The Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS)
The Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) provides faculty with unparalleled access to high-quality, innovative survey data collection opportunities. The WCS is a 3-wave panel survey fielded in October, February, and May of each year. The survey is conducted by the team at YouGov, with a large sample representative of the US adult population (N=2,000) and an oversample of African American participants (N=1,000). In addition to the large, diverse sample, the WCS includes several key features that equip social scientists with the tools to address some of the biggest challenges in the United States today.
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Voter file data linked to most survey participants
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2-weeks of web-tracking data linked to up to 500 participants each wave
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Large suite of demographic data
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Each wave is simultaneously replicated on a convenience sample
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Common content battery including support for and trust in democratic values and institutions, (mis)information belief and consumption, FIRE battery, hostile/benevolent sexism, and questions targeting the urban-rural divide
A key goal of the WCS is to provide researchers with an unmatched resource for conducting survey-based research. The Weidenbaum Center sponsors the cost of collecting the data itself, in addition to providing faculty with resources to save time.
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The Weidenbaum Center Survey Research Affiliate can assist faculty with programming surveys for pretesting, identifying and designing survey instruments, and discussing individual projects in office hours. Contact Jordan Duffin Wong with questions.
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The Center provides Pretesting Grants of up to $1500 for faculty to pretest their instruments on a convenience sample. Pretesting grants are administered on a rolling basis. Please email a 1-page proposal including the pretesting items, budget, and brief rationale to Elizabeth Larson.
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The WCS team manages the IRB submission for each wave, ensuring that all studies have full IRB/HRPO approval before fielding.
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All fully anonymized data are returned to faculty in a cleaned, nicely formatted dataset and codebook. The WCS team also provides a simple script researchers can adapt to their needs for easy variable creation.
Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) RFP: May 2024
The American Social Survey (TASS)
The Weidenbaum Center sponsors and directs The American Social Survey (TASS). TASS provides university faculty access to a national survey annually in August. Faculty submit proposals for batteries of questions to be placed on TASS.
TASS respondents represent a national probability sample. Each TASS survey includes a sample of 1000 respondents drawn from the AmeriSpeak panel of about 35,000 people. Researchers are encouraged to learn more about AmeriSpeak. Weights, response rates, and demographic data are provided with every survey dataset.
