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AAPOR 2027
Call for Papers, Posters, Panels, Roundtables, and Idea Groups
The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) invites abstract submissions for the 82nd Annual Conference, taking place May 12–14, 2027, in Austin, Texas.
The 2027 conference theme, Innovation with Purpose: Advancing the Science of Public Opinion Research in the Era of AI, Automation, and Scale, will explore how our field can purposefully adapt to a rapidly changing technological landscape while honoring AAPOR’s 82-year legacy of promoting and defending the science of public opinion research.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 15, 2026.
Submit Your Research
AAPOR welcomes submissions across all conference tracks that apply fresh thinking to real-world research problems.
Intentional innovation can take many forms: developing new methodologies, adapting familiar tools to solve modern challenges, or streamlining processes to reduce costs or save time. Submissions that share empirical findings, critical evaluations, and clear methodological value are encouraged.
For 2027, AI, machine learning, and new automated methods will be integrated across the traditional conference tracks wherever they naturally fit rather than treated as a standalone track. The goal is not to examine AI for its own sake, but to understand how these tools are being used to answer specific research questions.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 15, 2026.
Submission Information
Proposal submission forms are specific to each submission type but generally request author contact information, a title, presentation track, keywords describing the content, and an abstract of no more than 500 words.
To promote broad participation in the conference program, an individual may submit no more than three proposals as first author, regardless of submission format.
Space on the program is limited, and some individual submissions may not be able to be incorporated into a session. Authors submitting individual papers have a greater chance of acceptance if they are also willing to have their work considered for presentation as a poster.
To encourage diversity of thought and perspectives within sessions, AAPOR encourages panel and roundtable submissions to include participants from multiple organizations.
Submission Instructions
To access the Abstract Submission Portal, log in with you AAPOR username and password.
If you do not already have an account on AAPOR.org, you must create an account to begin a submission. You do not need to be a member of AAPOR to create an account.
When prompted to log in, please click “Set Up an Account” and follow the prompts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Still need assistance? Contact info@aapor.org.
Program Tracks
Integrated Program Tracks: Rather than having LLM/AI as a standalone track as we have done the past couple of years, AAPOR is integrating AI, machine learning, and new automated methods across the traditional conference tracks wherever they naturally fit. The goal isn’t to look at AI for its own sake, but to see how it’s used to answer specific research questions.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 15, 2026.
Attitudes & Opinions
Example Topics: public attitudes toward AI; responsible AI governance; emerging, trending, or changing attitudes on key social and civil rights issues; trust in health information; public opinion on health and aging; communicating survey findings credibly; public trust in official statistics
Data Collection Methods, Modes & Mixing Modes
Example Topics: innovations in contact strategies; mode effects in mixed-mode survey designs (including traditional modes vs. AI modes); AI-assisted standardized interviewing (telephone, video, web); evaluating data quality and respondent cooperation with AI interviewers; device effects (mobile vs. desktop) on survey completion and data quality; mode-specific nonresponse and measurement error; collecting health measures and biomarker data
Data Science, Machine Learning, Neural Networks & Big Data
Example Topics: applying supervised and unsupervised machine learning in public opinion research; detecting and mitigating total survey error in algorithmic models; integrating big data and/or administrative or transactional data with traditional survey data; designing, evaluating, and validating predictive models; evaluating algorithmic fairness, transparency, and bias mitigation
Elections, Politics & Media
Example Topics: election-day and pre-election polling methodology; drivers of vote preference and partisanship; media and elite cues shaping political opinion; polling accuracy and public confidence in polls; global and cross-national political opinion
Field Operations, Logistics & Costs
Example Topics: forecasting and managing survey costs; innovations in field staff training, supervision, and quality control; reducing panel attrition; optimizing field operations through automation and new technologies; automating field operations and logistics; physical measures and biomeasures
Market Research
Example Topics: agile and continuous tracking research designs for brand and ad performance; advances in market research methods or analysis (e.g., maxdiff, coinjoint, key drivers); in-home use tests; estimating market/mind share; visualizing findings and communicating insights for C-level presentations; agentic AI experience agents; entrepreneurship, independent consulting, and career transitions across the public, private, and vendor sectors; best practices for training and onboarding new market researchers
Multicultural, Multilingual & Multinational Research
Example Topics: cross-national and multilingual measurement and comparability; integrating AI into multilingual survey design, translation, or analysis; advancing international standards for household and individual surveys; substantive findings and methodological issues in 3MC survey research
Probability & Nonprobability Samples, Frames, and Coverage Errors
Example Topics: sampling frames; sampling techniques; comparing probability and nonprobability sampling approaches; fraud and self-selection bias in nonprobability samples; innovations in address-based sampling frames; network-based and respondent-driven sampling; improving online panel quality; hybrid sampling designs for small-area population surveys; coverage and sampling error
Qualitative Research & Text Analytics
Example Topics: traditional and AI-assisted qualitative interviewing; qualitative data analysis (e.g., thematic analysis, content analysis, grounded theory); text analytics (human, NLP and ML approaches to coding and analyzing open-ended responses, sentiment and topic modeling, and analysis of social media and other unstructured text sources); methodological considerations for qualitative research including quality, bias, privacy, transparency; measurement error across human- and AI-facilitated qualitative research approaches.
Questionnaire Design, Evaluation & Pretesting
Example Topics: questionnaire design experiments; response order, scale design, and question format effects; unmoderated and moderated cognitive interviewing and usability testing innovations; pretesting at scale; using LLMs and ML to draft, evaluate, or pretest survey questions
Research in Practice
Example Topics: practical solutions to persistent survey research challenges; navigating federal data gaps and workarounds; the evolving survey research profession, new tools, and techniques; data visualization and communicating results to stakeholders; building the talent pipeline for public opinion research
Response Rates & Nonresponse Error
Example Topics: strategies for increasing response rates; predictive modeling for nonresponse; measuring or reducing nonresponse error; nonresponse-related paradata; adaptive and responsive design; incentive experiments; differential response patterns among diverse communities; consent and data linkage decisions
Statistical Analysis Methods, Weighting & Estimation
Example Topics: advances in weighting, calibration, and estimation; imputation; small-area estimation; innovative methods for complex survey designs; multi-level regression and post-stratification; variance; constructing and validationg survey weights
Session Types
This year, in an attempt to enhance both the presenter and attendee experience, AAPOR has adjusted the scientific sessions from 90 minutes to 75 minutes, which will reduce the numbers of speakers per session to four.
Space on the program is limited. There will be some individual submissions that cannot be integrated into a session and will, unfortunately, not be accepted. Authors of individual papers have a greater chance of acceptance if they are also willing to be considered for a poster.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 15, 2026.
Paper Session
Papers involve original research featuring an oral address of 12–15 minutes. Papers will be assigned to a session that will combine several paper topics on topics that tie together seamlessly.
Poster Session
Posters are presentations of original research that relay on visual display (i.e., physical poster boards). Poster sessions will last 90 minutes in the Exhibit Hall, where presenters should prepare 2–4 minute elevator pitches.
Poster Abstract submitters will be prompted to indicate interest in participating in AAPOR’s annual Student Poster Competition, where participants will be secretly assed during their poster session and a winner will be announced at the AAPOR Awards Dinner, held on site.
Contributed Panel Session
Contributed Panel Sessions are self-organized sessions that focus on a common theme and include 4 participants in addition to a moderator. The organizer of the panel can either enter all the speaker’s information on their own on behalf of all speakers or they can send an email to presenters with an invitation for those speakers to upload their own materials.
A unique abstract is required for each speaker in this panel. To promote diversity of thought within sessions, we encourage panel submissions to include people from multiple organizations.
Roundtable Session
Roundtables encourage dynamic conversations among our field about professional development, current issues, and diverse experiences. Organizers should submit a specific topic along with speakers and a moderator who are considered experts or uniquely education on that topic.
Skill-Up Session
The goal of these groups is to offer educational classroom opportunities that teach entry-level skills, widely utilized programs, or professional development.
Idea Group Session
The goal of Idea Groups is to offer space to conference attendees to network and discuss shared topics and questions with which AAPOR members are engaging. These groups are not meant to be meetings of individuals who are already collaborating on a project or idea, but to bring together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners to discuss a topic of common interest.
This submission category will not go through the general review process; instead, Conference Chairs and AAPOR staff will connect with applicants regarding their offered course.
Submission Considerations
Please keep the following in mind as you submit your abstract.
Scheduling Conflicts
To minimize scheduling conflicts, the abstract submission forms will ask you to list any known conflicts during the conference dates. While we make every attempt to accommodate the scheduling conflicts, please be advised that in some instances, it may not be possible to avoid them.
Audio‐Visual Equipment
All meeting rooms will have projectors, screens, microphones, and laptops. The presenting author is responsible for bringing a digital copy of their presentation materials to the conference.
Confirmation
Submitters will receive automatic email confirmations of their submissions within five minutes of final submission. Submitters who do not receive this confirmation should log back onto the submission site to verify their submission was entered correctly. The submitter is the primary contact person and is responsible for notifying all other authors/presenters of acceptance, rejection, scheduling, and any other relevant abstract information AAPOR provides.
Review Process
Each submission will be reviewed by at least two peer reviewers, and a final team of volunteers dubbed the Program Committee who assist the Conference Chair and Associate Conference Chair with making final decisions about abstracts for the specific presentation track and session format. We expect to send acceptance notifications mid-February 2027.
AAPOR Code of Ethics
All submissions that present original survey data must abide by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics and Practices by reporting, at a minimum, the information specified in Section III‐A of the AAPOR Code. Further, proposals should communicate work that authors expect to reach an acceptable completion stage before the conference (i.e., by the end of April 2027).
About the Conference Theme
Throughout our history, AAPOR has repeatedly navigated existential questions about changing methodologies. We’ve all heard the variation of “Is [X method] dead?” before. Yet, new techniques rarely render the old ones entirely obsolete. When (and if) they are proved valid, they typically build off existing methods and expand our toolkit, not replace it.
While innovation is vital to progress, adopting new technology simply because it exists is not innovation. Real innovation isn’t limited to machine learning or new automated tools; it can exist across every facet of public opinion research.
The challenge for our industry isn’t just adopting the newest tools but understanding their value and limitations. What do we gain? What do we lose? Why would we use this method over another? What are the trade-offs? We must also answer these questions while operating in a complex environment shaped by real-world issues such as shrinking budgets, workforce shifts, the rise of misinformation and fake data, and the declining trust in public institutions.
As we build this year’s conference program, we won’t shy away from innovation out of hesitation, but we won’t blindly accept it out of hype either.
The 2027 conference is dedicated to exploring how our field purposefully adapts to a rapidly changing technological landscape while honoring our 82-year legacy of being the preeminent organization for promoting and defending the science of public opinion research.
Notice to Federal Employees: The AAPOR Annual Conference conforms to the OPM definition of a “developmental assignment.” It is intended for educational purposes; over three quarters of time scheduled is for planned, organized exchange of information between presenters and audience, thereby qualifying under section 4101 of title 5, United States Code as a training activity. The AAPOR Conference is a collaboration in the scientific community, whose objectives are to provide a training opportunity to attendees; teach the latest methodology and approaches to survey research best practices; make each attendee a better survey researcher, and; maintain and improve professional survey competency.