The Ralph G. Connor Alcohol Research Reference Files (CARRF) is a unique collection of approximately 700 questionnaires, interview schedules, and survey instruments used in alcohol research, complemented by additional references to articles that used the survey. Many of the survey instruments are available for document delivery from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The Research Reference Files
In the fall of 1960, the Society for the Study·of Social Problems established a collection called the “Research Reference Files” as an aid to conducting research in the field of drinking behavior and alcoholism. Hosted by Eastern Washington State College in Cheney, Washington, the collection consisted of 175 survey instruments in 1963.
According to the description provided by the Committee on Drinking Behavior of the Society, the Files were intended to serve as an archive of survey instruments used in related studies. Copies of existing instruments were made available to researchers to help them design new ones and inspire new research. The Research Reference Files also included an inventory describing the instruments in the collection.
From the inception, the founders purposefully promoted the files in the media available at that time, such as local and nationwide newsletters, bulletins, and agency publications, to support individuals and agencies conducting alcohol research. The “Custodian” of the Research Reference Files was Ralph G. Connor, Ph.D., a Professor of Sociology at Eastern Washington State College.
How did it work?
For ten cents per page (duplicating and mailing costs), researchers received copies of questionnaires developed by others. In exchange, they were requested to return, for deposit, copies of the instruments they had developed and used. The primary goal was to further expand the service. The Files also served as a repository of surveys and articles using them, offering the benefit of a more focused research: if a researcher was about to start a new project, looking for studies on similar or related problems was part of the manual literature search, which was quite laborious before the Internet and online resources.
CARRF at Rutgers
In 1974, the Research Reference Files were still located at Washington State College, under the leadership of Dr. Connor, as detailed in the document outlining the index and classification. Following his tragic death in a car accident in December 1975, the collection was donated to Rutgers in 1976, and in his honor, it was renamed the Ralph G. Connor Research Reference Files (CARFF).
The CARRF Inventory dated January 1977 presents the collection as a joint research service of the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies and the National Council on Alcoholism.
Committed to expanding CARRF and increasing its usefulness, the CAS Information Services requested users and researchers to deposit copies of instruments they developed, along with the scoring processes and any supplementary and bibliographic information related to the survey instrument.
CARRF in use
The questionnaires are filed by CARRF numbers, which are assigned according to a broad subject classification scheme. Access was provided through a published print inventory and an in-house database until the closure of the CAS Library in December 2016. Since these files are referenced in numerous articles, inquiries are often transferred by colleagues. The actual documents are still available, please contact the editorial office of JSAD.
Accessible for the public in the Digital Alcohol Studies Collection, however, is correspondence from Dr. Ralph G. Connor, who originated the files and donated them to Rutgers (with joint administration by the National Council on Alcoholism).
Sharing and digitization: Copyright issues
Digitizing these survey instruments was one of the major projects at the CAS Library in 2008-2014. Thanks to many conscientious undergraduate assistants and their graduate supervisors, all of the documents were digitized over time. However, sharing them publicly, such as adding all files from CARRF to RUcore, the Rutgers University Community Repository, poses various questions.
To protect research that had not yet been published, authors had the opportunity to assign restricted status to certain documents. With copies of such instruments in CARRF, requests had to be sent directly to the authors. Certain other instruments were copyrighted. Commercially available instruments, although included in CARRF, were to be ordered from the publisher. According to a disclaimer, the responsibility for permissions always rested with the user.
Stay tuned for updates on the availability of the files listed in the 2007 CARRF Index.
Top survey instruments in CARRF
According to our user statistics (up to 2016), these were the most frequently requested items.
Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) – 23-item version
Description: Copy of the 23-item version of the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), a self-administered screening tool for assessing adolescent problem drinking, created by Helene Raskin White and Erich Labouvie. It is free and there is no copyright. The authors request that persons who use the RAPI send them their age/sex forms as well as a description of their sample.Two versions, 23 or 18 items, description, and poster are available from the Ralph G. Connor Alcohol Research Reference Files (CARRF). CARRF ID: 2.3.417A3.
See related article:
- White, H. R., & Labouvie, E. W. (1989). Towards the assessment of adolescent problem drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 50(1), 30–37.
Substance Abuse Attitude Survey (SAAS)
Date Created: 1978
Description: Copy of survey instruments (brief and full) to measure attitudes of medical students and physicians toward various aspects of alcohol and drug misuse. 53 questions, multiple choice. With handout, information sheet, and article in JSA. CARRF ID: 1.42
College Follow-up Study
Date Created: 1977
Description: Numerous questions divided into 7 sections regarding an individual’s history, experiences, environment, etc. Contains forms to assess attitudes and behavior concerning alcohol, used as a follow-up to a college drinking survey taken 25 years ago. By Selden D. Bacon. CARRF ID: 1.32.
Community study (New Jersey) of alcohol use
Date Created: 1964
Description: Copy of the survey for the study by H. Fallding and C. Miles: Drinking, community and civilization: The account of a New Jersey interview study, published by the Publications Division, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies in 1974. CARRF ID: 2.1.12.
Browse all available documents and survey instruments in RUcore