Research Services

We have prepared cost estimates for hundreds of surveys, assessments, evaluations, and focus group projects. We will work with you to prepare estimates for work to be included in grant proposals before submission to agencies and foundations.

Using research-based best practice guidelines, we will assist in design and formatting of mail questionnaires, web surveys, telephone interviews, in-person interviews, focus group scripts, advance letters, cover letters, follow-up letters, and reminders for effective communication with prospective respondents.

OSR staff will provide researchers with advice and assistance in preparing materials for Institutional Review Board review and will help address questions or concerns raised by IRB reviewers.

OSR staff will help you learn how individuals hear and understand your questions, using “think aloud” techniques to better understand how individuals formulate answers to your questions.

We have extensive experience designing and selecting samples from discrete lists of targeted populations; designing random digit dial samples of city, county, statewide and national populations; designing samples of rare populations; and designing simple or disproportionate stratified samples.We will help you develop appropriate sampling designs and sample sizes to meet the specific research goals of your project, whether the goal is reaching households or businesses.

We will assist you with weighting your data. Calculating and applying case weights is necessary for surveys that involve stratified random samples. It is desirable to correct for differential response rates and to improve the representativeness for all surveys. OSR’s expertise extends to raking and other advanced weighting methods.

OSR project managers design, conduct, and generate reports on focus groups. We recruit and schedule participants, and develop moderator scripts and probes. Help is available for any or all phases of a focus group project.

We will assist you with the analysis of the data and preparation of tables and graphs that report survey results. The analysis may be as simple as providing frequencies and crosstabs, or involve more complex analyses.