Services
SRL can undertake complete survey projects from initial study design through data analysis; conduct partial survey work, such as sampling, questionnaire design, focus groups (download document to the left for more information), data collection, and data reduction; and consult on specific survey problems. A field staff of interviewers is available for face-to-face interview surveys in the Chicago metropolitan area and elsewhere in Illinois, and supervisory personnel have been sent to sampling points throughout the U.S. either to conduct interviews or to hire, train, and supervise local interviewers. SRL’s services are available on a fee-for-service basis. Detailed budgets and cost estimates can be provided.
SRL can conduct local, statewide, regional, and national telephone and mail surveys. It maintains a centrally supervised telephone interviewing center that uses the University's least-cost routing system for long-distance calls. Having been involved in over 300 telephone studies, SRL staff have developed expertise in identifying and interviewing such specific populations as persons with limited mobility or disabilities, smokers, people age 70 or older, physicians, and employers. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), using CASES software developed at the University of California, Berkeley, is routinely used in conducting telephone studies at SRL. Computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and other computer-based survey technologies are also available for conducting face-to-face and self-administered surveys.
The Questionnaire Design Laboratory (QDL) conducts both basic and applied research with funding from several federal agencies. The QDL now is routinely involved in the cognitive assessment of many questionnaires fielded at SRL, and its director also chairs an internal questionnaire review committee. An example of a project in which the QDL has been involved is a study of the cognitive processing of survey questions by culturally diverse respondents.
If you would like further information about the services SRL provides or have questions
about ways SRL may be able to assist you, please see our contact information.