James R. Wagner
Research Associate Professor, SRC-Survey Methodology
- jameswag@umich.edu
- 734-647-5386
- G378 ISR-Perry 330 Packard St
- CV (PDF)
- Google Scholar Profile
- ORCID

BIO
James Wagner's research interests include nonresponse error, quality indicators for survey data, and responsive or adaptive design. He also develops and implements responsive design plans on large surveys.
- Modernizing NCSES Data Collection Approaches. (James R. Wagner, Brady T. West) 2020-2021. NSF.
- Improving the Efficiency of Model-Informed Decisionmaking in Responsive and Adaptive Survey Designs. (James R. Wagner) 2019-2021. NIA.
- Exploring Design Aspects of Web-Based Respondent-Driven Sampling for Racial/Ethnic Minorities. (Sunghee Lee, James R. Wagner) 2019-2021. NIA.
- STARRS Longitudinal Study Year 5 Supplement. (James R. Wagner, Jukka Savolainen) 2019-2020. Department of Defense.
- Improving Reproducibility of Respondent Driven Sampling through Adaptive Design. (Sunghee Lee, Juliette Kathryn Roddy, James R. Wagner, Erin Bonar, Michael R. Elliott) 2019-2023. NIA.
- A More Efficient Web-Based Approach to Collecting National Family, Fertility and Reproductive Health Data. (Brady T. West, Mick P. Couper, James R. Wagner, William G. Axinn) 2018-2023. NICHD.
- Advancing the Science of Responsive Design Using Bayesian Methodology. (James R. Wagner, Brady T. West, Michael R. Elliott) 2018-2021. NIA.
- Responsive Design for Efficient Survey Data Collection: An Education Program . (Brady T. West, William G. Axinn, James R. Wagner) 2016-2021. NICHD.
- STARRS Longitudinal Study (STARRS LS). (James R. Wagner) 2015-2018. Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc (HJF).
- National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). (Mick P. Couper, William G. Axinn, James R. Wagner, J. Trent Alexander) 2010-2020. Centers for Disease Control.
- West, Brady T., Michael R. Elliott, Zeina N. Mneimneh, James R. Wagner, Andy Peytchev, and Mark Trappmann. 2020. "An Examination of an Interviewer-Respondent Matching Protocol in a Longitudinal CATI Study." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 8(2): 304-324.
- Zuromski, Kelly L., Lisa M. Lewandowski-Romps, Meredith A. House, Nancy J. Gebler, Steven G. Heeringa, James R. Wagner, Ronald C. Kessler, Ronald C. Kessler, et al. 2020. "Pre-deployment predictors of suicide attempt during and after combat deployment: Results from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers." Journal of Psychiatric Research 121: 214-221.
- Wagner, James R., Mick P. Couper, William G. Axinn, and Heather Gatny. 2019. "The utility of a follow-up interview for respondents to a longitudinal survey with frequent measurement." Social Science Research 82: 113-125.
- Olson, Kristen, Z. Tuba Suzer-Gurtekin, James R. Wagner, Jolene D. Smyth, Rachel Horwitz, Scott Keeter, Virginia Lesser, Stephanie Marken, et al. Forthcoming. "Transitions From Telephone Surveys to Self-Administered and Mixed-Mode Surveys: Aapor Task Force Report." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology
- Wagner, James R., and Kristen Olson. 2018. "An Analysis of Interviewer Travel and Field Outcomes in Two Field Surveys." Journal of Official Statistics 34(1): 211-237.
- Couper, Mick P., Garret Gremel, William G. Axinn, Heidi Marie Guyer, James R. Wagner, and Brady T. West. 2018. "New options for national population surveys: The implications of internet and smartphone coverage." Social Science Research 73: 221-235.
- Walejko, Gina, and James R. Wagner. 2018. "A Study of Interviewer Compliance in 2013 and 2014 Census Test Adaptive Designs." Journal of Official Statistics 34(3): 649-670.
- Schouten, Barry, Nino Mushkudiani, Natalie Shlomo, Gabi Durrant, Peter Lundquist, and James R. Wagner. 2018. "A Bayesian Analysis of Design Parameters in Survey Data Collection." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 6(4): 431-464.
- Wagner, James R., and Ineke A. L. Stoop. 2018. "Comparing Nonresponse and Nonresponse Biases in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts." Pp. 807-833 in Advances in Comparative Survey Methods: Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts (3MC), edited by Johnson, Timothy P., Pennell, Beth-Ellen, Stoop, Ineke A. L., Dorer, Brita. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
- Lee, Sunghee, Z. Tuba Suzer-Gurtekin, James R. Wagner, and Richard L. Valliant. 2017. "Total Survey Error and Respondent Driven Sampling: Focus on Nonresponse and Measurement Errors in the Recruitment Process and the Network Size Reports and Implications for Inferences." Journal of Official Statistics 33(2): 335-366.
- Schouten, Barry, Andy Peytchev, and James R. Wagner. 2017. "Adaptive Survey Design." Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
- Wagner, James R., Brady T. West, Heidi Marie Guyer, Paul Burton, Jennifer Kelley, Mick P. Couper, and William D. Mosher. 2017. "The Effects of a Mid-Data Collection Change in Financial Incentives on Total Survey Error in the National Survey of Family Growth." Pp. 155-178 in Total Survey Error in Practice, edited by Biemer, Paul P., De Leeuw, Edith D., Eckman, Stephanie, Edwards, Brad, Kreuter, Frauke, Lyberg, Lars E., Tucker, Clyde, West, Brady T. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
- McCarthy, Jaki, James R. Wagner, and Herschel Lisette Sanders. 2017. "The Impact of Targeted Data Collection on Nonresponse Bias in an Establishment Survey: A Simulation Study of Adaptive Survey Design." Journal of Official Statistics 33(3): 857-871.
- Wagner, James R., Kristen Olson, and Minako Edgar. 2017. "The Utility of GPS data in Assessing Interviewer Travel Behavior and Errors in Level-of-Effort Paradata." Survey Research Methods 11(3).
- Laflamme, Francois, and James R. Wagner. 2016. "Responsive and Adaptive Designs." 397 pages in Sage Handbook of Survey Methodology, edited by Wolf, Christof, Joye, Dominique, Smith, Tom W., Fu, Yang-Chih. New York: Sage. (Chapter 26.)
- Nishimura, Raphael, James R. Wagner, and Michael R. Elliott. 2016. "Alternative Indicators for the Risk of Non-response Bias: A Simulation Study." International Statistical Review 84(1): 43-62.
- Schouten, Barry, Fannie Cobben, Peter Lundquist, and James R. Wagner. 2016. "Does more balanced survey response imply less non-response bias?" Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 179(3): 727-748.
- Wagner, James R., Heather Schroeder, Andrew Piskorowski, Robert J. Ursano, Murray B. Stein, Steven G. Heeringa, and Lisa J. Colpe. Forthcoming. "Timing the Mode Switch in a Sequential Mixed-Mode Survey: An Experimental Evaluation of the Impact on Final Response Rates, Key Estimates, and Costs." Social Science Computer Review
- Axinn, William G., Heather Gatny, and James R. Wagner. 2015. "Maximizing Data Quality using Mode Switching in Mixed-Device Survey Design: Nonresponse Bias and Models of Demographic Behavior." Methoden, Daten, Analysen 9(2): 163-184.
- Olson, Kristin, and James R. Wagner. 2015. "A feasibility test of using smartphones to collect GPS information in face-to-face surveys." Survey Research Methods 9.
- West, Brady T., James R. Wagner, Frost Hubbard, and Haoyu Gu. 2015. "The Utility Of Alternative Commercial Data Sources for Survey Operations and Estimation: Evidence from the National Survey of Family Growth." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 3(2): 240-264.
- Lee, Sunghee, James R. Wagner, Steven G. Heeringa, and Richard L. Valliant. 2014. "Recent developments of sampling hard-to-reach populuations: An assessment." Pp. 424-444 in Hard-to-survey populations, edited by Tourangeau, Roger, Edwards, Brad, Johnson, Timothy, Wolter, Kirk, Bates, Nancy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Pennell, Beth-Ellen, Y. Deshmukh, P. Kelley, Mary P. Maher, James R. Wagner, and Daniel Tomlin. 2014. "Diaster Research: Surveying displaced populations." Pp. 111-133 in Hard-to-survey populations, edited by Tourangeau, Roger, Edwards, Brad, Johnson, Timothy, Wolter, Kirk, Bates, Nancy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Wagner, James R., Jennifer Arrieta, Heidi Marie Guyer, and Mary B. Ofstedal. 2014. "Does Sequence Matter in Multimode Surveys: Results from an Experiment." Field Methods 26(2): 141-155.
- Wagner, James R., and Frost Hubbard. 2014. "Producing Unbiased Estimates of Propensity Models During Data Collection." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 2(3): 323-342.
- Wagner, James R., and Sunghee Lee. 2014. "Sampling Rare Populations." Pp. 77-104 in Handbook of Health Survey Methods, edited by Johnson, Timothy. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
- Wagner, James R., Richard L. Valliant, Frost Hubbard, and Li Jiang. 2014. "Level-Of-Effort Paradata and Nonresponse Adjustment Models for a National Face-To-Face Survey." Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology 2(4): 410-432.
- Wagner, James R. 2013. "Adaptive Contact Strategies in Telephone and Face-to-Face Surveys." Survey Research Methods 7(1): 45-55.
- Wagner, James R. 2013. "Using Paradata-Driven Models to Improve Contact Rates in Telephone and Face-to-Face Surveys." Pp. 145-170 in Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Use of Process Information, edited by Kreuter, Frauke. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
- Lepkowski, James M., William D. Mosher, Robert M. Groves, Brady T. West, James R. Wagner, and Haley Gu. 2013. "Responsive Design, Weighting, and Variance Estimation in the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth." Vital and health statistics. Series 2: Data evaluation and methods research 2(158).
- Wagner, James R., Jack J. Iwashyna, and Joan Rae Kahn. 2013. "Reasons underlying interhospital transfers to an academic medical intensive care unit." Journal of Critical Care 28(2): 202-208.
- Wagner, James R. 2012. "A Comparison of Alternative Indicators for the Risk of Nonresponse Bias." Public opinion quarterly 76(3): 555-575.
- Wagner, James R., Brady T. West, Nicole G. Kirgis, James M. Lepkowski, William G. Axinn, and Shonda Kruger Ndiaye. 2012. "Use of Paradata in a Responsive Design Framework to Manage a Field Data Collection." Journal of Official Statistics 28(4): 477-499. Statistics Sweden.
- Kreuter, Frauke, Robert M. Groves, Andrey A. Peytchev, James R. Wagner, Trivellore E. Raghunathan, Ting Yan, K. Olson, T. M. Ezzati-Rice, et al. 2010. "Using proxy measures and other correlates of survey outcomes to adjust for non-response: examples from multiple surveys." Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society 173(2): 389-407.
- Wagner, James R. 2010. "The fraction of missing information as a tool for monitoring the quality of survey data." Public opinion quarterly 74(2): 223-243.
- Wagner, James R., and Trivellore E. Raghunathan. 2010. "A new stopping rule for surveys." Statistics in medicine 29(9): 1014-1024.
- Heeringa, Steven G., James R. Wagner, Myriam Torres, Naihua Duan, Terry Adams, and Patricia A. Berglund. 2004. "Sample Designs and Sampling Methods for the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies (Cpes)." International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 13(4): 221-240.