National Sample Questions on Religion: An Inventory of Material Available from the Roper Public Opinion Research Center.

This paper presents a brief review, classification, and critique of one source of national sample data on religion, public opinion polls which are available through the Roper Public Opinion Research Center. The focus is on the types of question asked, including a cataloguing (in the Appendix) of questions of a religious nature asked of national samples since 1938. Special note is taken of those questions which represent time series sets. Methodological and substantive limitations are noted; nevertheless, the authors conclude that the Roper Collection constitutes a wealth of useful and relatively untapped information regarding traditionally oriented religion in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]