Collaborative Research: State Health, Institutions, and Politics Survey (SHIPS)

The State Health, Institutions, and Politics Survey (SHIPS) project will give the research community access to large-scale state-by-state survey data collected at multiple points in time. SHIPS will enable scholars, policymakers, and citizens to explore the evolution of public attitudes about state and federal policies; trust in institutions, policymakers, and experts; economic, social, and psychological well-being; perceptions of domestic and international threats; and a wide variety of other topics. Researchers from heterogenous geographic locations, institutions, career stages, and demographic groups will get access to the project’s infrastructure and data. Investigators will be able to use SHIPS to identify variations in outcomes due to state institutions, history, and policies, as well as employing cutting-edge social science methods to identify causes of public beliefs. The scale of the project will allow researchers to examine public opinion not only across states, but also among specific subgroups that often evade study (e.g., people with low income or education). The project will engage students as part of the research team, as well as offering curriculum development and hands-on training. SHIPS will generate academic papers, public-facing reports, and make data trends easily digestible with interactive visualization and online dashboards.The main goal of The State Health, Institutions, and Politics Survey is to provide high-quality state-level longitudinal data on public opinion, allowing researchers to track and document cross-country trends. The research team has developed and validated an approach that allows for the regular collection and post-stratification weighting of large census-balanced samples from every state and Washington, DC. Large-scale survey waves with up to 25,000 respondents will be fielded at regular time intervals. The sample size will enable exploring heterogeneous effects and examining outcomes for small, difficult to study population subgroups. The project will also be flexible and reactive to sudden events that could prompt the need for immediate data collection. SHIPS will give scholars access to survey modules and results via a competitive application process. Half or more of the survey content fielded in each wave funded by this grant will be designed by applicants whose peer-reviewed proposals have been accepted. Successful applicants will have exclusive access to the collected data for one year, at which point it will be made public. The project thus aims to democratize access to high-quality, original multi-wave survey data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.