By: James Steur, Ph.D., Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MPSA is an exciting venue that offers a variety of wonderful opportunities for professional development. Those who have attended or are interested in attending know it is a vibrant place to receive feedback on your own scholarship, sharpen your teaching praxis and pedagogy, attend top notch networking opportunities, and a variety of other options to further your professional career. One company that has attended the exhibit hall at MPSA over the past four years that you should consider visiting is Verasight. Verasight is a survey research and public opinion company that focuses on providing academic, corporate, and other organizations high quality survey data; they also offer exciting opportunities at MPSA.
Political scientists are known for loving survey research, and recent cuts toward federal funding have made it more challenging to collect original data. Verasight allows all conference attendees the opportunity to submit one close-ended survey question to the platform’s nationally representative sample of high-quality participants completely free of charge. Following the conference, Verasight compiles all responses into an omnibus survey report that includes the survey questions submitted by attendees along with participant responses. For instance, last year’s 2025 MPSA Omnibus Survey Report highlights all submitted questions and organizes them into major modules such as policy, society, and elections, allowing researchers to explore both their own questions and those contributed by other conference attendees.
To get a sense of how this data can look, see Figure 1 presented from the 2025 MPSA Omnibus Survey Report. Figure 1 shows that among survey respondents (N = 1,000), Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents were 37 percentage points more pessimistic about the future of the economy in 2026 compared to Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents when the survey was fielded in 2025. Researchers can also easily analyze responses across a range of demographic variables, including partisanship, gender, income, and other relevant characteristics, to examine potential subgroup differences and effects. Additionally, Verasight provides researchers with the following information after the data is collected: “the raw data, survey weights, codebook, detailed methodology report, and dynamic HTML report with toplines and crosstabs.” This allows researchers to see what type of information they would be provided if they were working with Verasight for future data collection.
Two additional reasons why Verasight provides this free service is that they “want to give researchers access to high-quality, free data.” And, because they “love research.” I can attest to the high-quality data I’ve gotten from Verasight at MPSA and other conferences they’ve attended.
Figure 1: Partisan Optimism about the US Economy for 2026
Another excellent opportunity that Verasight offered at this year’s 2026 MPSA was a party at Spin Chicago. The party was an excellent place to network and make connections with other academics, enjoy free appetizers, and play some fun games of ping pong. The reception was an excellent place to network and make connections with other academics, enjoy free appetizers, and play a few competitive games of ping pong. If the event returns at next year’s conference, even at a different venue, it is worth keeping your eyes peeled for the opportunity to attend.
Ultimately, Verasight has provided this free survey opportunity to researchers for the past four years and continues to support scholars through events and conference programming at a variety of academic conferences. If you attend a future MPSA, make sure to stop by the Verasight booth to learn more about their nationally representative survey offerings and consider attending one of their receptions. If you are interested in working with them in the future, you can explore the services they provide through Verasight’s official website.
About the Author
James Steur is a lecturer in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include political psychology, political behavior, and the role of emotions in citizen decision-making. He is a first-generation student, passionate coffee drinker, and excited to be blogging at MPSA. You can find James on his website at https://www.jamessteur.com/, X at @JamesSteur, and BlueSky at @jamessteur.bsky.social
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the MPSA (Midwest Political Science Association). Any content provided is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as official statements or endorsements by MPSA.