[Air-l] FW: Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) (fwd)

[Ellis Godard]

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Attention Faculty and Graduate Students: 

NSF-SPONSORED PROJECT OFFERS 
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORIGINAL DATA COLLECTION! 

Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) is 
a new National Science Foundation-supported project that is 
designed to increase the speed and efficiency with which 
scientific advances can be applied to social problems. TESS 
accomplishes these goals by providing social scientists with 
two new opportunities for original data collection. First, 
TESS runs an ongoing national telephone survey to which 
researchers can add their own original questions. Second, 
TESS allows researchers to run their own studies on random 
samples of the population that are interviewed via the Internet. 

Technologically, TESS combines the proven power of computer- 
assisted telephone interviewing with the new possibilities of 
computer-assisted Internet interviewing. Each approach allows 
researchers to capture the internal validity of traditional 
experiments while realizing the benefits of contact with 
large, diverse subject populations. With these technologies, 
TESS gives a greater number of social scientists opportunities 
to collect original data tailored to their own hypotheses, and 
to increase the precision with which fundamental social, 
political and economic dynamics are measured and understood. 

HOW DOES IT WORK? 

Scholars across the social sciences compete for time on one 
or both instruments. A comprehensive, on-line submission and 
review process screens proposals for the importance of their 
contribution to science and society. The co-PIs, Diana Mutz 
and Arthur Lupia, assisted by a diverse team of leading 
scholars from across the social sciences, oversee the review 
process. Together, they base their evaluations on reviews 
solicited from two to three referees in the researcher's 
discipline. 

WHAT KINDS OF PROPOSALS ARE APPROPRIATE? 

The Internet-based and telephone-based data collection 
platforms will allow faculty and graduate student researchers 
to run novel experiments on representative samples drawn from 
the United States population in order to examine substantive 
and methodological hypotheses. Proposals may come from any 
substantive area within any discipline in the social sciences 
so long as they utilize experimental or quasi-experimental 
designs and make a significant contribution to knowledge. 

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY? 

All faculty and graduate students at universities within or 
outside of the United States are eligible. 

HOW AND WHEN CAN I APPLY? 

TESS begins accepting proposals in January of 2002 and will 
review them on a continuous basis over the next four years. 
There are no limits on the number of times researchers may use 
TESS. In fact, we encourage researchers to build on their 
previous TESS findings for subsequent proposals. 

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? 

To facilitate a quick review process, proposal submission 
and review are handled on-line through our website, 
<www.ExperimentCentral.org/" 
target=_blank>http://www.ExperimentCentral.org/>
www.ExperimentCentral.org. 
Proposals are limited to five pages to encourage fast turnaround. 
Because our data collection instruments are in the field on a 
continuous basis, accepted experiments can be moved into the field 
just as soon as previous experiments come off. 

WHO WILL BE COLLECTING THE DATA FOR TESS? 

Data collection for the telephone survey is carried out by 
the Indiana University Center for Survey Research. The 
Internet survey data is collected through Knowledge Networks, 
of Menlo Park, CA. These two organizations were selected to 
work with TESS because they are leaders and innovators in the 
world of survey research, and they are experienced in the 
implementation of experiments within surveys. They also have 
the capacity to gather and deliver data to researchers 
promptly, so as to facilitate a quick turnaround time for 
TESS researchers. 

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? 

Use of these instruments will be free to all social scientists 
whose proposals are accepted through the review process. This 
project is supported by funds from the National Science 
Foundation through a grant to Professors Mutz and Lupia. 
There are no additional costs borne by users, and no grant 
applications to write. 

WHERE DO I GO FOR MORE DETAILS? 

Our website, www.ExperimentCentral.org, answers common questions 
about the proposal submission and review process. 
For more information, contact us at TESS at ExperimentCentral.org. 



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