IASS - Data Collection: UN Handbook of Surveys of Households and Individuals Chapter Preview

Elizabeth J. Zechmeister is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science and Senior Associate Provost for Research & Development at Vanderbilt University. She has led two award-winning international survey projects: the AmericasBarometer and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. She has published three books and more than 50 articles and chapters on public opinion, electoral behavior, and survey methods. She is a former president of the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior section of the American Political Science Association. She has served as an expert and co-lead moderator for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. An award-winning teacher and mentor, she has founded two grant-supported programs to increase student access to applied research in social science and survey methodology. 

Joost Kappelhof is the head of the department of Methodology, Information management and Data at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP, an independent government research institute of the Dutch government. He is a survey methodologist by training and have been working in the field since 2002. His expertise is on survey design (including inclusive survey design/respondent centered design) and survey data quality among hard to survey, hard to reach and hidden populations as well as cross-national and cross-cultural comparative surveys. He has been a member of the European Social Survey core scientific team from 2005 to 2025 and in that role he has been primarily focusing on designing, implementing and assessing fieldwork and data collection.

Bjorn Janssen has been working as a project manager/account manager for many years for the Data collection department at Statistics Netherlands, in particular for the data collection of individuals and households. He has been project manager of almost every survey concerning individuals, for instance the Labour Force Survey, the crime survey, surveys on working conditions, the housing survey and the important Dutch survey called “The Netherlands in numbers” for The Netherlands Institute for Social Research. He has over 20 years of experience in personal interviewing and did a lot of work on the introduction of web-interviewing in our data collection process.

Maen Salhab is a senior statistician at the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), with over 26 years of experience in official statistics, specializing in household surveys and data collection methodologies. He currently serves as Director of the Statistical Yearbooks Department and has held several key leadership positions, including Acting Director General of Statistical Planning and Development and Acting Director General of Censuses. Throughout his career, he has led and contributed to the implementation of large-scale household surveys and national censuses, gaining extensive hands-on experience in survey design, field operations, and data collection under complex conditions. Mr. Salhab has substantial experience working in fragile and constrained environments, including overseeing data collection in Gaza and during crises such as COVID-19, where adaptive and innovative approaches were essential to ensure continuity and maintain data quality. His areas of expertise include survey implementation, data quality management, and statistical system development. He has played a key role in advancing statistical practices within PCBS and is also an active researcher in sustainable development and governance in fragile contexts. In his role as a discussant, Mr. Salhab brings valuable practical insights drawn from country experience, with particular emphasis on the applicability of international methodological frameworks to real-world data collection challenges. He holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Al-Quds University.

Barry Schouten is a senior methodologist at Statistics Netherlands and until recently held a special professor chair on new forms of data collection at Utrecht University. His work and research have been focused on survey nonresponse, mode effects, adaptive survey design and smart surveys. He has been active in various international projects funded by the EU and by Eurostat on innovation in household surveys. He co-authored the 2021 handbook Mixed-Mode Official Surveys. Design and Analysis.

Dr. Michael Robbins serves as the director and co-principal investigator of Arab Barometer. He has been part of Arab Barometer since its inception and served as its director since 2014. Robbins has led or overseen hundreds of surveys around the world and is a leading expert in methods for ensuring survey data quality. His work on public opinion in MENA, survey methodology, and political behavior has been published in numerous journals, including Foreign Affairs, Comparative Political Studies, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Statistical Journal of the IAOS. His analysis has been featured by major media outlets around the world including the BBC, CNN, the Economist, Al Jazeera, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times of London, Der Spiegel, and Science Magazine. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.