The Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) is changing the way high-quality survey data are collected among racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Through collaboration and inclusiveness, the CMPS also broadens the scope of who has access to high quality survey data in academia and beyond. More than producing a unique national-survey dataset, the CMPS builds a diverse academic pipeline of scholars in political science and the social sciences more broadly. In 2016, led by co-Principal Investigators Matt Barreto (UCLA), Lorrie Frasure-Yokley (UCLA), Edward Vargas (Arizona State University), and Janelle Wong (University of Maryland–College Park), the 2016 CMPS became the first cooperative, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, post-election online survey in race, ethnicity, and politics (REP) in the United States.
What sets the CMPS project apart from other cooperative surveys? First, we focus on obtaining a diverse sample representing a range of racial and ethnic groups, using an in-language survey format (including several Asian languages). Second, and most important, the project is dedicated to recruiting and supporting collaborators from non-R1 universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI). The CMPS builds an academic pipeline of scholars in the social sciences (and beyond), and brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers at varying stages of their careers and from various types of institutions.