Articles

Thanks to help from researcher Vera Cooley, the Washington State House Committee on Finance amended legislation before passage on February 28, preventing a detrimental impact on the survey, opinion and marketing research profession.

Independent marketing research professional Vera Cooley testified yesterday in defense of respondent incentives at a state legislative committee hearing.

Legislation in the Washington State House could cripple survey, opinion and marketing research involving respondent incentives by creating the presumption that anyone receiving remuneration for services is an employee.

Worker classification is one of the more pressing issues facing survey, opinion and marketing researchers today.  Misclassification of respondents, moderators, and interviewers may subject researchers to lawsuits, investigations, audits, complaints, and economic liabilities including payment of back taxes and fines, providing unemployment, employee benefits, and worker’s compensation. Therefore, it is imperative that research professionals know and understand state law defining independent cont...

A coalition of research associations and professional societies today called upon the Obama Administration to defend the use of respondent incentives in federal surveys.

Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA-03) has introduced the Research Fairness Act (H.R. 5915) in the U.S. Congress to prevent marketing research participants from being treated as employees of research companies.

Going into the House of Representatives floor debate on Census funding this week, MRA and our coalition partners in the Census Project knew we were in for trouble -- but not this much trouble. The House voted to shift some of the Census funding in the Commerce Justice State (CJS) Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013 to other programs -- then voted to neuter, and ultimately kill, the American Community Survey (ACS).We were already concerned that the proposed funding for the Census in thi...

Survey, opinion and marketing research companies that conduct alcohol taste tasting research should be aware that many states oblige companies to obtain a permit or license to serve alcoholic beverages, even for complimentary purposes. State regulatory agencies may also require registration prior to conducting taste testing studies.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today unanimously approved new regulations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) – the key law restricting telephone survey research across the U.S. – that will prohibit most telemarketing robocalls while continuing to permit survey research calls.

"Sugging" is a term used by survey researchers to describe the unethical practice of selling under the guise of research.