Survey Research Support

DISSC provides guidance to help researchers navigate Yale's survey processes and policies, including assistance with vendor selection.

Contact us at dissc@yale.edu for support with any part of the survey process. Our team is here to help streamline your research.

Do you need a tool to create your own survey?

These tools, offered by the university, provide templates and a variety of question types. Remember that you are responsible for maintaining security by managing access to your survey and results.

Qualtrics is a full featured survey platform which is available to be used for research. The XM Core product is currently available to use at no additional cost. Access to the main campus account (YaleSurvey) is restricted to those with active NetIDs. Qualtrics is approved for high-risk data.

YaleSurvey login: Accounts are automatically provisioned on initial login to the platform.
Self-Service: support for Qualtrics is self-service. Support for using the product is provided by the vendor’s extensive knowledge base and help desk. Some quick-start links are:

REDcap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure web platform for building and managing online databases and surveys. REDCap's streamlined process for rapidly creating and designing projects offers a vast array of tools that can be tailored to virtually any data collection strategy.

REDcap Login: To access and use REDCap on the Yale Servers, you need a valid Yale NetID.
Click here for more information.

Sawtooth is the maker of LightHouse Studio, a platform for Conjoint Analysis and MaxDiff. Users can create flexible and balanced experimental designs hand-in-hand with traditional survey questions. Collect your data, then model and report results using the most fully-featured market simulator available. Contact dissc@yale.edu to get started.

Survey CTO is a platform that allows you to collect data using mobile phones, tablets, or computers—even when offline. Researchers can create forms, implement branching logic, non-linear navigation, randomized elements, multimedia and GIS capabilities, linkages to previous survey rounds, and form version control. Contact dissc@yale.edu for more information.

Do you need to find survey respondents?

To support original survey research, Yale has master service agreements (MSAs) in place with several survey firms. Using one of these firms should will smooth the process for conducting the survey and paying the vendor. Please reach out to DISSC if you need support with any parts of the process.

If you do not have access to a sampling frame (a list of all those within a population who can be sampled), or if you rather use a firm to provide you with a sample panel, the list of Survey Vendors with MSAs is for you.

Contract Requirements for Working with Survey Vendors
Survey vendors require a signed contract or statement of work; however, only authorized Yale purchasing agents can sign contracts using university funds - not faculty or students. All third-party research agreements should be reviewed and signed by authorized Yale representatives before work begins.

To view the list of current survey vendors with MSAs click here (CAS login required).

Other Important Information for Conducting a Survey

IRB Review. Any study which collects information in the form of surveys or questionnaires about people may require IRB review (survey research is likely to meet exemption criteria under category 2). Anyone seeking to conduct such a study should follow guidelines by the Human Research Protection Program. You can contact hrpp@yale.edu with any questions.

Yale policies:

Best practices for data management and sharing at Yale:

See Yale Library guidance, and consider Yale Dataverse.

Best Practices for Surveys

See recommendations from -