AAPOR 2026 Conference Blog: Thursday
05/15/2026
Thank you to Ellen Hickman for her reflection on the second day of the Annual Conference.
Dear AAPOR,
My 2nd day of AAPOR started early by sitting down with the Establishment Affinity Group, a table full of business researchers happy to share their experience. The warm introductions and discussions on sampling frames set the tone for an “enriching” day (haha!) of cross-national comparability research, conversations with fellow 1st year AAPORites, a new UN Handbook release, and a congratulations to all award winners.
Morning sessions gave way to methodological and substantive advancements in cross-national comparability. Erica Wong [University College London] shared the challenges and the solutions to integrating birth cohort data across the four diverse United Kingdom nations. Dien Luong [University of Michigan] presented pilot results on Southeast Asian journalists’ perceptions of harassment and its sources, with future plans to test interview language effects on highly-sensitive questions.
Following, I had the opportunity to interview new AAPORites, Filip Jolevski and Gemechu Aga [World Bank], who reflect on the feeling of “AAPOR family” evident in the collaborative, methods-based atmosphere. Filip and Gemechu are economists whose work focuses on creating global business-ready indicators through establishment survey data—who are also at the intersection of methods and economic research innovations. When I asked what connections they will take most from this conference, Filip replied he is impressed with the networks of experts in weighting and other methodological consulting. They look forward to presenting their methods paper on mitigating primacy effects through the inverse probability weighting of response options, and welcome feedback from their new AAPOR family.
The latest revision of the UN Handbook of Surveys on Households and Individuals (since the last edition in 1984) was presented by a panel of Haoyi Chen [UN Statistics Division] and colleagues. Intended for an NSO audience, the UN Handbook contains 10 core chapters and six special topics chapters (e.g., Surveys of Forcibly Displaced People). The UN Handbook will serve as a checklist and framework for NSOs, with special attention to be given to the Needs Assessment and Survey Management chapters that are unique to the handbook. The UN Handbook exists as a living document, where NSOs and AAPORites alike are invited to read a chapter and reach out in collaboration.
The closing of the day should not go without mentioning Mollyann Brodie’s [KFF] message on how “paying attention to, including, inviting, and lifting people up” is the forefront in achieving representation in our data sources and enriching our interpretations. I look forward to the final day of AAPOR, with Mollyann’s message in mind.
Yours truly,
Ellen Hickman
(A sleep deprived) 1st year AAPORite