Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Survey Research

Program Overview

The Ohio State University specialization in survey research is a 23 credit-hour add-on program available to any graduate student at Ohio State.The program involves two required courses: Political Science 702, Questionnaire Construction; and Political Science or Communication 789, Survey Research Practicum and elective courses from an interdisciplinary list of courses dealing with the applications of survey research and research methods courses. Upon completing the program, students receive a notation on their official university transcript indicating that they have completed the program. Students also receive an official certificate from the program administrator.

Please click here for a PDF application form. For more information, contact Gerald Kosicki, Ph.D., Faculty Coordinator, Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Survey Research at (614) 292-9237 or kosicki.1@osu.edu.

Highlights

• 23-hour, five-course program open to all graduate students in all disciplines
• Credential appears on official university transcripts
• Required courses offered each year
• 3 electives chosen from an extensive menu of courses on applications and tools
• Wide applicability across disciplines

The 2009 Summer Fellowship Competition

The program sponsors an annual Summer Survey Research Fellowship competition in which students are supported to write their own independent publishable papers on survey methodology or substantive papers using archival survey research data. The current 2009 competition guidelines are available here.

History and Administration

The Ohio State University specialization in survey research is a 23 credit-hour add-on program available to any graduate student at Ohio State. It began operation in Autumn 2000 sponsored by 13 departments in six colleges which agreed to contribute courses. The purpose is to further survey education at Ohio State University at the graduate level and provide students with a credential that can be useful in academic or applied contexts. Upon completing the specialization, students receive a notation on their official university transcript indicating that they have completed the program. Students also receive an official certificate from the program administrator.

The field of survey research has been evolving rapidly in terms of technology. Academic research on the survey process has led to substantial innovation in understanding and managing the survey data collection process. Many of these processes can be organized under the broad heading of the Total Survey Error approach. The standards for data collection by serious clients are now higher than ever and well-trained people are needed in many phases of the survey industry.

The survey industry today can be thought of as having several components: government statistical agencies, including the US Census; academic Survey Research Centers; commercial sector; and media polling. Each has its own characteristic problems, research questions and favored modes of operation. Survey research is also used in the field of marketing, with certain differences.

Survey research education at Ohio State is organized as an "interdisciplinary specialization" under Graduate School rules. The program involves two required courses: Political Science 702, Questionnaire Construction; and Political Science or Communication 789, Survey Research Practicum. Students also select an elective from an interdisciplinary list of courses dealing with the applications of survey research, and two electives from a list of research methods courses relevant to survey research. Students are strongly encouraged to select as one of their survey research methods electives Statistics 651, Survey Sampling.

2008-2009 Schedule

Political Science 702 and Communication 789 will be offered in spring, 2009.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for the specialization include a year of statistics courses, up to and including multiple regression. Most students take these in their home departments, but any series of courses that deals with topics through multiple regression is acceptable.

Current List of Electives

Here are the current electives for the specialization.

Electives (9-15 credits)

Disciplinary applications of survey research (One Course)

• Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics 631, Benefit cost analysis
• Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics 703: Economics of Consumption
• Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics 831, Resource economics
• Economics 883, Advanced labor economics I
• Economics 884, Advanced economics of labor markets
• Communication 813, Communication and Public Opinion
• Marketing 951, Marketing models
• Political Science 603, Public opinion
• Political Science 703, Readings in public opinion
• Political Science 803, Research in public opinion
• Psychology 630, Psychology of public attitudes
• Psychology 873A, Contemporary attitude theory and research
• Sociology 711, Sociology of work and industry
• Sociology 720, Family, work and inequality
• Sociology 837, Seminar in public opinion and political sociology

Survey research tools (Two courses)

• AED Economics 701, Applied data analysis
• AED Economics 800, Research methods in agricultural economics
• Agricultural Education 885, Research methods
• Agricultural Education 886, Research design
• Agricultural Education 887, Analysis and interpretation of data
• Agricultural Education 888, Instrumentation and procedures for data collection
• Agricultural Education 995, Seminar in research
• Economics 742, Econometrics
• Economics 842, Advanced econometrics
• Educational Policy & Leadership 807, Educational survey research methods
• Educational Policy & Leadership 848, Inquiry in the affective domain
• Geography 683, Introduction to geographic analysis
• Geography 883.01, Application of quantitative methods in Geography I
• Geography 883.02, Applications of quantitative methods in Geography II
• Communication 760 Communication Research Methods
• Political Science 684, Introduction to political science research methods
• Psychology 820, Fundamentals of factor analysis
• Psychology 830, Covariance structure modeling
• Public Health 705, Health survey methods
• Public Health 794.01, Sampling methods
• Public Policy and Management 821, Government information systems administration
• Public Policy and Management 822, Data analysis in public administration
• Sociology 652, Sociological survey research methods I
• Sociology 653, Sociological survey research methods II
• Sociology 703, Advanced single equation techniques
• Sociology 707, Multi-equation quantitative models
• Statistics 651, Survey Sampling
• Statistics 882, Special topics: Missing data and other issues in large-scale sample surveys

Application

Students should signal their intention to complete the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization as soon as possible. This facilitates course planning, enrollment projections and program accountability, and ensures the availability of the needed courses in the future. Application forms are available online by clicking here.

Faculty Coordinator

Questions and problems should be referred to the faculty coordinator, who provides counseling, and coordinates colloquia and other activities from time to time. Students who complete the specialization should contact the coordinator so that an official transcript designation can be obtained from the Graduate School. Students also receive a certificate of completion from the program.

Gerald Kosicki, Ph.D.
Faculty Coordinator

Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Survey Research
Social & Behavioral Sciences
3138 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210

Tel: (614) 292-9237
E-mail: kosicki.1@osu.edu