poq-topic-selection

Topic Selection & Fit (poq-topic-selection)

POQ selectively publishes work in three areas: theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey validity. The bar is not "uses a survey" — it is a real contribution to how we understand opinion or how we measure it. Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

When to trigger

• Choosing among possible projects or framings for a POQ submission
• A reviewer/colleague said the paper is "just another survey analysis" with no methods or opinion payoff
• Deciding among Original Article, Research Note, Polls in Context, and Research Synthesis
• Unsure whether the contribution is substantive (opinion) or methodological (survey science)

The POQ fit test

A strong POQ paper usually clears all four:

1. A public-opinion or survey-methods contribution. It advances opinion/communication theory, illuminates current public opinion, or improves survey validity (coverage, sampling, nonresponse, measurement, mode, weighting). State which.
2. Engages survey error seriously. The design and claims are framed in terms of Total Survey Error, not a single error source. POQ readers are survey scientists.
3. Disclosable to AAPOR standards. You can report exact question wording, population, sample design, mode and dates, response rate per AAPOR Standard Definitions, sample sizes/precision, and weighting/clustering effects (see poq-survey-design-and-measurement).
4. A clean, answerable scope sized to the type — ≤ 6,500 words (Article), < 3,000 (Note), ≤ 2,500 (Polls in Context).

Contribution framing

If the contribution is…	Frame it as…
Substantive opinion finding	what it changes about how we understand attitudes, behavior, or communication
Methodological	what survey-error source it reduces or quantifies, and for whom it generalizes
Trend / current opinion	why this movement matters now and how the polls support the read (Polls in Context)
Replication / extension	which influential finding it tests and what is newly learned (Research Note)

Type choice

• Original Article — full study, broad claim, ≤ 6,500 words of text and notes.
• Research Note — one crisp contribution (a single finding, a decisive replication, a focused methods result), < 3,000 words. Do not pad it into an Article.
• Polls in Context — short, timely interpretation of current poll data, ≤ 2,500 words.
• Research Synthesis — integrative review consolidating a literature, ≤ 6,500 words.

Anti-patterns

• "We ran a survey on topic X" with no opinion-theory or survey-methods payoff
• A method demo with no survey-validity stakes a POQ reader would recognize
• A finding that cannot be disclosed to AAPOR standards (no wording, no response rate)
• Choosing Article length out of habit when a Research Note would land harder

Output format

【Question】one sentence
【Contribution】opinion-theory / current-opinion / survey-validity (which?)
【Survey-error frame】coverage / sampling / nonresponse / measurement / mode / adjustment
【Disclosable to AAPOR standards?】[Y/N — what's missing]
【Type】Original Article / Research Note / Polls in Context / Research Synthesis
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (why)
【Next】poq-literature-positioning

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — survey data sources and methodology toolkit
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — POQ scope and submission types