AAPOR Awards

The AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement is the Association’s lifetime achievement award. It is given for outstanding contributions to the field of public opinion research. Contributions include but are not limited to: advances in theory, empirical research and methods; improvements in ethical standards; and promotion of understanding among the public, media and/or policy makers.

Nomination Criteria and Process

Who can nominate:
Any AAPOR member can nominate an individual.

Eligibility:
Individuals who have made exceptional lifetime contributions to the field of public opinion research.

Nomination Requirements:
To nominate individuals who have made exceptional lifetime contributions to the field of public opinion research, submit a detailed statement and supporting documentation.

Evaluation Process and Award Recognition:

1. Entries will be evaluated by a committee chaired by AAPOR’s President.
2. The Award is presented at the Annual Conference.
3. The Award may not be given every year.

The AAPOR Mitofsky Innovators Award is designed to recognize accomplishments in the fields of public opinion and survey research that had their primary impact on the field during the past decade. These innovations could consist of new theories, ideas, applications, methodologies or technologies. To be considered for the award, the innovations must be publicly documented. The award can be given to individuals, groups or institutions.

The AAPOR Policy Impact Award was developed to acknowledge that a key purpose of opinion and other survey research is to facilitate better-informed decisions. The award recognizes outstanding research that has had a clear impact on improving policy decisions, practice and discourse, either in the public or private sectors.

Nomination Criteria and Process

Who can nominate:

Any AAPOR member can submit nominations.

Eligibility:

Individuals will be considered eligible for the award if:

1. They are currently serving or have recently served in a local, national, or international public service capacity.
2. Individuals nominated for the award must have a demonstrated dedication to improving and maintaining AAPOR standards in the areas of public opinion, government statistics, and/or survey methodology, or
3. Have demonstrated leadership with regard to survey research and data quality in the public sector.

Evaluation Criteria:

The principal criterion is demonstrable impact on policy, which may be immediate or require some time to pass. Impact can be demonstrated in many ways, for example, use by policy makers to formulate the need for policy or the content of specific policies, by reference in testimony, or access by the public, or in other ways. The committee may also weigh how central the research, data set, or data product was in shaping the policy; the scope of the policy; number of people affected by the policy; the number who use the research or resource;
innovativeness of methods used in the research; or other relevant criteria. Nominators should review the list of previous award winners for examples that fall within the scope of the award. In most cases, we expect the project will have been completed within the past five years or so. The nomination information must include the sections listed. Nominations will be considered only if they are complete and clear.

Process and Award Recognition:

1. The award committee will evaluate award entries.
2. The Award is presented at the Annual Conference.
3. The award may not be given every year.

The Student Conference Award was established to fund student attendance at the AAPOR Annual Conference. This program is separate from the Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Awards that are directed to those who are working and in the early stages of their career. The student conference awards are offered to students so that they may attend the annual conference and experience this important educational and professional networking event for survey methodology and public opinion researchers. The awards are funded by the AAPOR General Fund.

Nomination Criteria and Process

Student Conference Award applicants need not be current AAPOR members, but are expected to join at the time of the conference.

Eligibility:

1. Applicants must be full-time students (including Post-Doctoral scholars) enrolled in college or university programs that teach or use survey and/or public opinion research methods as central tools for research and analysis. These include but are not limited to: survey methodology, anthropology, communications, economics, political science, psychology, public health, and sociology. Awardees must be willing to attend the Thursday night New Member & All Chapter reception, the Saturday night banquet and additional networking events to be determined.
2. Previous Student Travel/Conference Award, “Bud” Roper Fellows and Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition winners are not eligible for this award.

Nomination Requirements:

1. An award application form
2. A letter of support from the applicant’s faculty advisor or department chair must be received in order to be considered for an AAPOR Student Conference Award.
3. Please be sure to include your name in the application as you would like it to appear in the conference program should you receive an award.

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Students with a strong interest in survey and/or public opinion research methods
2. First-time conference attendees
3. Those who might not be able to attend the conference without AAPOR financial support
4. Those participating in the conference program (e.g. paper or poster session presenter or co-author on a paper)

Evaluation Process and Award Recognition:

1. Awardees will be notified by the Membership and Chapter Relations Committee.
2. For the 2024 conference, the Student Conference Awards will be $800 each.
3. Student Conference Award winners will be recognized in the Annual Meeting conference program.

The Student Poster Award winner is announced each year at the Annual Conference.

Nomination Criteria and Process

Eligibility:

1. To be eligible for the award, students must have their poster abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference. The award committee will consider all posters that relate to the study of public opinion, whether they focus on theory, substantive findings, research methods, and/or statistical techniques used in such research OR students must be accepted to the Graduate Student One Day program pass.
2. Poster presenters must be current students (graduate or undergraduate) at the time of the abstract submission, or must have received their degree during the preceding academic year. The research must have been substantially completed while all authors were enrolled in a degree program.

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Content of the poster
2. Quality of the visual display of information on the poster
3. Ability of the student to successfully and succinctly present the subject matter in the poster.

Process and Award Recognition:

1. First, Second, and Third place prizes of $100 will be awarded to the posters judged the “best” overall.
2. A panel of public opinion researchers from AAPOR’s membership, drawn from academic, commercial, government, and non-profit sectors, will judge the posters.
3. The winning poster will be announced at the conference.

The Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition award is in memory of Seymour Sudman. It recognizes his many important contributions to AAPOR as well as his teaching and mentoring students in the survey research profession.

Nomination Criteria and Process

Eligibility:

1. To be eligible for the award, students must submit a full paper for review by the Sudman Student Paper Award Committee. Membership in AAPOR is not required to participate in the competition, but applicants are expected to join at the time of the conference. The award committee will consider all papers that relate to the study of public opinion, whether they focus on theory, substantive findings, research methods, and/or statistical techniques used in such research. Students are limited to one submission each as the primary author.
2. Authors must be current students (graduate or undergraduate) at the time of submission, or must have received their degree during the preceding academic year. The research must have been substantially completed while all authors were enrolled in a degree program.

Nomination Requirements:

1. Submit a full paper to the award committee by completing the online application, submitting a full paper, and submitting a statement from a faculty advisor by the deadline. 
2. Note that full papers must:
   1. Be less than 6,500 words (not including the title page, abstract, tables, references and appendices);
   2. Include a blinded and unblinded copy. The blinded copy should contain a title page and abstract, but all identifying information about the author, acknowledgements, and other identifiers should be removed;
   3. Include all information required by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices;
   4. Include a statement regarding whether the paper has been presented elsewhere, published, or accepted for publication at the time of submission

Evaluation Criteria:

1. AAPOR will give preference to papers based on research not published or presented at the national conference of another organization.

Evaluation Process and Award Recognition:

1. A panel of researchers from AAPOR’s membership, drawn from academic, government and commercial sectors, will judge the papers.
2. A single prize of $750 will be awarded to the winning paper at the conference, along with waiving the conference registration fee for the primary author. The author(s) of the winning paper will be given the opportunity to present the paper at the conference. Up to two other papers may receive an Honorable Mention designation with each receiving a $100 cash prize.