Telephone Surveys Public Opinion Research - Italy

The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation? quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This is a firm fixed price acquisition being conducted under FAR part 12 in conjunction with FAR 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures (13.106). _____________________________________________________ The Office of Opinion Research of the U.S. Department of State (the Client) is considering commissioning a nationally representative public opinion survey in Italy in March/April as described below. The Office of Opinion Research will provide a list of approximately 30 questions (28 closed-end questions and 2 open-end questions), plus demographics. To assist in drafting your proposal, we estimate that the average interview time for this survey will be 22-25 minutes. SUMMARY OF CONTRACTOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES � Designing an appropriate sample; � Translating, back-translating and formatting the questionnaire submitted by the Office of Opinion Research; � Conducting a pretest; � Managing fieldwork; � Coding questionnaires, entering data, checking and cleaning the data; and � Providing required deliverables: detailed sampling design, translation and back-translation of questionnaire, pretest report, marginal frequencies, data in SPSS and ASCII formats, codebook, methodological report, final version of questionnaire and additional supporting documentation as necessary. These responsibilities are described in detail below. SAMPLE DESIGN: Design and implement a probability sample design for telephone interviews to achieve a nationally representative sample of at least 1000 adults age 18 and older. It is anticipated that separate sampling frames may be needed for landline telephones and mobile telephones, leading to a multiple frame survey. QUESTIONNAIRE: The Office of Opinion Research will provide an English-language questionnaire that will include approximately 30 substantive questions (28 closed-ended, 2 open-ended), focusing on public attitudes toward domestic economic and social issues, as well as international affairs. One question can contain up to four elements (e.g., "How do you feel about our relations with the following countries: 1) Country A, 2) Country B, 3) Country C, 4) Country D"). If a question contains more than four elements, each additional element will count as 0.5 questions. In addition, for each respondent the questionnaire and final data set will include: Demographics: including but not limited to gender, exact age, education, occupation, household income, number of adults in household eligible for the survey, number of working landlines in the household, number of cellular lines used, number of eligible persons sharing the same cellular line, economic class, city, region, urban/rural, political party support, religion and ethnicity. Interviewing information: � date of interview (month, day, day of week); � interview start time, interview end time, duration of interview in minutes; � variables used to stratify the sample, if any; � interviewer ID, supervisor ID; � interviewers' indication of the comprehension and candor of the respondent; � the number of call-backs necessary to achieve a successful interview, and whether the interview was monitored. TRANSLATION AND BACK-TRANSLATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE: The Contractor is responsible for translating the questionnaire into colloquial Italian, and for back-translating the translated questionnaire(s) into English. The back-translation(s) must be done by someone who has not seen the original English questionnaire. The Client will review the translation and consult with the Contractor on necessary changes. The Client must approve the final translation before the pretest, including the CATI sequencing and logic of the questionnaire. PRE-TEST: After the Client approves the translation, the Contractor will pretest the full questionnaire with at least 25 randomly-selected representative interviews that will not be included in the final sample. The Contractor will provide the Client with a pretest report, including a demographic summary of the participants and a discussion by question of any problems or suggested changes to the questionnaire. The Client must approve any changes to the questionnaire. FIELDWORK: Fieldwork will be done by telephone interview. All interviews shall be conducted in strict adherence to the sampling plan. The Contractor is responsible for organizing and overseeing all aspects of fieldwork, including: programming the final questionnaire; selecting and training interviewers; supervising interviewers; enforcing quality controls, monitoring non-response rates; and providing regular feedback to the Client on the status of fieldwork. Nightly field reports are strongly preferred. Contact with every sampled respondent should be attempted at least 4 times during fieldwork. The contact attempts should be spread over different times of the day and days of the week and weekend. Note: the minimum achieved sample for the survey is 1000 fully completed interviews. DATA MANAGEMENT: The Contractor is responsible for processing, cleaning, and coding the data in English, enforcing quality controls for data entry, and detecting data fabrication, if any. Closed-end or pre-coded questions: The Contractor shall use the codes specified on the final questionnaire for all items. Open-end questions: The Contractor will develop categories of responses based on 200 randomly selected questionnaires from all regions of the sample, providing at least 5 sample responses for each proposed category. Categories must be approved by the Client prior to coding responses. The "Other" category should not include more than 10% of the total responses for any question. If any single response in the "Other" category amounts to more than 2%, then the Contractor will code this response as a separate response, not as "Other." Weights: The weight values for each separate case or record should be placed in a designated set of columns and clearly documented in the codebook. ? DELIVERABLES: The Contractor shall deliver the following to the Office of Opinion Research by email: 1) Detailed sampling design; 2) Translation and back-translation of the questionnaire; 3) Pretest report; 4) Final version(s) of the questionnaire; 5) Marginal frequencies (weighted, if appropriate) for all questions, including demographics. 6) The final, cleaned data files including all survey questions, demographics, interviewing information and (if applicable) weight values. These files shall be in two formats: a. ASCII, with all records having the same length b. SPSS Windows format (*.sav), with all variables and values labeled in English 6a) Two additional SPSS files: 1) Containing all incomplete cases (such as break-offs and refusals); 2) Containing cases rejected because they did not meet quality control standards. 7) A complete codebook for all survey questions, demographics, interviewing information, and (if applicable) weight values, identifying the column positions of all variables in the ASCII file. 8) A detailed methodological report which contains sufficient details on the sampling design and weighting so that independent researchers would be able to replicate the survey using only information in the report. In particular, the methodological report shall include the following: � A brief report of any unusual problems or significant events which may have influenced the conduct of the survey or the responses given. � A description of interviewing, including: exact dates of field work; interviewer selection, training and supervision; and enforcement of quality controls. � A description of the sampling design and procedure, including: o The universe sampled. o A detailed description of the sampling frames from which telephone numbers are drawn and a description of the coverage of each frame (percentage of the population reached and any known or potential bias in that frame). o Identification of any populations excluded from the sample and why these were excluded (for example, by unlisted numbers or by no telephone of any type). o All forms of stratification used and the basis for stratification. If you use differential probabilities of selection in sampling (e.g., stratification with different rates by strata), provide the justification for using those rates and describe the expected effects on the variances. o Selection procedures used at each stage, including use of randomization, and method for selecting the individual respondent in each contacted household. Note: For landline samples, the data collected should include the number of adults in the household who are eligible for the survey and the number of working landlines in the household. For cell phone samples, the data should include the number of cellular lines used and the number of eligible persons sharing the same cellular line. o If quotas are used, a detailed description of the quotas and the rationale for using them. o If multiple frames are used, the procedures for combining samples from the multiple frames to produce a single weighted data set. o Description of statistical documentation used to prepare sample (e.g., census data, official statistics, other research) and date of information. � If you weight the data, provide a detailed description of weighting procedures. The Client must be able to recreate weight values based on this documentation, the data sources, and the data file. Any weights should account for: o The probability of selection of the household and the adult (the base weights should be the inverse of the probability of selection); o Nonresponse and noncoverage; o Adjustments to match population data (describe sources of population data). � Report on sampling performance, including: o The number of completed interviews, partial interviews, refusals, failed contacts (e.g. no one at home), cases that are not eligible (e.g. not a residential unit, no adults in the household), and cases of unknown eligibility, and the resulting response rate ("RR1" using the disposition codes and formulas provided by the American Association for Public Opinion Research, AAPOR [www.aapor.org] ). o The response rate (as defined above) for each frame (if multiple sampling frames are used) and for each city/province/region/interviewer. o Rate of respondent substitution and procedures for substituting respondents (if any). o An estimate of sampling error that takes into account the actual sampling procedures used. Include a brief explanation of how interviewing and fieldwork procedures affected the theoretical margin of error. 9) The Client may request additional supporting documentation to fully understand the design and conduct of the survey. TIME SCHEDULE: Each stage of the survey project should be conducted according to a schedule agreed to by the Contractor and the Office of Opinion Research, but no later than February 28, 2017. CONFIDENTIALITY: The study is to be conducted in the name of the Contractor, in keeping with standard industry practice. The Client's identity shall not be revealed to field supervisors, interviewers or respondents in order to minimize bias. Further, the Client's identity, details of the project and the survey results shall not be revealed to outside parties - e.g., media, academic or government -- at any point before, during or after completion of the project without the express written permission of the Client. ARCHIVING OF STUDY: The Client may store parts of the study (questionnaires, data set, methodological summary) with a non-profit archive (e.g., the Roper Center, the National Archive and Records Administration). Projects will be embargoed for at least two years, and all identifiable markers of the Contractor will be removed. BILLING AND PAYMENT: Payment is typically authorized either in a single installment upon receipt and approval of all required deliverables, OR in two installments - the first upon approval of the final questionnaire and sampling plan, and the second upon receipt and approval of all required deliverables. Please note, payment cannot be authorized upon commissioning the survey. All payments will be made in U.S. dollars. The method of payment is typically by electronic funds transfer if the Contractor provides appropriate banking information, but may also be made by U.S. Treasury check. _____________________________________________________ The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition: � FAR 52.212-3, "Offeror Representations & Certifications Commercial Items" (Feb 2016) ____________________________________________ The following contract clauses apply to this acquisition: � FAR 52.212-4, "Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial Items" (May 2015) � FAR 52.212-5, "Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders" (Feb 2016). In addition to the required paragraphs, the following are the applicable optional paragraphs under FAR 52.212-5: (8) 52.209-6,"Protecting the Government's Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment". (Aug 2013) (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) (26) 52.222-19, Child Labor--Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (Feb 2016) (E.O. 13126) (27) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015) (33)(i) 52.222-50, "Combatting Trafficking in Persons" (Mar 2015) (22 U.S.C. chapter 78 and E.O. 13627) (40) 52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Aug 2011) (E.O. 13513) (49) 52.232-30, "Installment Payments for Commercial Items" (Oct 1995) (41 U.S.C. 4505, 10 U.S.C. 2307(f)) For additional terms/conditions and instructions, including submittal contents and selection criteria, please refer to the relevant attachment. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR QUOTE BY THE SPECIFIED DATE/TIME TO LORDTG@STATE.GOV. Submittals sent through this website will not be reviewed or considered.