Our Disclosure Means Full Disclosure

Every TvPoll.com survey includes the following disclosure information at the end of published results.  This information is made publicly available, and every respondent is informed of his or her right to access this information and how to do so.  The generic disclosure script (which will be customized for every survey) follows:

TvPoll.com performs its survey research using an automated polling method for television stations nationwide.

While this method of data collection may differ from traditional public opinion pollsters who use live operator call centers, the automated survey process is identical but performs better by reducing common errors such as interviewer data entry errors, and bias such as interviewer bias. We use a single, digitally recorded voice to conduct our interviews which ensures that every respondent hears exactly the same question, from exactly the same voice, asked with the exact same inflection every single time. The poll's introduction is in the voice of one of the television station's well-known anchors, which can increase poll participation beyond that of traditional pollsters.

After the calls are completed, the data is processed through statistical software and weighted to insure that the sample reflects the overall population in terms of age, race, gender, political party, geography and other factors.

In an effort to provide the best research, TvPoll.com presents the following information in accordance with the Best Practices for Survey and Public Opinion Research, established by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).  The owners of TvPoll.com are members of AAPOR.

Disclose all methods of the survey to permit evaluation and replication.

Excellence in survey practice requires that survey methods be fully disclosed and reported in sufficient detail to permit replication by another researcher and that all data (subject to appropriate safeguards to maintain privacy and confidentiality) be fully documented and made available for independent examination. Good professional practice imposes an obligation upon all survey and public opinion researchers to include, in any report of research results, or to make available when that report is released, certain minimal essential information about how the research was conducted to ensure that consumers of survey results have an adequate basis for judging the reliability and validity of the results reported. 

Exemplary practice in survey research goes beyond such standards for "minimal disclosure," promulgated by the AAPOR and several other professional associations (e.g., CASRO and NCPP) by:

(a) describing how the research was done in sufficient detail that a skilled researcher could repeat the study, and

(b) making data available for independent examination and analysis by other responsible parties (with appropriate safeguards for privacy concerns).

A comprehensive list of the elements proposed for disclosure by one or more sources that, in combination, exceed the "standards for minimum disclosure" proposed by any one of the professional organizations includes:

1. Who sponsored the survey and who conducted it;

2. The purpose of the study, including specific objectives;

3. The questionnaire and/or the exact, full wording of all questions asked, including any visual exhibits and the text of any preceding instruction or explanation to the interviewer or respondents that might reasonably be expected to affect the response;

4. A definition of the universe of the population under study in which the survey is intended to represent, and a description of the sampling frame used to identify this population (including its source and likely bias);

5. A description of the sample design, including cluster size, number of callbacks, information on eligibility criteria and screening procedures, method of selecting sample elements, mode of data collection and other pertinent information;

6. A description of the sample selection procedure; giving a clear indication of the methods by which respondents were selected by the researcher, or whether the respondents were entirely self-selected, and other details about how the sample was drawn in sufficient detail to permit fairly exact replication;

7. Size of samples and sample disposition of the results of sample implementation, including full accounting of the final outcome of all sample cases: e.g., total number of sample elements contacted, those not assigned or reached, refusals, terminations, non-eligibles and completed interviews or questionnaires;

8. Documentation and a full description, if applicable, of any response or completion rates cited (for quota designs, the number of refusals), and (whenever available) information on how non-respondents differ from respondents;

9. A description of any special scoring, editing, data adjustment or indexing procedures used;

10. A discussion of the precision of findings, including, if appropriate, estimates of sampling error with references to other possible sources of error so that a misleading impression of accuracy or precision is not conveyed and a description of any weighting or estimating procedures used;

11. A description of all percentages on which conclusions are based;

12. A clear delineation of which results are based on different parts of the sample, rather than on the total sample;

13. Method(s), location(s), and dates of interviews, fieldwork or data collection;

14. Interviewer characteristics;

15. Copies of interviewer instructions or manuals, validation results, codebooks and other important working papers; and

16. Any other information that a layperson would need in order to make a reasonable assessment of the reported findings.

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