WAPOR conference roundup
September 26th, 2007 | Science | Tags: Conferences, ResearchThis year’s WAPOR conference was nice, although the papers presented varied (too) much in quality for my taste. The presentations by the commercial pollsters seem to be all about sample sizes, post-stratification weights and how to poll in Afghanistan, China or the world at large.
A quick review of the proceedings revealed that only about 8 papers used at least somewhat advanced methods of analysis like multilevel or structural equation models, latent class or time series analysis. There were some large-scale content analyses and cross-national comparisons done, but not many theoretical or conceptual advancements. Maybe WAPOR is not the place for cutting edge research, but then again what is?
Our own paper presentation went pretty smooth, we had nice co-panelists and I got to meet the head of Eurobarometer after complaining about their media use scales, oh well.