What is TESS?
Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) is a National Science Foundation supported project that provides social scientists with new opportunities for original data collection. It does so in ways that increase the speed and efficiency with which advances in social scientific theory and analyses can be applied to critical social problems. To accomplish its goals, TESS uses two large-scale, cooperative data collection instruments.Through at least 2006, TESS will provide investigators an opportunity to run their studies on a random sample of the population that is interviewed via the Internet and WebTV. Investigators interested in mode of interview effects can use both data collection platforms simultaneously. Through March of 2005, and perhaps again in the future depending on project funding, TESS also ran national telephone surveys to which investigators could add their own original questions.
Technologically, TESS combines the proven power of computer-assisted telephone interviewing with the emerging possibilities of computer-assisted Internet interviewing. Each approach allows investigators to capture the internal validity of traditional experiments while realizing the benefits of contact with large, diverse subject populations. With this technology, TESS gives a greater number of social scientists opportunities to collect original data tailored to their own hypotheses, and to increase the precision with which fundamental social, political and economic dynamics are measured and understood.
TESS operates with six primary goals in mind:
1. to provide numerous social scientists with new opportunities for original data collection;
2. to promote innovative experiments;
3. to increase the precision with which fundamental social, political and economic dynamics are measured and understood;
4. to increase the speed and efficiency with which advances in social scientific theory and analyses can be applied to critical social problems;
5. to maximize financial efficiency by combining otherwise separate studies, thereby radically reducing the average cost per study;
6. to create an Internet portal for people who want to learn about social science experimentation -- a place where teachers and students at many levels can easily benefit from our collective accomplishments.
What kind of data does TESS collect?
TESS collects data for individual researchers' experiments and quasi-experiments. It does so by providing investigators an opportunity to run experiments on a random sample of the population that is interviewed via the Internet and WebTV. To achieve a representative sample, Knowledge Networks, the firm with which TESS works, uses a random RDD sample. When a person agrees to participate, they are provided with free Internet access (via webTV) and are given the necessary hardware for as long as they remain in the sample. Most research to date comparing this kind of sample with telephone RDD samples suggest they are equally representative, and some suggest that the data obtained via WebTV/internet are somewhat more reliable than what is obtained by phone (see, e.g., Vicki Huggins and Joe Eyerman, "Probability Based Internet Surveys: A Synopsis of Early Methods and Survey Research Results" at http://www.fcsm.gov and Jon A. Krosnick and LinChiat Chang "A Comparison of the Random Digit Dialing Telephone Survey Methodology with Internet Survey Methodology as Implemented by Knowledge Networks and Harris Interactive" at http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu.
Who can place experiments on TESS?
Research-oriented faculty and graduate students from the social sciences or fields related to the social sciences, such as law and public health, compete for time on the instrument. A comprehensive, on-line submission and review process screens proposals for the importance of their contribution to science and society. A diverse team of leading scholars assist the co-PI's in administering the review process, itself based on reviews solicited from within each proposing scholar's chosen social scientific discipline. For more on this topic read, Information About Submitting a Proposal
What kinds of proposals are appropriate?
Our data collection platform allows researchers to run novel experiments on representative samples drawn from the United States population in order to examine substantive or methodological hypotheses. Proposals may come from any substantive area within any discipline in the social sciences so long as they utilize experimental or quasi-experimental designs that make a significant contribution to knowledge.
How much does it cost to use TESS?
TESS pays standard data collection and dissemination costs; so for most proposals, TESS is free. This strategy frees up researchers to concentrate more on the production of ideas and less on acquiring the means to pay the often high fixed costs of experimentation on representative national samples.
Who pays for TESS?
TESS is funded by the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation. TESS received its funding by virtue of being a winner of the directorate's "Enhancing Infrastructure" competition.
Who runs TESS?
Diana Mutz of the University of Pennsylvania and Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan are the Principal Investigators.
A multidisciplinary team of Associate PI's assists Mutz and Lupia in managing TESS. The team, described in table below, includes an accomplished and diverse roster of over 35 Associate PIs from across the social sciences. Team members span several generations and multiple disciplinary boundaries. Each scholar has established a reputation for cutting edge research in his or her respective field. Most importantly, they share our enthusiasm for this project and can see the potential demand for it within their respective disciplines.
