Full Disclosure on Polls

The National Committee on Published Polls has compiled this checklist, which specifies the minimum amount of information that a newspaper report on a poll or survey should contain:

1. The identity of the survey's sponsor.
2. The exact wording of the questions asked.
3. A definition of the population sampled.
4. The sample size and the response rate.
5. The margin of error.
6. Which results are based on only part of the sample, such as probable voters, those who have heard of the candidate and so on.
7. How the interviews were conducted -- in person at home, by phone, by mail, on street corners or whatever.
8. When the interviews were conducted.

Obviously, we should use our own judgment. We wouldn't, for example, use all that information in a passing reference to some poll result. Nor would we include the exact wording of every question on a two-hour questionnaire. But we should be aware of why the N.C.P.P. thinks each of the eight items is important, and we should use good news judgment to include those that are most relevant to individual news stories.

Note, too, that responsible public opinion pollsters are obligated to provide this information and to blow the whistle on politicians or others who warp their poll results. The American Associate for Public Opinion Research holds members to this vow:

We shall maintain the right to approve release of our findings, whether or not ascribed to us. When misinterpretation appears, we shall publicly disclose what is required to correct it, notwithstanding our obligation for client confidentiality in all other respects.

For further details on what we should customarily include in stories on survey research, see the "Polls and Surveys" entry in the AP Stylebook.

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