Survey Practice Seeks Submissions for Special Issue on Survey Costs
02/23/2026
Submission Deadline: June 1, 2026
Guest Editors: Kristen Olson, James Wagner, Jill DeMatteis, John Eltinge, Daifeng Han, Chris Jackson, Eric Rancourt
Survey Practice is seeking submissions for a Special Issue on Survey Costs. The goal of this special issue is to encourage more discussion of and research into survey costs for survey practitioners, organizations, and researchers. As a result, a broad set of topics are of interest for submissions to this special issue. Submitters do not have to have attended or presented at the Survey Costs Workshop to be eligible for inclusion. This special issue will be published in 2027.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Cost Measurement Systems. How survey organizations capture, analyze, and/or monitor survey costs across multiple metrics, including currency and non-currency metrics. Description of the types systems in use, including systems purchased commercially (off-the-shelf) or custom-built by the survey organization.
- Types of Costs. Describe the kinds of fixed and variable costs that are budgeted and/or monitored, the kinds of costs considered under each of these labels, and allocation of budgets to fixed and variable costs.
- Relationship between Costs and Design Features. Empirical data on the association between different survey design features and fixed and/or variable survey costs in currency, non-currency, and relative metrics.
- Costs for Non-Survey Data. Empirical data on costs related to processing, management, and/or use of non-survey data, including fixed and per-record acquisition costs. Additional information on costs include personnel types and expertise, specific tasks for its use, and staff hours in these different tasks, among others.
- Best Practices for Cost Estimation and Monitoring. Guidance, propose best practices or describe organizational strategies for estimating, measuring, monitoring, and reporting costs for surveys and other data used for inference.
- Errors in Cost Estimation and Evaluation. Deviations between budgets and observed costs, including reasons for deviations, ability of cost monitoring systems to track costs at the level of budgeted costs, and other outcomes are of interest.
- Relationship between Survey Costs and Survey Errors. Association between costs and error indicators.
- Influence of Cost Drivers on Survey Design Decisions. Case studies for how practical decisions on design and management are affected by available cost information.
Papers should be submitted for the 2027 Special Issue on Survey Costs by June 1, 2026. Initial decisions will be made around July 17, 2026. Revisions should be received by October 16, 2026. The second round of revisions will be due December 18, 2026. Authors will be notified of acceptance around February 1, 2027.
Submissions to the special issue must follow all of the length, formatting, and submission requirements described in the Survey Practice “For Authors” page. When submitting in Scholastica, please be sure to select the Special Issue option. To help us route and track submissions efficiently, we also welcome authors adding the special issue name at the start of the title (e.g., “Survey Costs Special Issue: [Manuscript Title]”).
Please direct questions to Kristen Olson (kolson5@unl.edu) or James Wagner (jameswag@umich.edu) and copy surveypracticejournal@gmail.com.