RAND American Life Panel

ALP Omnibus Surveys

Last year the ALP fielded a series of Omnibus surveys available exclusively to RAND researchers. The Omnibus was so successful we have decided to open it to non-RAND researchers. The ALP Omnibus provides a cost-effective opportunity to field up to four simple questions and obtain responses from a nationally representative sample of 2,500 adults. Researchers have used the Omnibus to collect pilot data for proposals, screen for specific populations, and add variables to an existing ALP survey dataset.

Why Use the ALP Omnibus 2500?

• Rapid results: an interim data set (unweighted) will be provided after week 1 with about 1500 responses; all 2500 responses will be collected, weighted, and delivered within 2-months
• Cost effective: get high quality data quickly while sharing costs with other researchers
• Collect pilot data for your new proposal idea
• Your Omnibus survey data will be delivered with current ALP demographic variables appended at no additional cost
• Merge your data with results from over 500 previously conducted ALP studies on topics ranging from financial decision-making and health to political attitudes and national security

ALP Omnibus 2500 Details

• The July ALP Omnibus 2500 is available to both RAND and non-RAND researchers
• The ALP Omnibus 2500 survey sample will produce 2500 completed survey responses from a probability-recruited, nationally representative sample of adults
• You can field 1-4 simple questions (limited skips, open-ended answers, no fills/links to other surveys or external sources, etc.)
• Researchers will only have access to data for the questions they field, plus My Household demographics; final datasets will be weighted to the CPS
• ALP staff are available to assist with question development to help you get the data you need

ALP Omnibus Timeline

July 6: First draft of proposed question(s) due to ALP team for review

July 12: Final ALP questions and signed order form due

July 23: Omnibus survey is fielded

July 30: Researcher receives first week of data collection (around 1500 responses)

Sep 27: Researcher receives final data collection results for 2500 responses

Cost: $2,000 for each simple question.

To get on board with the July 2019 ALP Omnibus, email alp@rand.org.

New Demographic variables available in the "My Household Survey"

The ALP invites members to update their demographic information in the "My Household Survey" three times a year. These demographic indicators accompany every ALP study.

New Variables

We recently added several new demographic variables to the My Household Survey, including:

• Health insurance coverage
• General health status
• Well-being (single-item)
• Urban/rural-small town
• Housing type, and
• Housing tenure (own, rent, other)

Demographic variable recoding

We recently recoded the demographic variables to make them more consistent with Census naming conventions and structure. ALP data are cleaner and easier to use than ever!

Availability of restricted variables

Restricted ALP data—including zip code, more detailed race and ethnic information, and detailed household composition—are available for a fee following an approved application. Contact alp@rand.org for more information.

Updates

New Survey Software

The ALP recently upgraded to a new, more robust online survey platform that offers multiple benefits to our panel members and clients. This upgrade also allows for dynamic and seamless integration via API with other software systems such as EgoWeb social network data collection software. The ALP team completed integrating EgoWeb with the ALP panel platform earlier this year and social network data collection is now being collected to supplement ALP survey data.

ALP Website

More information about the ALP is available on our website. It includes technical documentation, recruitment, demographics, data comparison, completion rates, weighting, and a list of published research papers based on ALP data.

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