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Science 4 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5676, pp. 1452 - 1453
DOI: 10.1126/science.1097727
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Policy Forum

SOCIOLOGY:
What If We Give a Census and No One Comes?

Kenneth Prewitt

Privacy and confidentiality concerns threaten to reduce levels of public cooperation with government surveys, resulting in national statistics that will be less useful in policy-making, democratic accountability, social justice, and economic decision-making. In this Policy Forum, Kenneth Prewitt explains how understanding how to respond to public concerns about intrusiveness and loss of privacy while maintaining the scope and quality of information on which society depends requires new research strategies.

The author is Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA, and was director of the U.S. Census Bureau, 1998-2000.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)