Request for Proposals

Applications for our next RFP are due July 1, 2023.

Submissions are open to faculty, postdocs and phd students and are not limited to US scholars. All proposals get access to our core survey items and panel demographic variables.

Submissions are intended to be very short 

Submitting a Proposal

To submit a proposal, complete the following steps:

1. Write a summary of your proposal (1 page): This should identify the importance and contribution of your study (i.e., how the study will make a valuable contribution to science). Proposals need not be based on theory and can be purely descriptive.
2. Write a summary of your study design (as long as needed): Your design document must detail any randomizations, treatments and collected measures. Your survey may only contain up to 10 survey items.
3. Write a just justification for your sample size: (e.g., power analysis or simulation-based justification).
4. Build your survey questions and analysis through the Online Survey Builder: Go to this link and build the content of your survey. When finished, be sure to download and save the Survey Content and Analysis script provided.
5. Submit your proposal via ManuscriptManager. In order for your proposal to be considered, you must submit the following in your application:
   • Proposal Summary (1 page)
   • Design Summary
   • Sample justification
   • IRB Approval / Certificate
   • A link to a PAP (Pre-analysis plan) specifying the exact analytical tests you will perform. Either aspredicted or osf are acceptable.
   • Rmarkdown script with analysis code (you can find an example at this link or after completing the Online Survey Builder)
   • Questionnaire document generated by the Online Survey Builder

An example application can be found at this link.

Limitations

• Incomplete or noncompliant proposals will not be reviewed
• All submitted materials must be anonymized.
• You cannot select when the study will be fielded
• All proposals will be fielded on a representative sample, with no special subsampling.
• One application per cycle (including co-authorship)
• Each proposal can only be submitted once; you may not make changes to your proposal content after submission
• You can include up to 10 units of content using the TESS framework (https://tessexperiments.org/html/limits.html), unless compelling scientific justification is provided.
• No video or audio treatments are allowed
• There is a maximum possible sample of 2,000, though 1,000 is the typical sample size for awards (unless compelling justification is provided in the application).  
• Interventions to reduce polarization or improve support for democratic norms are prioritized
• Focused on US sample at the moment
• Deception will require a debrief, which counts as an item.

Data and transparency

If selected, your proposal will be made public on our website after fielding has completed.  Data will be provided to the authors and reserved for their exclusive use for twelve months, after which the data and the submitted R script will be made public with an attribution license.  This means that anyone can use the data with citation to the authors of the proposal.  

We do not expect authorship for any collected data, but do ask for a citation to our lab in any manuscripts. Please cite as follows:

Shanto Iyengar, Yphtach Lelkes and Sean Westwood. (2023). America’s Political Pulse. https://polarizationresearchlab.org/americas-political-pulse/.

Resources

The following items may be of use when building your proposal:

• America’s Pulse Survey IRB Approval (via Dartmouth College)
• Consent Form used in the survey
• Debrief Form used in the survey