Glossary

A

Answer

One of the response options for a question on a poll.

Answer grouping

A way to 'cluster' answer options together. A common example would be to group 'I love it' and 'I like it' answers together for a 'Favorable' answer grouping.

Archived

Questions that are no longer collecting responses.

B

Baseline

Baseline

Typically refers to a starting point or a reference metric against which changes or improvements are measured. The baseline for AudienceLens is always the general population with an index of 100.

C

Crosstab

A report that compares two or more questions to pull out further information.

Custom

Questions that are typically launched at a client or media partner's request for a specific research objective or tracking project. They are owned by that client or media partner and are only accessible to that client or media partner's account.

D

Dashboard

A collection of user-configured dashlets.

Dashlet

A piece of information or data used on a dashboard.

E

Engagement questions

See News/pop culture questions

F

First-party data

Information directly from a respondent.

H

Hamburger menu

A menu consisting of three horizontal lines.

I

Identifier

Unique information we have about a respondent, such as a cookie or an I.P. address.

IDSync

A pixel CivicScience provides for synchronizing digital identifiers between CivicScience and its media partners as necessary or desired.

Impressions

The number of times a poll is viewed.

Imputed

An attribute for a respondent that is derived from other attributes.

Insight

A discovery about the motivations that drive people's actions. Insights are unexpected pieces of information that you didn't know to look for that are discovered in the data.

K

Kebab menu

A vertical three-dot menu.

L

Live

Currently collecting responses. Also called being 'on.'

M

Media partners

The publishers whose websites publish CivicScience polls.

Meta-targets

Meta-targets allow a media partner to implement one block of code across multiple web pages (targets), with that code changing dynamically based on the URL where the meta-target is located.

Metro

A geographic area made up of a group of counties and zip codes. If a location is in the United States, it has a metro code. We use the same metro codes as the Google AdWords API.

Modal

In web design, a window that appears above a web page. It disables interaction with the rest of the page until it is dismissed.

N

Network

An organization may want to aggregate data from its sites by geography, topic, or other divisions. Each of those aggregations is a network.

News pop culture questions

News/pop culture

Questions that are typically about an interesting or controversial current topic and designed to grab the respondent's attention. Formerly referred to as engagement questions.

O

Observations

Poll responses.

P

Pin

A method of assigning a question to a web page. The question will show up on that page until it is unpinned.

Poll unit

The device by which we collect data on our media partners' sites. Formerly referred to as "widgets."

Profile questions

Questions that help classify respondents regarding gender, age, and other demographic factors.

Q

Question

A poll question asked on one of CivicScience's media partners' sites.

Question ID

The number that identifies a question in the question library. It is the only number in the URL for the question page. Also referred to as a QID.

R

Respondent

Someone who answers a CivicScience poll question.

Responses

Answers to our poll questions.

S

Score

A number that provides an alternative view of question results. Sometimes referred to as sentiments, derivative metrics, or indices.

Scorecard

A report that allowed the user to analyze multiple questions or scores among various segments in a table format. Replaced by the crosstab.

Seasonal

Questions that are asked at certain times of the year, such as during tax time or near certain holidays. Formerly called cyclical questions.

Segment

A segment is a group of CivicScience survey respondents (i.e., a segment of the larger U.S. population) compiled based on responses to poll questions.

Self-reported

Data directly from the respondent.

Shared

Questions or segments that are owned by CivicScience and shared to certain other accounts. Shared questions are launched in the news/pop culture, value, or profile slots.

Syndicated

Questions or segments that are owned by CivicScience and available to all accounts. Syndicated questions are launched in the news/pop culture, value, or profile slots.

T

Target

A target is our code behind a poll unit that is placed on a media partner's website. A target is used to configure how the poll unit looks, when it loads, where it loads, and what questions are asked on it.

Tracking

Questions that are always live or 'on,' collecting a large sample continuously.

V

Value questions

Questions about consumer brands, celebrities and other people, or current events and topics.

W

Weighting

A statistical technique that involves mathematically manipulating data after the fact (i.e., following data collection) to bring the demographics of the survey sample more in line with the demographics of a given population (e.g., the U.S. general population).

Widget

See Poll unit