--- title: "How we are making our work even more rigorous and transparent" description: "Quarterly Update A message from Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock · Subscribe ↗ Dear readers, A few years ago, we launched a donate button on our website to enable readers to support our work by contributing to our parent organization, The Pew Charitable Trusts. We weren’t sure what to expect, but you have been very generous. […]" date: "2022-05-10" authors: - name: "Beshay Sakla" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/newsletter/quarterly-update/how-we-are-making-our-work-even-more-rigorous-and-transparent/" --- # How we are making our work even more rigorous and transparent --- May 10, 2022 ## Quarterly Update *A message from Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock* · [**Subscribe ↗**](https://pewresearch.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=434f5d1199912232d416897e4&id=3e953b9b70) --- Dear readers, A few years ago, we launched a donate button on our website to enable readers to support our work by contributing to our parent organization, The Pew Charitable Trusts. We weren’t sure what to expect, but you have been very generous. I can’t tell you how much these gifts have meant to our staff as an expression of the value of our work. So how have we been investing these donations? In our very “Pew-like” way, the answer is a bit technical: We’ve decided to strengthen our [National Public Opinion Reference Survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/fact-sheet/national-public-opinion-reference-survey-npors/) (NPORS) to make our work even more rigorous and transparent. What is NPORS? I’m glad you asked! About five years ago, Pew Research Center moved virtually all of our U.S. survey work online, which has a host of benefits in terms of [reliability](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/28/qa-why-and-how-we-expanded-our-american-trends-panel-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-our-u-s-surveys/) and [accuracy](https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/2019/02/27/growing-and-improving-pew-research-centers-american-trends-panel/). With this approach, we randomly sample households across America, recruiting people to join the [American Trends Panel](https://www.pewresearch.org/our-methods/u-s-surveys/the-american-trends-panel/) (ATP). Surveys conducted on the ATP are weighted to national benchmarks to ensure each poll has the right balance of the population in terms of age, education, race and ethnicity, gender and other “parameters” we can find from reliable sources like the U.S. census. Unfortunately, these sources don’t cover all of the variables that help make a survey representative. In particular, we’ve found that getting rigorous measures of characteristics like party identification, technology use and religious practices are just as important to ensure that every survey we conduct includes the most accurate balance of the public as possible. We developed NPORS to address those shortcomings. NPORS is an annual survey of U.S. adults that is conducted by mail and designed to gather key missing information on which our ATP surveys can be grounded. It’s different from our ATP surveys because it is designed to get the highest response rate possible by asking fewer questions, following up with those who are slow to respond, and allowing people to reply online, by phone or by mail. It’s an expensive endeavor, but going this extra mile gives us even more confidence that the survey data we share is as balanced and inclusive of all segments of America as possible. And to serve as a resource for the entire polling community, we make all the information we collect from NPORS freely available to other survey practitioners and scholars. We know people are flooded with data these days and that it’s increasingly hard for consumers to discern the intent and quality of that data. At Pew Research Center, we strive to earn our readers’ trust. Thanks to the donors who made gifts to support our work through the donate button, we’re able to make core investments like NPORS to ensure we’re living up to the highest standards possible. With my deepest gratitude, **Michael Dimock** President, Pew Research Center - [Race is central to identity for Black Americans and affects how they connect with each other](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/04/14/race-is-central-to-identity-for-black-americans-and-affects-how-they-connect-with-each-other/) - [Black Americans’ views of and engagement with science](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/04/07/black-americans-views-of-and-engagement-with-science/) - [Black Catholics in America](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/03/15/black-catholics-in-america/) - [Total number of U.S. statehouse reporters rises, but fewer are on the beat full time](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/total-number-of-u-s-statehouse-reporters-rises-but-fewer-are-on-the-beat-full-time/) - [How COVID-19 has impacted the work of some statehouse journalists](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/how-covid-19-has-impacted-the-work-of-some-statehouse-journalists/) - [Coverage of tribal governments: In many cases, a struggle for editorial independence](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2022/04/05/coverage-of-tribal-governments-in-many-cases-a-struggle-for-editorial-independence/) - [AI and human enhancement: Americans’ openness is tempered by a range of concerns](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/ai-and-human-enhancement-americans-openness-is-tempered-by-a-range-of-concerns/) - [Views of artificial intelligence](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/how-americans-think-about-artificial-intelligence/): [Facial recognition](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/public-more-likely-to-see-facial-recognition-use-by-police-as-good-rather-than-bad-for-society/) | [Algorithms](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/mixed-views-about-social-media-companies-using-algorithms-to-find-false-information/) | [Driverless cars](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/americans-cautious-about-the-deployment-of-driverless-cars/) - [Views of human enhancement](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/what-americans-think-about-possibilities-ahead-for-human-enhancement/): [Brain chips](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/public-cautious-about-enhancing-cognitive-function-using-computer-chip-implants-in-the-brain/) | [Gene editing](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/americans-are-closely-divided-over-editing-a-babys-genes-to-reduce-serious-health-risk/) | [Robotic exoskeletons](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/mixed-views-about-a-future-with-widespread-use-of-robotic-exoskeletons-to-increase-strength-for-manual-labor-jobs/)