- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Survey Research Pantheon
[Page first published 5 March 2012: last updated 6 November 2017]
This page is dedicated to the many colleagues I have known and/or worked with over the years (and to whom I owe a great deal more than they ever appreciated) to practice and develop survey research as a discipline in its own right and, at times, to protect it from sustained and misguided attack.
The links (posthumously) for Mark Abrams, Angus Campbell, Roger Jowell, Cathie Marsh, Tony Coxon and Norman Nie are to other pages on this site: they in turn have links to further details and (sadly) obituaries. Other links are to Wikipedia:or other sites, but there are some people for whom I have been unable to find any on-line information. See also Fellow researchers (from whom I learned much of my trade).
This page is dedicated to the many colleagues I have known and/or worked with over the years (and to whom I owe a great deal more than they ever appreciated) to practice and develop survey research as a discipline in its own right and, at times, to protect it from sustained and misguided attack.
The links (posthumously) for Mark Abrams, Angus Campbell, Roger Jowell, Cathie Marsh, Tony Coxon and Norman Nie are to other pages on this site: they in turn have links to further details and (sadly) obituaries. Other links are to Wikipedia:or other sites, but there are some people for whom I have been unable to find any on-line information. See also Fellow researchers (from whom I learned much of my trade).
Mark Abrams (1906 - 1994)
Dr Mark Abrams was one of the founding fathers of survey and market research in the UK. Dr Abrams (pictured in 1957) was an eminent social scientist who pioneered a range of research methods and major surveys (including the National Food Survey during World War 2). During a career spanning six decades, he became the youngest ever Director of the London Press Exchange (LPE). In WW2 he was seconded to the BBC to head up a special unit interpreting and advising on German propaganda. In 1946 he founded Research Services Ltd as an independent vehicle within LPE conducting surveys for major clients and initiating a number of regular government surveys.
In early1976 the Social Science Research Council (SSRC, now ESRC) set up a special Survey Unit with Dr Abrams as (part-time) Director to provide advice and assistance on survey methods to academics and others doing surveys on public funds. In October 1976 I was appointed Senior Research Fellow (the first full-time academic post) and worked closely with him on the Quality of Life and other surveys. When SSRC closed the unit in 1976, he became External Examiner to my new 4-year degree [BA Applied Social Studies (Social Research and Planning Option) the first (and only ever) such undergraduate degree in the UK] at the Polytechnic of North London. We collaborated in many ways and on many surveys until the end of the 1980s. In 1986 he celebrated his 80th birthday with me and was persuaded to put his name to the new Mark Abrams Prize, to be awarded via the Social Research Asociation for "the best piece of work linking survey research, social theory and social policy."
In September 1984 he recorded a long and detailed interview with his grandson, Dominic Abrams (then aged 26, having recently completed his PhD., and now Professor of Social Psychology at Kent University). The full set of transcripts is on An interview with Mark Abrams (transcripts)
In early1976 the Social Science Research Council (SSRC, now ESRC) set up a special Survey Unit with Dr Abrams as (part-time) Director to provide advice and assistance on survey methods to academics and others doing surveys on public funds. In October 1976 I was appointed Senior Research Fellow (the first full-time academic post) and worked closely with him on the Quality of Life and other surveys. When SSRC closed the unit in 1976, he became External Examiner to my new 4-year degree [BA Applied Social Studies (Social Research and Planning Option) the first (and only ever) such undergraduate degree in the UK] at the Polytechnic of North London. We collaborated in many ways and on many surveys until the end of the 1980s. In 1986 he celebrated his 80th birthday with me and was persuaded to put his name to the new Mark Abrams Prize, to be awarded via the Social Research Asociation for "the best piece of work linking survey research, social theory and social policy."
In September 1984 he recorded a long and detailed interview with his grandson, Dominic Abrams (then aged 26, having recently completed his PhD., and now Professor of Social Psychology at Kent University). The full set of transcripts is on An interview with Mark Abrams (transcripts)
Angus Campbell (1910 - 1980)
,Professor Angus Campbell (Director, ISR Ann Arbor) spent a sabbatical year with the SSRC Survey Unit whilst writing up his contribution to the ground-breaking book The Quality of American Life. Unlike many British academics of his stature, he came to lunch virtually every day with the research staff. When SSRC decided to close the SU he was furious and led an international effort to get the decision reversed.
He was incredibly supportive of my efforts to set up the Survey Research Unit at PNL and invariably broke into his annual European vacation to come and visit us.
(Photo, Doug Truax)
He was incredibly supportive of my efforts to set up the Survey Research Unit at PNL and invariably broke into his annual European vacation to come and visit us.
(Photo, Doug Truax)
Cathie Marsh (1951 - 1993)
Professor Cathie Marsh, who died of breast cancer at the tragically early age of 41, was a gifted social scientist who deservedly belongs in the pantheon of social and survey research. In 1974 I appointed her as a research trainee (her first job) in the SSRC Survey Unit where she developed her considerable administrative, technical and editorial skills working on the Quality of Life and other surveys, all the while engaging in vigorous intellectual debate. Never afraid of "getting her hands dirty" she was equally at home in sociological debate, empirical research and statistical modelling.
Tony Coxon (1938 - 2012)
Tony Coxon was a major figure in the development of quantitative methods in the social sciences in the UK, being equally at home in sociology and mathematics. He taught sociology at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and held professorial chairs at the universities of, Essex and Cardiff. He led the development of the highly influential British Household Panel Survey and is particularly known for his work on Multi-dimensional Scaling (MDS). Our academic contact ran from 1969 onwards, mainly through the BSA Quantitative Sociology Group and Quantitative Sociology Newsletter (which we both served as editors) and his connections with the arrival and spread of SPSS in the UK.
Roger Jowell (1942 - 2011)
Professor Sir Roger Jowell, who died on Christmas Day 2011, was a kindred spirit in professional standards and ethics in survey research and a much-valued and supportive colleague for 40 years.
On 14 June 2012 there was An Appreciation of the life of Roger Mark Jowell at St John's, Smith Square, London, SW1. For several months The Times ran a Guest Book containing the many tributes from colleagues and friends: this has now been archived and a fee is payable to access them. However you can still access his career profile and obituaries from this site.
On 14 June 2012 there was An Appreciation of the life of Roger Mark Jowell at St John's, Smith Square, London, SW1. For several months The Times ran a Guest Book containing the many tributes from colleagues and friends: this has now been archived and a fee is payable to access them. However you can still access his career profile and obituaries from this site.
Norman Nie (1943 - 2015)
Norman Nie, one of the principal creators of SPSS, died on 2nd April 2015 at his home in Sun Valley Idaho. Norman’s contribution to survey research and to quantitative methods in the social sciences was, and remains, invaluable. When SPSS was first installed at Edinburgh in 1970, it was called more times than the Fortran compiler. The manual sold in thousands, as students and researchers in sociology and related areas discovered they could by-pass programmers (who claimed it was inefficient) and statisticians (who claimed it was prone to errors). Been a few changes since then and SPSS is still the best.
Thanks Norman. We owe you and your colleagues a great debt.
See Tributes. There's a biographical entry on Wikipedia, but as of 5 April 2015, no official obituaries.
Oral History of Norman Nie is a transcript of a 1986 interview with Luanne Johnson, Computer History Museum.
James A Davis (1929 - 2016)
Jim Davis, founder of the NORC General Social Survey, pioneer of quantitative methods in sociology, author of Elementary Survey Analysis, died on 29 September 2016. From 1970 to 1973 he led the SSRC Survey Unit Summer Schools in Survey Methods and worked closely with Jim Ring and Cathie Marsh developing the ideas behind path analysis. Jim Ring actually found a mathematical error in the book! At PNL we worked with him on an SSRC funded project to develop IPA, an interactive computer program compatible with SPSS. (See: Hall and Ring 1977 Development of a Path Analysis Program Compatible with Interactive SPSS)
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