Statement of Professional Ethics 

• Pledge of Compliance by Staff, Interviewers, Contractors and Visiting Researchers 

Note: A short form of this pledge is available for temporary visitors to secure areas. 

NORC’s mission as a social science research center is to collect data on the attitudes and behavior 

of people and organizations, and to analyze and report on these data. 

NORC undertakes significant scientific research - the results of which are made widely available in 

scholarly books and articles, university classrooms, to funding agencies (both governmental and 

non-governmental) and the media. As a not-for-profit research center, affiliated with the University 

of Chicago, NORC performs its mission according to these values: 

• We value the integrity, professional standards, job satisfaction, and safety of our 

interviewers and staff. 

• We value each respondent’s right to privacy, to decide voluntarily whether to participate 

in our research, and to be informed about the purposes, scope, and importance of that 

involvement. 

• We value the researcher’s right to gather a complete and accurate picture of social 

realities through data collection from a systematically selected sample of respondents, 

with appropriate intensive follow-up of non-participants to insure valid findings, using the 

services of our carefully trained interviewing staff. 

• We value our public’s confidence in our management of human and financial resources 

so as to produce high quality work, on schedule, at an appropriate cost. 

These values imply obligations. It is NORC’s intent and policy to (a) protect the rights, privacy and 

confidence of its respondents; (b) to maintain the confidentiality of its documents; and (c) to 

safeguard all internal methods, processes, and procedures not generally known in the field of data 

collection and analysis. Any breach of the Agreement (Statement of NORC Professional Ethics) 

may result in severance of the relationship with NORC and/or the pursuit of legal action. The 

professional activities of each NORC staff member, interviewer, and visitor to secure areas of 

research activity are directed and regulated by the following policies: 

• The only permissible role for people directly involved with NORC data collection is that of 

professional researcher. Therefore, the total confidentiality of individuals and 

organizations from which information is collected must always be assured. Information 

learned about individuals or establishments in the course of research, either in locating 

attempts, interviewing, data abstraction from secondary sources, or incidentally, must be 

restricted to project personnel and appropriate others, and used strictly for research 

purposes. 
More specifically, a condition of employment and/or affiliation, for all employees, researchers and 

contractors requires that: 

• Interviewers must interview respondents in situations which do not compromise 

respondents’ privacy, and store survey documents where access by unauthorized 

people is prevented. They never interview people they know personally, except with 

prior research project approval. Interviewers must not discuss the respondents, their 

families or the organizations respondents may represent, with non-project staff or with 

project staff for non-project-related reasons. An exception may occur in attempts to 

locate respondents when strictly limited information (such as respondent name and the 

general purpose of the contact) may sometimes be disclosed. 

• Interviewers may do nothing that would bias respondent answers. This includes 

making statements that would lead respondents to change their answer, implying 

criticism or support for respondent’s attitudes or behavior, or inventing or distorting 

respondent answers. They may not lie to respondents or use practices or methods 

which abuse, coerce, or humiliate them. They must deal humanely with respondents’ 

requests for help and assistance, but follow project guidelines about referrals to 

appropriate resources. They must not offer personal assistance or direct aid. 

• Project office staff must treat all information linked to identifiable respondents as 

privileged information, unless respondents or their organization waives confidentiality for 

specified uses. This restriction applies to all communications from and about 

respondents, their relatives, and their organizations. Completed research documents 

that identify respondents or organizations are kept only in areas with limited access. 

When such documents are being handled and used, they are never left unattended and 

are locked away when not in immediate use. Access to survey data must be limited to 

appropriate personnel who have signed this statement. 

• Corporate Documents such as data tapes, printouts, photocopies and any other 

documents with respondent names or other identifying information must be stored, used 

in a manner for which they were intended, and disposed of in a secure manner both in 

the field and in the central office. This restriction and commitment to confidentiality also 

applies to completed questionnaires, proposals, MIS and staff labor reports, the use, 

disclosure or reference to individual salary information, and any other memos or 

documents generally considered to be “confidential” or specifically labeled as such. 

• Contractors who process information with respondent identifiers, such as for data entry, 

must abide by these same restrictions and secure signatures to the accompanying 

pledge and compliance with this statement. 

• Sponsoring agencies are never provided with respondent names or other identifying 

data unless specifically authorized by respondents or incorporated in the contract. Data 

and other results of the research are presented only in summarized form without any 

names or other identifying information. Every effort will also be made to prevent 

deductive discovery. Where appropriate, specific waivers are obtained to protect 

confidentiality of respondents under existing legal regulations. In studies where a 

respondent’s identity and activities may be of interest to law enforcement agencies and 

waivers from subpoena cannot be obtained, further measures may be taken to remove 

data from the jurisdiction of U.S. authorities. 

• No one given approved access to privileged information may use this information for 

personal gain or for any non-research purpose. 

• Privileged information includes confidential information concerning NORC business 

and personnel as well as information about individual respondents. Personnel 

information may not be used for any purpose not directly job-related. 
Agreement 

(Each NORC employee and each visitor to secure areas of NORC project activities must read the 

accompanying statement and sign this agreement as a condition of employment or access. For 

office employees, see “Employee Misconduct Policy” of the NORC Personnel Policies Manual for 

penalties for violating this pledge.) 

I have carefully read the accompanying NORC Statement of Professional Ethics and fully 

understand that its obligations apply to me and are a condition of employment at NORC and/or 

access to research documents. 

I will abide by NORC’s standards of professional ethics as described in this statement. In addition 

to the possibility of legal action being pursued, I am also aware that failure to abide by the 

standards will result in disciplinary actions, including possible termination if I am an employee, or 

denial of further access and cooperation if I am a visitor, contractor, or researcher. 

I understand that the accompanying statement and this agreement, relative to the confidentiality of 

NORC’s respondents, its corporate documents and its internal processes/procedures, are 

applicable both during and after employment. 

PRINT NAME _______________________________________________ 

SIGNATURE ________________________________________________ 

DATE ______________________________________________________ 

EMPLOYEE ID NUMBER ______________________________________ 

Please keep the accompanying statements for your records and return this pledge to: 

NORC 

Human Resources Department 

55 East Monroe Street 

Chicago, IL 60603 

E-mail: HRHELP@norc.org

Fax: (312) 325-2534