Int'l Conference on Survey Methods in Multicultural, Multinational, and Multiregional Contexts

Dates: June 25 - 29, 2008
Location: Berlin, Germany
Call for submissions deadline: September 15, 2007
Website: http://www.csdi-workshop.org

As part of an ongoing effort to promote quality in multipopulation  surveys and to raise the level of methodological expertise in various  applied fields of comparative survey research, an International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional and  Multicultural Contexts will be held June 25 - 29, 2008 in Berlin, Germany.

This conference will bring together researchers and survey practitioners concerned with survey methodology and practice in comparative contexts.  It will provide a unique opportunity to discuss and present research  that contributes to our understanding of survey needs and methods in cross-cultural and cross-national contexts. Conference contributions will help document current best practices and stimulate new ideas for further research and development.

We invite all interested researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts to be considered for the conference as contributed papers.

Abstracts can be submitted at the CSDI website http://www.csdi-workshop.org (CSDI is the acronym for the International Workshop for Comparative  Survey Design and Implementation, which heads the initiative for this conference. CSDI meets every year for an annual workshop. More information is available on the CSDI website.) Click EVENTS to reach the 2008 3MC conference abstract submission form.

Authors of contributed papers will be required to provide a draft  version of their paper for discussants by the end of April 2008.  Abstracts should be between 400-500 words. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Saturday, September 15, 2007. Please provide 3-4 keywords for your abstract. It is also possible to submit a set of abstracts intended as a session.

Proceedings from the conference will be published in autumn 2008. In addition, we are hoping to secure two special editions of journals for papers from the conference. The papers will be selected by application through the conference organizers and journal review.

We encourage submissions from all over the world, including regions with emerging survey traditions. We also intend to secure funding to help  researchers from less affluent countries attend the conference.

If you have questions related to submitting an abstract, please contact Janet Harkness at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, jharkness2@unl.edu and copy to eu-centre@zuma-mannheim.de.

PRELIMINARY OUTLINE OF CONFERENCE TOPICS

The following is a list of possible topics under large headings planned for the conference sessions and the monograph. These may be expanded and re-organized, depending on submissions. Some overlap of sub-themes at this stage is intentional. Those submitting abstracts are not required to indicate where they think their abstract might "fit" but may choose to do so.

Theory and Methodology for Comparative Studies

• theories of comparability
• evidence-based approaches to comparability

Models of Study Designs, Organizations, and Goals

• social surveys:  values, opinions, behaviors
• establishment surveys
• cohort studies and panels
• labor force surveys
• short term economic indicators
• marketing surveys
• social indicators
• aggregation of regional data
• human capital and competencies
• health surveys
• cognition, education and personality instruments
• international web studies
• mandatory surveys

Multilingual, Multicultural Issues

• global measurement and local cultures
• institutions, gatekeepers, respondents
• communication across and between cultures
• language and measurement
• instrument comparability
• written and oral forms of instrument translation
• developing and testing multilingual instruments
• forms of instrument adaptation
• monitoring translation quality
• official version approval

Instrument Design

• instrument design models
• instrument development and pretesting strategies
• accommodating language and culture in questionnaire design
  • question content and format,
  • question meaning and context
  • response processes; response, disclosure and culture
  • data collection modes and design
  • visualization, navigation and presentation

Cognition, Culture and Communication

• cultural issues as these relate to perception, comprehension, processing and/or response.
• discourse and culture in survey contexts
• presentation and representation of the self; face management and the survey context

Study Implementation, Quality and Improvement

• quality assurance and quality control
• survey operations and error structures
• infrastructures and management issues
• external and internal design tensions
• standardization and local realizations
• input and output harmonization procedures
• assessing survey measurement capability
• sampling
• expertise and standards
• applications of ISO standard on market opinion and social research
• resources and funding (studies, monitoring, and methods)
• data capture and data processing
  • coding
  • estimation and weighting
  • editing and imputation

Knowledge Management and Dissemination

• knowledge management in surveys
• documentation as design and process quality tool
• classifications
• survey process data
• metadata, paradata, context data
• archives and databases
  • dissemination
  • public use data files

Analysis and Validation

• measurement strategies
• measurement difficulties
• measurement models
• units of analysis
• bias and error
• house effects (countries and houses)
• response conversion
• secondary analysis and analysts
• meta-analysis

Data Collection in Complex Comparative Contexts

• organizing and building fielding structures
• ethics
• recruiting, assigning, and training interviewers
• sample management
• collecting data
  • nomadic populations
  • rural populations
  • undocumented populations and accommodations
  • conflict-torn and fragile states
  • ethnic minority populations
  • populations on reservations, in refugee camps, etc.

Data Collection Programs and Surveys and Data Access in Developing Countries

• data access
• capacity-building
• educational indicators
• health indicators
• economic indicators
• social indicators
• epidemiological studies
• governance indicators
• political indicators
• attitudinal indicators
• price comparison indicators
• using informational databases

CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Michael Braun
ZUMA
Mannheim, Germany

Brad Edwards
Westat, Inc.
Rockville, USA

Janet Harkness (Chair)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
and ZUMA, Mannheim, Germany

Timothy Johnson
Survey Research Laboratory,
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, USA

Lars Lyberg
Department for International Development
Statistics Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden

Peter Ph Mohler
ZUMA
Mannheim, Germany

Beth-Ellen Pennell
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, USA

Tom W. Smith
National Opinion Research Center
at the University of Chicago
Chicago, USA

Fons van de Vijver
Tilburg University
Tilburg, Netherlands