The first deadline for submission is June 1st, 2026. We will announce other submission deadlines at a later time. 


All SESSR projects will be fielded online using the NORC AmeriSpeak Panel, which consists of U.S. adults over the age of 18. SESSR Projects will be fielded in one of three ways: (1) Omnibus SESSR Surveys, (2) Groups SESSR Surveys, or (3) Dedicated SESSR Surveys. 

Some smaller SESSR projects (i.e., only requiring a handful of items and a sample of around 1,000) will be fielded using the AmeriSpeak Omnibus, a twice-a-month survey of 1,000 panelists (around 950 who complete surveys online). The Omnibus pools questions from multiple small survey projects -- including those that are not part of SESSR -- into a single instrument. The presentation order of projects in the Omnibus is randomized. SESSR Omnibus Surveys are the most cost-effective way for us to field projects. 

SESSR projects requiring more than 1,000 cases and/or requiring more than 20 items will be fielded either as a Grouped SESSR Survey or as a Dedicated SESSR Survey. A Grouped SESSR Survey will combine two or three SESSR projects into a single instrument with a randomized presentation order. A Dedicated SESSR Survey will run a SESSR project as its own instrument. Note: Dedicated Surveys are the least cost-effective way for us to run a project, so they will likely be relatively rare. 


You are only allowed to be a project leader (i.e., PI) on one project supported by SESSR. You may be a part of other projects as long as you are not the project leader. 


We will only accept revised or resubmitted proposals if the SESSR project team has explicitly invited such a resubmission at the time of the declination.


Supported researchers will have exclusive access to their data for 12 months after receipt. After that period all SESSR projects will be publicly archived at The Association of Religion Data Archives and with the Open Science Framework.


Yes! One of our goals is to support graduate and early career researchers.


Supported projects will be expected to pre-register their experiments with the Open Science Framework, submit results and\or preprints to the Open Science Framework, and participate in one virtual SESSR conference. 

All outputs from supported projects should include the following acknowledgement and citation:

Acknowledgement: Data collected by Survey Experiments for the Scientific Study of Religion, John Templeton Foundation Grant 63517, Christopher P. Scheitle, Katie E. Corcoran, and Kimberly Rios, Principal Investigators.

Citation: Scheitle, Christopher P., Katie E. Corcoran, and Kimberly Rios. 2025. Survey Experiments for the Scientific Study of Religion. Grant 63517. John Templeton Foundation.


No. Part of SESSR's mission is to encourage scholars who may not have engaged in experimental research to consider how they could use this method.


No. We welcome proposals from scholars from sociology, psychology, political science, communication studies, economics, business, or any other field where survey experiments on religion are or could be relevant. 


SESSR projects will have between about 1,000 and 3,000 cases.


No. We have a limited budget to support projects, and the cost of any project is largely determined by the sample size and the number of items included in the survey. Projects must provide a strong justification (i.e., power analysis) for needing a larger sample size. 


Projects can have between 5 and 40 "items." Note that an "item” is defined by NORC as “a simple straightforward, close-ended question, such as a yes/no or a checklist of up to 10 response categories, or grid questions using a rating scale with up to four attribute statements.” The inclusion of vignettes, images, or other content that requires respondents’ time in taking the survey count as “items” depending on the length of time it takes respondents to consume the content.

Also, note that all SESSR projects will receive a battery of demographic variables (age, sex, education, housing type, household income, marital status, metropolitan statistical area status, home internet access, region and state of residence, household size, employment status) along with several religion-related variables, including subjects' current religion, religious service attendance, self-reported religiosity, identification as born again, and view of the Bible.  We ask that projects do not include items for these variables unless the experiment directly concerns them.


No. Again, we have a limited budget. This means we will be able to support more experiments that require a smaller sample size (i.e., 1,000) and a smaller number of items (i.e., 5-15) than those that require larger sample sizes and a large number of items.  Projects must provide a strong justification for needing a larger number of items. 


All AmeriSpeak panelists complete background surveys that are updated regularly. All SESSR projects will receive a standard set of these variables, including: age, sex, education, housing type, household income, marital status, metropolitan statistical area status, home internet access, region and state of residence, household size, employment status) along with several religion-related variables, including subjects' current religion, religious service attendance, self-reported religiosity, identification as born again, and view of the Bible.  We ask that projects do not include questions for these variables in their own instruments unless the experiment directly concerns them.

Proposals can also inquire about the availability of variables representing other known panelist characteristics and request including them as part of their projects with SESSR support. 


Yes, but note that these count as "items" in your project. SESSR projects can have between 5 and 40 "items." Note that an "item” is defined by NORC as “a simple straightforward, close-ended question, such as a yes/no or a checklist of up to 10 response categories, or grid questions using a rating scale with up to four attribute statements.” The inclusion of vignettes, images, or other content that requires respondents’ time in taking the survey count as “items” depending on the length of time it takes respondents to consume the content.


SESSR projects will be fielded using the NORC AmeriSpeak Panel, which consists of U.S. adults over the age of 18. 


Maybe.  In general, the target population of a project needs to be at least 2% of the general US adult population to obtain a meaningful sample of respondents using AmeriSpeak. However, keep in mind that targeting particular subpopulations can increase the cost of a project, which can be a factor in the ability of SESSR to support the project.