Over the years, the ANES has used pilot studies to test new questions that can be included in later national surveys. Data from these studies have been very informative. Some have been used to convey substantive and methodological insights in widely-read publications, while others have served as the basis for technical reports that have directly improved subsequent ANES data collections. Many scholars deeply appreciated the ability to propose and evaluate innovative new questions on ANES pilot studies.

We are very pleased that the National Science Foundation has agreed to fund a new pilot study. We will conduct the study in the fall of 2006. Interviews will be conducted by telephone just after the November election. The sample to be interviewed is the 1,212 people who participated in the 2004 version of the ANES Time Series. Using this sample allows ANES to provide data efficiently (as we already know how to locate most of the respondents). It also provides interesting opportunities for scholars who wish to include questions on the study, as we already know a lot about these people as a result of interviewing them previously. Consequently, researchers will have a rich source of information against which to evaluate new questions and a broader base of evidence from which arguments about the future suitability of pilot study questions can be made.

Because the pilot study data will be collected in 2006, researchers will have sufficient time to analyze those data and use their findings in proposals for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study and the 2008 ANES Time Series Study. The ANES Principal Investigators and the Board of Overseers hope to use such reports to inform their decisions about these and other future ANES data collections.

Learn how to propose questions for the 2006 Pilot Study