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, posters, and panels of papers.
“Bridging Trends from our Past with Insights for Tomorrow”
Our conference will focus on two important issues facing public opinion research in 2024 – the 2024 election and the acceleration of artificial intelligence. We will explore public opinion trends on social and political issues to understand the election and the key issues that affected the outcome. We will also consider how the rise in artificial intelligence may affect our field and how we collect, analyze and report public opinion data.
We encourage abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include but are not limited to: politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; journalism, media, and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; questionnaire design; data collection issues and strategies; existing and new methods for collecting data from respondents; online panel data collection; nonresponse; total survey error; machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data, and data science; location and geographic information; challenges facing the field due to technological and societal shifts; the ethical use of public opinion and survey data; qualitative and mixed-method research techniques; cross-cultural research; hard-to-reach and historically underrepresented populations; and data quality issues.
Submissions: Abstracts of 300 words or fewer can be submitted here. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. The same author’s name may appear as first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.
Note to student authors: If the lead author is a student who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition (see additional information on the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition, available at www.mapor.org). When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor, who will need to endorse the paper when it is submitted. The student paper competition team committee will reach out after the abstract submission window has closed. If you have questions, reach out to president@mapor.org.
Panel Proposals: A panel is a session that focuses on a common theme and includes 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.
Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59pm CDT on Friday July 26, 2024. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by August 30th of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2024 MAPOR conference chair, Jenny Marlar at: abstracts@mapor.org.
Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found here: https://www.mapor.org/support-grants/.
Student Fellowship Program
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR) Executive Council enthusiastically invites undergraduate and graduate students to apply to the MAPOR Student Fellowship Program. This program is a wonderful opportunity for students to pursue a research idea and publish their work. If accepted, you will be invited to present your research at this year’s MAPOR conference in Chicago, which is scheduled for November 22-23. 2024.
MAPOR is committed to supporting student professional development, learning, and network-building. The Student Fellowship Program is an important way to advance this goal by helping the next generation of scholars in public opinion research build on their research, expand their networks, and engage and collaborate with senior researchers.
Students who are accepted to the Student Fellowship Program will work closely with a MAPOR Fellow or other MAPOR member on a shared topic of interest, submit an abstract to MAPOR’s annual conference, and present their work.
Who should apply?
- Any graduate or undergraduate student with a research interest related to public opinion research, survey methodology, survey statistics, qualitative research, or applications of survey data.
Why should I apply?
- Pursue your research interest in public opinion research and have an opportunity to present it at the annual MAPOR conference!
- Work 1-on-1 with a MAPOR Fellow or other MAPOR member with shared research interests and who are leaders in the field of public opinion research.
Eligibility
This fellowship is open to graduate and undergraduate students with a strong interest in survey research or qualitative research. Applicants should be willing to commit to attending and presenting at this year’s MAPOR conference.
Preferences will be given to first-time MAPOR presenters, students who are in their first or second year of graduate education, or senior year in undergraduate education.
Application Process and Requirements
To be considered, please submit your application and letter of recommendation by April 29th.
Your proposal should be between 500 and 1000 words. It should include a very brief literature review and an importance statement. If the proposal is quantitative, please make sure you identify and describe the dataset. In addition, the student should identify a faculty mentor and ask them to write a letter of recommendation.
Send the proposal by email to paul@edchoice.org by Monday, April 29th. Include the subject line “MAPOR Student Fellowship Program”.
Contact
If you have any questions about the MAPOR Student Fellowship application process, please feel free to contact Paul DiPerna, email: paul@edchoice.org
2023 Annual Conference
48th Annual Conference
Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!
“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”
As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.
More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.
2023 Conference highlights:
Friday morning short course:
“The Mother of Invention: Design of the General Social Survey from 2020-2022 and Beyond”
René Bautista, NORC at the University of Chicago
Friday midday keynote address:
“Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Rigor and Applied Research Goals: Reflections of a Survey Researcher in the Tech Industry”
Greg Holyk, Google
Saturday morning pedagogy hour:
“Broadening the Horizon: Research and Career Development Opportunities for Social and Behavioral Scientists in the Research Industries”
Gina Walejko, Google
Erin Spottswood, Allstate/Portland State University
Caroline Smith, Morning Consult
Yu-Han Jao, Lundbeck
2023 Student Paper Competition
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research invites eligible students to enter the association’s MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Two winning papers, the Doris A. Graber Award in public opinion and the Allan L. McCutcheon Award in survey research methodology, will receive $500 and one free conference registration. The winning papers also will be accepted for presentation during a session at the May 2023 AAPOR conference.
Eligibility
- For the purposes of this competition, an eligible student is someone enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program at the time of the conference. A paper authored by more than one person is considered eligible only if all authors are students according to the above definition. Students need not be members of MAPOR.
- Students who have already won a MAPOR Student Paper Award are NOT eligible to submit as a sole or co-author. A student who has not won the award can submit in multiple years, but cannot submit the same paper multiple times (this would be unfair because all student paper competition entries are reviewed and provided with detailed comments by at least one MAPOR Fellow).
- Papers submitted to this competition should be primarily students’ work, although student author(s) are encouraged to seek advice from a faculty mentor. This requirement does not preclude recognizing the faculty mentor as a co-author on a later paper that is based on or incorporates some of the work in the student paper. In most cases the student would be first author on such a later publication.
The topic of the paper must fall under one or both of MAPOR’s general areas of scholarship, which are (1) public opinion and (2) research methods in public opinion and survey research. When submitting, the author(s) must indicate the topic for which the paper should be considered. The papers need not be quantitative nor must they report data in order to qualify for consideration in this competition. Each student may be an author on only one paper submitted to the competition.
Procedure
1. Submit an abstract to the MAPOR conference at mapor.org. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. Students must provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor when submitting their abstract. Abstracts can be submitted until 11:59pm CDT on Friday, August 18th, 2023.
2. Students whose papers have been accepted for the 2023 conference can have their papers considered for MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Here are the requirements:
- AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices and make sure this information is included in the appropriate places in the manuscript. (Please pay particular attention to the disclosure elements in Section III.)
A committee composed of MAPOR Fellows will judge all papers submitted to the competition. Winners will be announced at the Friday Awards Session.
AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices
All submissions must abide by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices. Manuscripts that make use of survey data must include, at minimum, the information below from Section III-A of the Code:
Include the following items in any report of research results or make them available immediately upon release of that report.
1. Who sponsored the research study, who conducted it, and who funded it, including, to the extent known, all original funding sources.
2. The exact wording and presentation of questions and responses whose results are reported.
3. A definition of the population under study, its geographic location, and a description of the sampling frame used to identify this population. If the sampling frame was provided by a third party, the supplier shall be named. If no frame or list was utilized, this shall be indicated.
4. A description of the sample design, giving a clear indication of the method by which the respondents were selected (or self-selected) and recruited, along with any quotas or additional sample selection criteria applied within the survey instrument or post-fielding. The description of the sampling frame and sample design should include sufficient detail to determine whether the respondents were selected using probability or non-probability methods.
5. Sample sizes and a discussion of the precision of the findings, including estimates of sampling error for probability samples and a description of the variables used in any weighting or estimating procedures. The discussion of the precision of the findings should state whether or not the reported margins of sampling error or statistical analyses have been adjusted for the design effect due to clustering and weighting, if any.
6. Which results are based on parts of the sample, rather than on the total sample, and the size of such parts.
7. Method and dates of data collection.
All submissions must include the following:
8. The response rate and details of its calculation (if response rate is not appropriate, the refusal rate). Accurate reporting of the response rate requires consulting the AAPOR Standard Definitions (aapor.org), to identify the appropriate response rate definition. If the AAPOR recommendations are not followed, authors should explain why a nonstandard approach was employed.
9. For models fitted to the data, the equations of the models should be presented, including the numerical values of the parameter estimates, the respective standard errors, and goodness-of-fit statistics for the model.
In addition, authors need to agree to make other specific information about the study available within 30 days of any request for such materials. This information is listed in Section III-B of the Code located at aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/AAPOR-Code-of-Ethics
MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Participation in Industry Idea Exchange
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s
48th Annual Conference
Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!
Call for Participation: Industry Idea Exchange Session
Extended to August 18th, 2023!
As a multidisciplinary organization, MAPOR values and considers collaboration as the bedrock of our profession and research fields. Besides the innovative research trend learning opportunity from our regular thematic sessions, MAPOR is planning an Industry Idea Exchange session during the conference to enhance our pursuit of collaboration beyond survey and public opinion research communities.
The Industry Idea Exchange session seeks to provide an engaging opportunity for connecting with organizations that conduct research such as marketing, consumers or users, audience, patients, or other social, behavioral, and data sciences research in applied contexts. Topics for the Industry Idea Exchange session may include, but are not limited to, promotion of cutting-edge research toolkits, talent acquisition for research organizations, hiring trends in labor market, and organizational branding.
MAPOR welcomes and encourages researchers, hiring and research managers, career advisors and recruiters, and job seekers working in any applied research field to participate in the Industry Idea Exchange session in our 2023 annual conference for scouting talents, identifying collaboration opportunities, and expanding professional networks.
For participation inquiries, please contact the 2023 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org using the subject line “[Industry Idea Exchange Participation] by 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023.” In your inquiry, please briefly describe the discussion topics you and your organization may want to discuss with other practitioners in the session. The conference committee will orient the outreach session based on the interest and focus of the participants.
MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Abstracts
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s
48th Annual Conference
Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!
Call for Abstracts
Extended to August 18th, 2023!
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, methodological briefs, posters, and panels of papers. We are particularly interested in papers that relate to our conference theme:
“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”
As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.
More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.
Submissions: Please visit the link: https://cvent.me/nwQGaq to submit your abstracts, with a limit of 300 words or fewer. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address of all authors. The same author’s name may appear as the first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.
Note to student authors: If all authors are students who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Please visit mapor.org for details. When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will be asked to send an email of 25 words or fewer endorsing the paper when the full paper is submitted.
Panel Proposals: Panels focus on a common theme and include 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.
Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by September 23 of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2022 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org.
Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the 2023 Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found on mapor.org.
2022 Annual Conference
47th Annual Conference
Held November 18-19, 2022 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!
“Turbulent Times: Public Opinion Research in a Changing Landscape”
There have been substantial (and surprising) shifts in both the way our work is conducted and the results of our work. Combined with the fact that this is a midterm election year, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. We encourage abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; total survey error; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; journalism, media, and public opinion; machine learning, big data, and data science; location and geographic information; challenges facing the field due to technological and societal shifts; the ethical use of public opinion and survey data; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; data collection issues and strategies; qualitative and mixed-method research techniques; cross-cultural research; recruitment, participation, nonresponse; hard-to-reach populations; existing and new methods for collecting data from respondents; and data quality issues.
2022 Conference highlights:
Friday morning short course: “Budgeting 101: ‘Hands On’ Budget Development for Public Opinion Research Projects”
Chuck Shuttles, HyphaMetrics & Kristen Conrad, SSRS
Friday morning short course: “So You Want to Do a Mixed-Mode Survey? Considerations and Design Decisions When Mixing Web and Mail Modes”
Kristen Olson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Friday midday keynote address: “The Public Interest in Public Polling”
Charles Franklin, Marquette University
Saturday midday pedagogy hour: “Mental and Substance Use Disorders Prevalence Study: Using Probability and Nonprobability Sample Data to Enhance Coverage of the U.S. Adult Population”
Jill Dever, RTI International
MAPOR 2022 Call for Participation
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s
47th Annual Conference
Held November 18-19, 2022 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!
Reminder to submit your abstracts: Due July 29th, 2022!
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, methodological briefs, posters, and panels of papers. We are particularly interested in papers that relate to our conference theme:
“Turbulent Times: Public Opinion Research in a Changing Landscape”
There have been substantial (and surprising) shifts in both the way our work is conducted and the results of our work. Combined with the fact that this is a midterm election year, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. We encourage abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; total survey error; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; journalism, media, and public opinion; machine learning, big data, and data science; location and geographic information; challenges facing the field due to technological and societal shifts; the ethical use of public opinion and survey data; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; data collection issues and strategies; qualitative and mixed-method research techniques; cross-cultural research; recruitment, participation, nonresponse; hard-to-reach populations; existing and new methods for collecting data from respondents; and data quality issues.
Submissions: Abstracts of 300 words or fewer can be submitted at https://cvent.me/Y1Owvq. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. The same author’s name may appear as first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.
Note to student authors: If all authors are students who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Please note that the criteria for the student paper competition has changed slightly for 2022. Please visit mapor.org for details. When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will be asked to send an email of 25 words or fewer endorsing the paper when the full paper is submitted.
Panel Proposals: Panels focus on a common theme and include 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.
Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59pm CDT on Friday July 29, 2022. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by September 2nd of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2022 MAPOR conference chair, Leah Dean at: abstracts@mapor.org.
Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the 2022 Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found on mapor.org.