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Working Paper

Who Fills Out the Census Form?

July 01, 1992

Pre-1990 census test in which the characteristics of the respondent were captured and coded to paint a demographic portrait of the census respondent.

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Working Paper

The Use of Interviewer Debriefings to Identify Problematic Questions

May 1992

Interviewers are in a unique position to evaluate the merits of survey questions.

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Working Paper

Assessment of S-Night Street Enumeration in the 1990 Census

February 03, 1992

The Census Bureau conducted "Shelter and Street-Night" to count components of the homeless population in emergency shelters and street locations.

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Working Paper

Results from the 1990 Alternative Questionnaire Experiment

1992

The 1990 Alternative Questionnaire Experiment tested five newly designed census long forms during the decennial census.

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Working Paper

Income Measurement Error in Surveys: A Review

1997

Because income data are germane to a wide array of important policy issues, income questions are almost ubiquitous in government-sponsored surveys.

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Working Paper

Using Administrative Record Persons in the 1996 Community Census

1997

Names and characteristics from administrative records are a possible source of people missed in the Census.

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Working Paper

How Do People Answer Income Questions?

1997

People do not always answer questions regarding their household's income the way the question designer expected them to.

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Working Paper

Plant-Capture Method for Estimating the Size of the Street Population

1997

In 1990, the Census Bureau conducted two operations designed to include homeless persons in the census.

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Working Paper

Improving the Navigational Qualities of the Decennial Short Form

1997

This research is part of the Census' continuing effort to design decennial short forms that are respondent friendly, machine imagable, and cost efficient.

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Working Paper

Third-Person Reporting of Hispanic Origin and Race

May 17, 1997

Hispanic origin and race are problematic data elements in censuses and surveys.

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Working Paper

Better Formatting for Lower Response Burden

1997

This paper will present a modest qualitative effort to look at the implications of varying the instruction design.

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Working Paper

Cognitive Evaluation of Proposed Disability Question

September 22, 1997

Data needs in the area of disability are changing with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and with welfare reform.

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Working Paper

Report to OMB on Third-Person Reporting of Hispanic Origin and Race

1997

This report documents the successive results of multi-stage research to develop, test, and field experimental Hispanic origin and race questions.

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Working Paper

Influence of Alternative Visual Designs on Respondents' Performance

2000

In Chapter 5, Beatty and Hermann examine the cognitive processes that may lead to peoples’ decisions not to respond to survey items.

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Working Paper

Improving Electronic Data Collection and Dissemination

March 07, 2000

Electronic modes of data collection and data dissemination pose challenges to instrument designers and user-interface designers.

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Working Paper

An Experiment with Skip Instructions on Paper Questionnaires

March 07, 2000

Research has shown that questionnaires with skip instructions produce higher item nonresponse than those without.

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Working Paper

Influence of Type of Question on Skip Pattern Compliance

2000

Our purpose in this paper is to describe eight distinguishing structural attributes of the test questions.

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Working Paper

Within-Household Disagreements as a Source of Survey Coverage Error

1998

This paper draws on data from the Living Situation Survey.

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Working Paper

Collecting Address Information from People at Mobile Food Van Stops

1998

In Census 2000, the Census Bureau will make special efforts to reach people who do not have a usual place of residence.

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Working Paper

Beyond Concurrent Interviews: An Evaluation of Cognitive Interviewing

1998

Two of the most widely described cognitive interviewing techniques are the concurrent and retrospective interviews.

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Working Paper

Developing the Survey of Program Dynamics Survey Instruments

1998

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the Census Bureau was charged to evaluate the impact of the law.

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Working Paper

Human-Computer Interface Usability in a Survey Organization

1998

We address the start-up of a usability research and testing capability at the Census Bureau.

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Working Paper

Conceptual & Methodological Issues in Defining Basic Statistical Units

1998

Clear delineation of the universe and basic survey units is critical in surveys and censuses.

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Working Paper

Improving Survey Quality through Pretesting

1998

As the vehicle of data collection, the questionnaire is one of the critical components in achieving high quality in a survey.

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Working Paper

A Tool for Evaluating the Design of Visually Administered Instruments

May 2001

A data collection instrument that a respondent self completes through the visual channel, such as on paper or over the Web, is visually administered.

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Working Paper

SIPP Advance Letter Research

March 23, 2001

This report documents research regarding the revised advance letter used for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

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Working Paper

Comparing Cognitive Data Collected in Written versus Verbal Form

1995

Over the last decade, cognitive interviewing has become a primary tool in developing and pretesting questionnaires, even self-administered instruments.

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Working Paper

The Census Bureau's Spanish Forms Availability Test

1995

In 1993 the Census Bureau implemented the Spanish Forms Availability Test (SFAT).

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Working Paper

A Literature Review of Person-based vs. Topic-Based Design

August 11, 1995

A literature review of person- versus topic-based questionnaire design.

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Working Paper

Some Effects of Gender on the Meaning of "Work"

1995

This paper empirically analyzes effects of gender on the public's interpretations of various activities as "work."

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Working Paper

The SIPP Measurement Quality Experiment and Beyond

1995

This paper describes an ambitious project whose goal was to reduce SIPP response error importantly by radically changing the way income data were collected.

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Working Paper

Development, Results, and Issues from the Customer Satisfaction Survey

1995

In order for a government agency to provide the highest quality of customer service, it is first necessary to know the needs and expectations of the customer.

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Working Paper

Children in Custody Questionnaire Redesign Project

May 25, 1995

This report provides the results of the first of three phases of research conducted as part of the Children in Custody Questionnaire Redesign Project.

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Working Paper

Diagnostics for Redesigning Survey Questionnaires

1995

Between 1986 and 1993, a program of questionnaire design and cognitive research was conducted by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Working Paper

The Role of Questionnaire Design in Reducing Census Coverage Error

1995

Various forms of nonsampling error contributed to the total coverage error in the 1990 Decennial Census.

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Working Paper

The Language of Self-Administered Questionnaires

1995

Much survey research has been directed at studying interviewer-administered questionnaires.

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