UNCW Survey Research Laboratory
Survey Research Laboratory

The Laboratory

The UNCW Survey Research Laboratory (SRL) is a constituent unit of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The mission of the SRL is to conduct survey research for teaching, scholarly, and service purposes. The SRL provides technical assistance to individuals and organizations seeking to measure opinion and behavior. Proposals to collaborate in the conduct of survey research projects are welcomed.


Who can benefit? How?

The SRL can help anyone who needs to survey opinion and behavior in a broad population cross-section.

Faculty and Student Researchers

Faculty contract and grant research projects
Graduate student seminar and thesis research projects
Undergraduate student DIS and Honors research projects

Public Officials and Interest Groups

Measure public awareness
Guage public opinion
Assess needs
Track changes in attitude and behavior

Business and Industry

Measure consumer behavior
Gauge consumer confidence
Evaluate advertising

Data Collection Services

The SRL provides data collection sevices in a variety of methodologies. Telephone interviewing is the most frequently used method. However, the SRL has the personnel, expertise, and facilities to conduct in-person and mail surveys.

Pre-survey

Research design and budget concultation
Questionnaire design
Questionaire pre-test
Sample design: local, multi-county, state-wide, and multi-state
Sample selection
Field training of data collection personnel

Survey

Data collection/entry
Data checking
Data storage
Non-response follow-up contacts
Data transfers

Data Analysis and Reporting Services

The SRL provides statistical and narrative summary of the data for the research sponsors using SPSS, SAS, and Microsoft Excel.

Data analysis

Frequency distributions
Summary measures of central tendency and dispersion
Demographic profiles
Sample-to-population comparisons
Multiple- and open-ended response analysis
Bi- and multi-variate crosstabulations
Tests of statistical significance and association

Data reporting

Executive summaries
Oral presentaitons
Graphical displays
Overhead slides and transparencies
Documentation of technical aspects of project

Clients

The SRL staff has provided services to numerous public and private agencies in North Carolina since 1976. Some past clients include:

Education and Government Agencies

UNC Sea Grant Program
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism
UNCW Office of Institutional Research
Brunswich County Board of Education
New Hanover County Board of Education
Brunswick County Public Health Department
City of Wilmington Department of Public Service
New Hanover County Public Library

Nonprofit agencies

NC Institute of Political Leadership
Thalian Association
Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce

News Media

New York Times Southern Regional Group
Wilmington Star News
WWAY ABC-TV
WHQR/Friends of Public Radio

Other Busineses

Southern Bell
Coastal Zone Resources Corporation
Edward D. Stone, Jr, and Associates

Facilities and Resources

The SRL has a variety of assessts to assist clients in achieving their goals.

Physical Facilities

Computer-assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) Laboratory
20 telephone interviewing stations with local and long distance access
Training facilities
DOS/Windows platforms

Computer software

CATI software for automatic question sequencing, direct data entry, and interviewer productivity analysis
Data analysis software: SPSS, SAS, and Microsoft Excel

Human Resources

Supervisory staff for monitoring and quality control
Multi-disciplinary expertise with graduate training in survey research, statistics, and computer programming
Experienced student assistants