WAPOR and CSDI

The International Workshop on Comparative Survey Design and Implementation (CSDI) was founded in 2002 in Brussels at a meeting of researchers active in cross-national or cross-cultural survey research. The main goal of CSDI is to improve comparative survey design, implementation and related analysis. The annual workshops provides a forum and platform for researchers involved in research relevant for comparative survey methods.

Current WAPOR president Claire Durand, former WAPOR president Tom W. Smith, and current WAPOR Standards Chair Timothy Johnson presented papers at the 2018 CSDI meeting in Limerick, Ireland.

In 2008, CSDI organized the International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts (3MC) in Berlin. The 3MC conference was the first-ever international conference to focus exclusively on methods for comparative research. The CSDI Advisory Committee functioned as the conference organizing committee. 3MC brought together researchers working on a wide range of topics related to cross-national and cross-cultural survey methods, including research on study and instrument design, data collection, quality assurance, data analysis and dissemination archiving. It was attended by researchers and practitioners from around the globe, representing business, industry, public services such as health and education, academic researchers and public policy makers. The conference focused in particular on methods, tools, strategies and protocols that help maximize comparability across countries, languages and cultures.

The book based on the Berlin conference, Janet A. Harkness, Michael Braun, Brad Edwards, Timothy P. Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Peter Ph. Mohler, Beth-Ellen Pennell, Tom W. Smith, eds., Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2010, won the American Association for Public Opinion Research Book Award in 2013 “recognizing influential books that have stimulated theoretical and scientific research in public opinion; and/or influenced our understanding or application of survey research methodology.”

In 2016, CSDI organized the Second International Conference on Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts (3MC) in Chicago. A book based on this conference, Timothy P. Johnson, Beth Ellen Pennell, Ineke Stoop, and Brita Dorer, eds., Advances in Comparative Survey Methods: Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2018, will be issued in August, 2018.

These books feature chapters by WAPOR members such as Anna Andreenkova, Steve Dept, Stephanie Eckman, Brad Edwards, Rory Fitzgerald, David Howell, Timothy Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Beth-Ellen Pennell, and Tom W. Smith.

Article contributed by Tom W. Smith (NORC at the University of Chicago)