CMOR Board Endorses AAPOR Outcome Rates
By Patrick Glaser, Director of Respondent Cooperation, CMOR

As we noted in our December newsletter (see http://www.cmor.org/articles/BOD_1206.cfm), CMOR has continued our critical respondent cooperation work and is currently working to address the larger issue of research quality.

To that end, in October of 2006, CMOR developed a 5 Point Plan to Address Quality and Respondent Cooperation.. As a part of this Plan, we are working to facilitate the acceptance of uniform calculation rates/definitions. Although researchers use outcome rates to help describe the level and types of non-response in surveys, the problem for the survey research profession is that there has traditionally been a lack of uniformity in the way outcome rates have been defined and calculated. To assist the profession in coming together on this issue, CMOR developed a task force to review the various outcome rates and to recommend endorsement of an outcome rate to the CMOR Board.

Endorsement of AAPOR Formulas

After review and recommendation by the CMOR task force and subsequent Board discussion, the CMOR Board has formally endorsed the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) outcome rate formulas and definitions for use in describing the performance of probabilistic samples. Over the past decade, since their first effort at developing these rates, AAPOR has shown a strong commitment to improving and updating these formulas, which they provide freely to the survey research profession. In making the endorsement, CMOR recognizes that the formulas are an important contribution to bring uniformity to the survey research discipline. CMOR also recognizes that these outcome rate formulas are relevant for only certain types of research. As a result of these limitations, CMOR will be exploring similar rates or measures for panel research.

Next Steps

Seeking endorsement of an outcome rate was only the first step in bringing the profession together on this issue. Not only will CMOR examine similar rates or measures for panel research, we will be developing materials to educate the profession about the AAPOR calculation rate/definition and utilize our Tracking Study as a measurement tool for the profession.

More Information

• If you are interested in learning more about the AAPOR rates, please visit the AAPOR website at www.aapor.org. Included on the site is a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate outcome rates based upon the final dispositions of your survey (http://www.aapor.org/rrc.asp). For additional information about CMOR’s stance on outcome rates or other survey research issues, please contact CMOR’s Director of Respondent Cooperation, Patrick Glaser at pglaser@cmor.org.

CMOR would like to thank the “Response Rate Task Force” for their contributions and advisement:

• Kathy Pilhuj, Scarborough Research
• Mario Callegaro, University of Nebraska
• Thomas Clark, Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Melanie Courtright, DMS Research
• Karl Feld, IMRO Representative
• Patrick Glaser, CMOR
• Dick Rogers, Readex Research