Call for Comments: AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics and Practices
03/25/2026
Dear AAPOR members,
Every five years, AAPOR reviews and proposes amendments to its Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. This continual review ensures the Code not only adequately supports sound and ethical practice in the conduct of public opinion and survey research, but also promotes the informed and appropriate use of research results.
AAPOR Council sincerely thanks the 2025/2026 Code Review Committee (John Abowd, Ned English – Chair, Lindsey Hendren, Krista Jenkins – Co-Chair, Peter Miller, Zach Seeskin) for its enormous undertaking of reviewing and recommending amendments to the Code. These recommendations were submitted to the Executive Council for final review and discussion.
Today, we forward to AAPOR members, for review and comment, the linked documents below:
- A detailed explanation of the proposed changes to the Code
- Proposed changes to the Code in tracked changes
- Current Code of Professional Ethics and Practices
Highlights of the proposed changes include:
- Clarifying the role of human participants vs. AI‑generated data. The revisions make clear that terms such as participants, poll, survey, and surveying are used to describe data collected from human participants; AI‑generated or synthetic data are not research participants and must be clearly identified as such.
- Explicitly addressing AI in ethical responsibilities. Existing ethical obligations (e.g., privacy protection, legal compliance) are extended to research that uses AI, including recognition that AI may increase re‑identification risks.
- Strengthening disclosure requirements overall. Researchers would be expected to clearly state what was done—and not done—so readers do not have to infer missing information.
- New AI‑related disclosures. When AI is used, researchers would disclose whether it was used, what functions it performed, and what human oversight was in place.
- More detailed sample and recruitment disclosure. The revisions clarify expectations for describing probability samples, non‑probability samples, panels, and AI‑generated samples, including how samples were created and recruited.
- Clearer reporting of sample size, precision, and limitations. The proposed changes emphasize reporting the number of human responses, appropriate use of measures of precision, and a general statement acknowledging study limitations.
AAPOR members are now invited to review the proposed amendments to the Code and the rationale for those amendments, and to submit any feedback via our online form. Comments also can be emailed to info@aapor.org.
As part of this review, we are especially seeking member feedback on how the Code should address the challenges AI poses for protecting respondent privacy. Even when data are de‑identified, advances in data scraping and data linkage can increase the risk that individuals could be re‑identified. Members are encouraged to consider whether the proposed language appropriately reflects these risks—and to suggest alternative or clearer language where needed.
Please comment by April 8, 2026. After that date, the Executive Council will review members’ feedback and, based on these comments, will consider final revisions to the Code. These final amendments will be presented to the 2026 membership in late April for approval via an online ballot.
Thank you for your continued support of AAPOR.
Sincerely,
AAPOR Executive Council