Supporting Statement B_2017_05_17

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Census Bureau

Generic Clearance for Internet Nonprobability Panel Pretesting

OMB Control Number 0607-0978

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The data collected will be used for questionnaire development and pretesting activities rather than to produce estimates about populations. Some of the small-scale testing activities undertaken as part of this clearance will involve nonprobability or opt-in samples, with respondents who self-select to participate in the survey or usability test. In other instances, a probability sample may be drawn, for example, for an opinion survey or online surveys to test advertisements, that would permit statistical inferences about the effectiveness of alternative advertising treatments. For usability testing, we might also send emails to a specified group, such as the Census Data Center staff. A description of the plans for selecting respondents for each individual test will be provided to OMB at the time the individual clearance requests are submitted.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

Data will be collected via the Internet, telephone, mail and in-person studies. Remote usability testing will be through the Internet. Statistical results will include response rates, click rates, item nonresponse rates, usability paradata, frequency distributions of data items, and analysis of opinion data. More specific information about data collection procedures will be contained in the description provided to OMB at the time the individual clearance requests are submitted.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

In general, reminder emails, calls, mailing or text messages may be used to maximize response rates in surveys. These may be the topic of a given experiment, or may be used to maximize overall response. Tallies will be kept of the number of nonrespondents to all testing activities that involve an invitation to the individual survey (if respondents are invited via a link on our website, we will not have a measure of nonresponse). More specific information will be contained in the description provided to OMB at the time the individual clearance requests are submitted.

4. Testing of Procedures

This entire submission consists of tests of data dissemination websites, advertising, data collection instruments and survey/census procedures. We expect that all the tests conducted under this clearance will result in more usable websites, simpler questionnaires, easy-to-understand advertisements and/or procedures and thus reduced user or respondent burden.

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

Nancy Bates, Dr. Paul Beatty and Dr. Peter Miller served as general methodological consultants for this project. Reg Baker, Consultant at Market Strategies International, has also provided external guidance on this topic previously. Additional advice on statistical aspects of each individual survey will be sought as the testing program proceeds. Depending on the nature of the research, staff from subject-matter divisions, operational divisions, and the Center for Survey Measurement will have primary responsibility for data collection and analysis. The specific research project will also determine whether the data will be collected by the Census Bureau or through a contractor. Jennifer Hunter Childs (202-603-4827) is the contact person for general questions about data collection and analysis. Other contact persons for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design will be provided to OMB at the time the questionnaires are submitted.

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