Articles

New Hampshire law restricts political advocacy telephone calls, which it calls "push-polling." Thanks to a reform (S.B. 196) signed into law on April 23, 2014, the Granite State specifically excludes survey and opinion research.

Supervisory monitoring is an essential part of the research process. In order to ensure the proper execution and conduct of interviews, a certain percentage of interviews in all studies are subject to validation and quality control. Researchers also monitor and record for training purposes and to determine that both interviewers and respondents understand the questions being asked.

Although existing regulations on caller identification (caller ID) at the state and federal level apply primarily to telemarketers, or to intent involving fraud or other criminal activity, policymakers are considering legislation prohibiting various deceptive caller ID practices and there are existing state laws that prohibit the intent to falsify or misrepresent caller ID information. This could impact researchers that intentionally block or alter their caller identification information.

Legislation that would have restricted telephone survey research by or for a Missouri state government agency has been defeated.

Governor Maggie Hassan (D) made New Hampshire safe for polling yesterday by signing a bill into law that eliminates her state’s restrictions on legitimate research.

Missouri is considering legislation that would restrict telephone survey research by or for a state government agency.

Thanks to help from researcher Vera Cooley, the Washington State House Committee on Finance amended legislation before passage on February 28, preventing a detrimental impact on the survey, opinion and marketing research profession.

Independent marketing research professional Vera Cooley testified yesterday in defense of respondent incentives at a state legislative committee hearing.

Legislation in the Washington State House could cripple survey, opinion and marketing research involving respondent incentives by creating the presumption that anyone receiving remuneration for services is an employee.

Worker classification is one of the more pressing issues facing survey, opinion and marketing researchers today.  Misclassification of respondents, moderators, and interviewers may subject researchers to lawsuits, investigations, audits, complaints, and economic liabilities including payment of back taxes and fines, providing unemployment, employee benefits, and worker’s compensation. Therefore, it is imperative that research professionals know and understand state law defining independent cont...