Afterword: Future Directions in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural (3MC) Survey Research

Abstract

IndexOne year is an ambitious timeline to publish any book. Thanks to the power of collaboration among our 28 contributors, we were propelled to complete this book project within that time frame.We would like to acknowledge the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) for providing a platform in the form of an annual conference where we cultivate ideas, foster collaborations, and champion each other's efforts. The AAPOR conference short course by Daphna Oyserman and Norbert Schwarz ignited our passion for writing this book to share with a broad audience survey research theories, practices, and outlook in cross-cultural contexts. The incredible support from the leadership at RTI International's Social, Statistical and Environmental Sciences (SSES) Group made the publishing idea viable.We owe RTI Press a deep debt of gratitude for the thoughtful and rigorous editing, guidance, and trust during the past year and for making the book open access. We thank Editor-in-Chief Jenny Wiley, Senior Manager Anna Wetterberg, and Publishing Editor Annie Gering. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their review of the manuscript. We also thank Senior Editors Sharon Barrell, Merrie Aiken, and Marceline Murawski at RTI's Multimedia Communication Services. Melinda Welch facilitated many aspects of the process and we appreciate her help. We acknowledge Lisa Thalji, Douglas Currivan, Murrey Olmsted, Marjorie Hinsdale-Shouse, Rachel Caspar, and Craig Hill.Last but not least, we are grateful of the Foreword penned by Daphna and Norbert and the Afterword by Comparative Survey Design and Implementation consortium's Julie de Jong, Kristin Cibelli Hibben, Jennifer Kelley, and Dorothée Behr. Our special thanks go to Peter Mohler for his helpful review comments. It is the vision and role-modeling from these pioneers and many others that gave, and continue to give, many of us the courage to create our own path.

Advance Translation—The Remedy to Improve Translatability of Source Questionnaires? Results of a Think-Aloud Study

“…With regard to Group 3, a trait, known to be valid for any translation, seems to be confirmed also for questionnaire translation: That there are cases where a certain level of translation difficulty has to be accepted, and the possibilities of measures like advance translation to facilitate the translation process are limited. This comes back to the observation that the activity of translation is often underestimated by those setting up cross-cultural survey projects (de Jong et al 2020:244; Lyberg et al 2021:58–60). Translation can easily become a challenging and complex task where it is not possible to massively facilitate this process by simplifying the source text.…”

Who Counts? Measuring Disability Cross-Nationally in Census Data

“…For example, in 3MCs, extensive pre-testing of comparable translations is done to minimize post-survey treatments or back translating. Extensive documentation is also provided including translation annotations critical in ascertaining the "degrees of freedom" around terminology allowing comparability while maintaining intended meaning (Behr and Scholz 2011;de Jong, Cibelli Hibben, Kelley and Behr 2020).…”