MRI: Development of a Computer Network for Experimental and Non-Experimental Data Collection via the Internet from a Nationally Representative Sample of American Households

几十年来，美国各地政府和企业做出的许多重要决定都是通过对美国人进行代表性抽样调查收集的数据提供信息的。每年花费数十亿美元，这样人们就可以通过调查了解国家的失业率、通货膨胀率，以及更多关于美国人制定政策的经验，而且成本效益高，速度快。近年来，学术研究人员对调查数据的使用也急剧增加，以加强在广泛重要领域的理论发展，提供对当代社会生活的性质、人类思维的运作以及解决紧迫国家问题的方法的见解。与此同时，该国进行高质量调查的成本急剧增加，同时此类调查的答复率也在下降。因此，美国联邦、州和地方政府、私营部门和研究院需要在调查方法上迅速创新，以便在未来能够从具有高度代表性的样本中经济高效地收集准确的数据。该项目将采取前所未有的步骤来测试实现这一目标的新方法。如果这项试验奏效，这种方法将可供全国所有致力于做出明智决策的组织使用。即将建造的工具将为数据带来新的准确性标准，以更低的成本为社会科学家提供广泛的可及性，并将最先进的计算机网络实验室提供的分析能力与对美国家庭的代表性抽样调查提供的推广能力相结合。具体地说，该项目将购买计算机硬件，在全国1000户具有代表性的家庭中安装硬件，并通过互联网校准全国计算机网络，测试以确保其正常工作，以便收集社会科学调查数据。该网络将使目前使用的任何方法都无法实现的开创性研究成为可能，并将极大地提高收集、分析和报告的数据的价值。抽样统计学家将使用基于美国邮政服务邮寄地址列表的创新方法，从美国家庭中抽取具有代表性的样本。然后，安装专家将走访选定的家庭，随机选择一名成年家庭成员，进行面对面的简短访谈(预计回复率约为80%)，然后向他或她提供一台免费笔记本电脑和免费高速互联网连接，以换取他或她每月通过互联网使用设备提供一次数据。安装专家将安装计算机，指导受访者完成使用过程，并在现场校准设备以正常工作。然后，受访者将每月一次通过访问安全网页提供新一轮数据，并对计算机网络进行校准。政府机构、企业和学术学者将有机会在这个平台上收集数据。将对该网络进行一系列不同的评价，以评估其有效性。如果这一努力成功，它将为在更大范围内实施这种实验和非实验调查数据收集方法提供科学和实践依据，这将使学术研究人员、联邦、州和地方政府机构以及私营商业和非商业组织能够以实际价格进行最高质量的研究。

For many decades, numerous important decisions made by governments and businesses around the United States have been informed by data collected through representative sample surveys of Americans. Billions of US dollars are spent every year so that one can learn the nation's unemployment rate, its inflation rate, and much more about the experiences of Americans that govern policy-making, cost-effectively and quickly through surveys. In recent years, there has also been a sharp increase in the use of survey data by academic researchers to enhance theory development in a wide range of important domains, providing insights into the nature of contemporary social life, the workings of the human mind, and approaches to solving pressing national problems. At the same time, the nation has experienced a sharp increase in the costs of conducting high-quality surveys, coupled with a decline in the response rates of such surveys. The U.S. federal, state, and local governments, the private sector, and the academy therefore need quick innovation in survey methodology to permit cost-effective collection of accurate data from highly representative samples in the future.This project will take an unprecedented step to test a new methodology to achieve this goal. If this trial works, the methodology will be available for use by all organizations around the country that are committed to making informed policy-making decisions. The tool to be built will bring a new standard of accuracy to data, provide broad accessibility to social scientists at reduced cost, and blend the analytic power afforded by a state-of-the art computer network laboratory with the generalization power afforded by a representative sample survey of American households. Specifically, the project will purchase computer hardware, install the hardware in a representative sample of 1,000 households across the country, and calibrate the national network of computers via the Internet, testing to assure that it works properly to permit social science survey data collection. The network will enable path-breaking research that could not be achieved by any methodology currently in use and would considerably increase the value of the data collected, analyzed, and reported.Sampling statisticians will draw a representative sample of American households using an innovative method based upon U.S. postal service mailing address lists. Then, installation specialists will visit the selected households, randomly select an adult household member, conduct a brief interview face-to-face (with an expected response rate of about 80%), and then offer him or her a free laptop computer and free high-speed Internet connection in exchange for using the equipment to provide data once a month via the Internet. The installation specialists will install the computers, walk respondents through the process of using them, and calibrate the equipment on site to work properly. Then, once a month, respondents will provide a new round of data by accessing a secure webpage, and calibration of the computer network will be conducted. The opportunity to collect data on this platform will be made available to government agencies, businesses, and academic scholars. A range of different evaluations of the network will be performed to assess its effectiveness. If this effort is successful, it will provide scientific and practical justification for the implementation of this approach to experimental and non-experimental survey data collection on a much larger scale, which will enable academic researchers, federal, state, and local government agencies, and private commercial and non-commercial organizations to conduct the highest quality research at a practical price.