AAPOR 2021

Join RTI International at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)'s 76th annual conference being held online May 11-15, with more than 20 presentations of research, including several that explore the impact of COVID-19 on survey administration and results. 
It will be easier than ever to connect with our experts, as the online platform has lowered barriers to communication. Our scientists are excited to discuss our findings regarding questions on the pivot from in-person to virtual in survey and focus group administration, the effect of integrating national survey data on insights gathered, and the effect of language on neural network or AI response coding.

AAPOR is the leading association of public opinion and survey research professionals, comprised of members of academia, the media, government, non-profit, and private sector industries. 

RTI has held its membership in AAPOR for over 60 years, and many of our scientists proudly serve on AAPOR committees. This year, our experts will be presenting on topics that explore the adjustments the COVID-19 pandemic has forced on the industry, as well as the opportunities offered by AI technologies and digital communication. View the schedule of RTI scientists' presentations below to plan your attendance at the AAPOR conference.

Congratulations to Paul Biemer, Craig Hill, and Antje Kirchner, recipients of the 2021 Warren J. Motifsky Innovators Award!

Thursday, May 6

2:00 PM - 5:30 PM EDT - Short Course 8: Tidy Survey Analysis in R using the srvyr Package
Presenters: Stephanie Zimmer and Rebecca Powell

This course will provide an in-depth introduction to survey analysis in R. We will primarily ‎discuss the R packages `srvyr` and `survey` which allow for analysis of complex survey ‎data using Taylor’s Series Estimation or replicate weights for estimation. This will be an ‎interactive class with time for hands-on practice using public use files of common survey ‎data. We will introduce how to specify the sampling design and how to do basic analyses ‎including estimating means, proportions, totals, t-tests, and regressions. This class is ‎appropriate for R users who know the basics of the `tidyverse` including the `mutate`, ‎‎`group_by`, `summarize`, and pipe (`%>%`) functions. We will provide code for all ‎examples in the course including exercises to do on your own and their solutions. ‎

Tuesday, May 11

11:30 AM EDT - Comparing Estimates of News Consumption from Survey and Passively Collected Behavioral Data 
Stephanie Eckman

2:30 PM EDT - Can Prepaid PayPal Incentives Be As Effective As Prepaid Cash Incentives? 
Antje Kirchner, Emilia Peytechva, Nicole Tate

2:30 PM EDT - Precision of Estimates of Nonresponse Bias in Means
Stephanie Eckman, Jennifer Unangst, Jill Dever from RTI International, Chris Antoun from the University of Maryland

Wednesday, May 12

10:30 AM EDT - New Approach for Handling Drop Point Addresses in Mail/Web Surveys
Rachel Harter, Joseph McMichael from RTI International, S. Grace Deng from U.S. Energy Information Administration

Thursday, May 13

9:30 AM EDT - Gaining Institutional Cooperation
Gregory Mosorjak

9:30 AM EDT - Managing Nonresponse in a Required, Weekly Survey
Megan Waggy, Jessica Williams, Sara Russell from RTI International, Amerine Woodyard from U.S. Energy Information Administration

9:30 AM EDT - Use of Email “Flair” to Encourage Study Participation Among Parents of a Nationally Representative Sample of Students
Bethany Vanspronsen, McCaila Ingold-Smith, Courtney Waterman

10:00 AM EDT - Data for Policymaking on COVID-19: A Case Study of a CATI Survey in Bolivia
Charles Lau

10:00 AM EDT - Design Changes of In-Person Surveys During the Pandemic
Andy Peytchev

10:00 AM EDT - Changing Modes During COVID-19 on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health
Doug Currivan, Chris Jewett, Megan Livengood, Gretchen McHenry, Allison McKamey, Katie Morton, Scott Payne, Gilbert Rodriguez, Nan Ganapathi

10:00 AM EDT - The Mental and Substance Use Disorders Prevalence Study
Heidi Guyer, Andy Peytchev, Heather Ringeisen

1:00 PM EDT - Revisiting the Need for ACASI in Face to Face Surveys: The Role of Culture and Language
Emilia Peytcheva, Andy Peytchev

1:00 PM EDT - Assembling a Large-Scale Hybrid Sample to Achieve Population Representativeness During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Best ‎Practices and Lessons Learned 
Y. Patrick Hsieh, Lynn Langton, Hershel Sanders, Christopher Krebs from RTI International, Michael Dennis, David Dutwin from NORC at the University of Chicago 

1:00 PM EDT - Experiments to Inform Refinement to the Choice+ Protocol for the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey
Kristine Wiant, Paul Biemer, Joe Murphy from RTI International, S. Grace Deng from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

1:00 PM EDT - Survey Deduplication: Assessment and Decision-Making from a Multi-Mode Longitudinal Cohort Survey
Laura DiGrande, Rita Thissen, Mai Nguyen, Taylor Abernathy from RTI International, David Wu, Junaid Maqsood, Shengchao Yu from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

3:00 PM EDT - A Comparison of Address-Based Sampling and Redirected Inbound Calling Sample for General Population Surveys
Michelle Cavazos, Burton Levine, Ellen Coats, Matthew Farrelly

3:00 PM EDT - Hospital Heroes: How Honoring Physicians Through Tailored Messaging and Materials Impacts Response Rates
Rebekah Torcasso-Sanchez, Rebecca J. Powell, Marshica Stanley, Murrey G. Olmsted

3:00 PM EDT - The Effect of Question Characteristics on Recurrent Neural Network Coding of Interviewer Question-Asking Behaviors
Jerry Timbrook

Friday, May 14

12:00 PM EDT - Surveying by Mail During a Pandemic: Adaptation of Data Collection Due to COVID-19
Jessica Williams, Brenna Muldavin, Joli Brown, Amie Lynch, Carrie Darden, Todd Prince, Laura DiGrande

1:30 PM EDT - Reproducibility Assessments of Analytic Findings Derived Through National Survey Data Integration Efforts
Steven Cohen

1:30 PM EDT - Combining Data from Probability and Nonprobability Samples Using a Composite Estimator
Burton Levine, Akhil Vaish, Taylor Lewis, Michelle Cavazos, Rachel Harter

2:00 PM EDT - Altered State: Performance Impacts of a Rapid Pivot from On-site to Virtual Call Center
Kurt Johnson, Kelly Lynn, Mandee Lancaster