National Council on Public Polls (NCPP)

Founded in 1969, the National Council on Public Polls (NCPP) is an association of public opinion polling organizations. Initiated by George Gallup of the American Institute of Public Opinion, the primary goal of NCPP is to foster the understanding, interpretation, and reporting of public opinion polls through the disclosure of detailed, survey—specific information and methods to the general public and the media.

NCPP recognizes that the goal of public opinion polls is to provide reliable, valid, and accurate information. If polls succeed in achieving these goals, scientifically conducted surveys can characterize the public's view on issues, policies, elections, and concerns of the day. But with the enormous amount of polling information available, competing methods of collecting information, and sometimes contradictory results, it is often difficult for the general public and the media to decipher polls that accurately reflect what people think from polls that do not.

NCPP does not pass judgment on specific polls, polling methods, or polling entities but rather advocates that polling organizations whose results reside in the public realm disclose pertinent information about how their surveys are conducted. NCPP maintains that if provided an adequate basis for judging the reliability and validity of poll results, consumers of surveys may assess these studies for themselves.

It is with this goal in mind that NCPP developed a code for member organizations to abide by when reporting survey findings that are intended for or end up in the public domain. These “Principles of Disclosure” include three levels of disclosure, as described on the NCPP Web site.

Level 1 disclosure requires that all reports of survey findings issued for public release by member organizations include the following information, and, in addition, member organizations should endeavor to have print and broadcast media include these items in their news stories:

• Sponsorship of the survey
• Fieldwork provider (if the member organization did not, itself, conduct the interviews)
• Dates of interviewing
• Sampling method employed (e.g. random—digit dialed telephone sample, list—based telephone sample, area probability sample, probability mail sample, other probability sample, optin Internet panel, nonprobability convenience sample, use of any oversampling)
• Population that was sampled (e.g. general population; registered voters; likely voters; or any specific population group defined by gender, race, age, occupation, or any other characteristic)
• Size of the sample that serves as the primary basis of the survey report
• Size and description of the subsample, if the survey report relies primarily on less than the total sample
• Margin of sampling error (if a probability sample)
• Survey mode (e.g. telephone/interviewer, telephone/automated, mail, Internet, fax, email)
• Complete wording and ordering of questions mentioned in or upon which the news release is based
• Percentage results of all questions reported

Level 2 disclosure requires member organizations, in response to any specific written request pertaining to any survey findings they have released publicly, to additionally release any of the following:

• Estimated coverage of target population
• Respondent selection procedure (e.g. within household), if any
• Maximum number of attempts to reach respondent
• Exact wording of introduction (any words preceding the first question)
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• Complete wording of questions (per Level 1 disclosure) in any foreign languages in which the survey was conducted
• Weighted and unweighted size of any subgroup cited in the report
• Minimum number of completed questions to qualify a completed interview
• Whether interviewers were paid or unpaid (if interview—administered data collection)
• Details of any incentives or compensation provided for respondent participation
• Description of weighting procedures (if any) used to generalize data to the full population
• Sample dispositions adequate to compute contact, cooperation, and response rates

Level 3 disclosure strongly encourages member organizations to do the

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