12/09/2024
By Kelly Socia

The UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion is calling for proposals for survey research by members of the UMass Lowell faculty. The purpose of the proposals is to support academic survey research in any discipline at the university. Proposals may come from a faculty member or members in any department and from any of the colleges and schools at the University.

Scope and parameters:
Over the summer, the Center for Public Opinion will conduct a national survey of 1,000 U.S. adults. Faculty members are invited to design a survey instrument to be included in the poll. Those who do not have experience with writing survey questions are encouraged to consult with Director Joshua Dyck (Joshua_Dyck@uml.edu), Associate Director John Cluverius (John_Cluverius@uml.edu), or Assistant Director Kelly Socia (Kelly_Socia@uml.edu) before submitting their proposal.

The proposal should include a development and analysis plan with projected questions (between 5 and 10 questions recommended). A general research design with expected product(s) should accompany the proposed questions. Standard demographic, socioeconomic variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, income, marital status, party identification, ideology, religion/religiosity, state of residence) will be included in the survey and do not need to be part of the proposal. Research designs should ideally be limited to a single page, with proposed questions added as an Appendix.

We are most interested in supporting projects that involve testing a theoretically motivated hypothesis. The use of survey experiments are strongly encouraged. In the past, we have supported creative uses of survey data that fit within disciplines outside the social sciences; please describe to us how survey data might be relevant to your project.

The Center is interested in presenting survey questions that are interdisciplinary in applicability and are designed to result in publishable research. Student participation in faculty proposals is also encouraged.

Formatting guidelines:
All proposals must be submitted as a Word document using YouGov formatting guidelines.

Applications will be given one of four grades:
1. Accept with minor revisions – these will be proposals that require, at most, minor edits for grammar, tone, formatting, and/or ordering.
2. Revise and Resubmit – these proposals will require significant revisions before fielding.
3. Reject and Resubmit – these proposals will be revised significantly over a one-year period with the help of Center staff, with plans to include the project on the next faculty poll.
4. Reject – these proposals will not be accepted, but will be provided with feedback.

Please submit your proposal by January 26, 2025.