Field interviewers conduct interviews with selected respondents in person. These interviews will be conducted using either computer-assisted or paper questionnaires, depending on study requirements. Field interviewers are responsible for contacting respondents at homes, businesses, or schools to conduct the interviews.

Listers may record addresses for household surveys at residential structures such as houses, apartment buildings, and mobile homes, or they may record addresses and short descriptions for commercial structures such as shopping centers, office buildings, restaurants, and other nonresidential buildings.

Assessors administer standardized tests, most frequently to children in schools, though other settings and respondents may be included.

Medical abstractors usually conduct their work at hospitals and doctor’s offices. Abstractors review medical records and record information from the files as specified by the study protocol.

These positions range from performing clerical work, to observing behavior (e.g., observing seat belt use), to health professionals conducting medical examinations.