Sample surveys are the dominant mode of collecting information about developed societies. In addition, the methodology is one of the most frequently employed techniques in the disciplines of sociology, political science, economics, and psychology. Recent trends in survey-taking have led to an increase in the use of the telephone as the means of contacting respondents: the increased cost of face-to-face interviewing, the rapid development of computer-assisted telephone methodology, the increased coverage of the household population by telephone, and the development of statistical modeling techniques with social science data requiring the collection of more information concerning errors of measurement, in contrast to sampling errors. The locus of activity in telephone survey methodology has spread from the commercial sector, where it began, to both academic and governmental sectors. Geographically, attention has spread from the United States to most Western European countries and Australia. Replications of methodological experiments are now taking place in these different environments, and country- level differences in results are sometimes appearing. Despite these important social science developments throughout the world, there are few opportunities for researchers in this area to interact, and their work is scattered throughout scores of different journals, research reports, and office memoranda. No conference devoted to the international scope of the problems associated with telephone survey research has previously been held, and to remedy that situation such a conference is now being organized under the joint sponsorship of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the American Statistical Association, and the International Association of Survey Statisticians. The conference is designed for a multidisciplinary audience, with support from multiple sources: government agencies, commercial survey firms, private foundations, and registration fees. The National Science Foundation is one contributor to the total funding picture, along with the U.S. Bureau of the Census, which has transferred funds to NSF for this purpose.
