The methodology of early social indicator research: William Fielding Ogburn and ‘Recent social trends’, 1933

Sociologist William Fielding Ogburn was director of research for President Hoover's Research Committee on Social Trends, 1929–1933, one of the earliest major pieces of social indicator research. A memorandum written by Ogburn in 1932 on the methodology of Recent Social Trends is published for the first time with an introduction describing the background to the work and the methodological controversies which it engendered. Ogburn's Note on Method emphasises the importance of ensuring factual accuracy and objectivity and of eliminating opinions, recommendations and biases from the work of the President's Committee.