Long-running surveys need a systematic way to reflect social change and to keep items relevant to respondents, especially when they ask about controversial subjects, or they threaten the items’ validity. We propose a protocol for updating measures that preserves content and construct validity. First, substantive experts articulate the current and anticipated future terms of debate. Then survey experts use this substantive input and their knowledge of existing measures to develop and pilot a large battery of new items. Third, researchers analyze the pilot data to select items for the survey of record. Finally, the items appear on the survey-of-record, available to the whole user community. Surveys-of-record have procedures for changing content that determine if the new items appear just once or become part of the core. We provide the example of developing new abortion attitude measures in the General Social Survey. Current questions ask whether abortion should be legal under varying circumstances. The new abortion items ask about morality, access, state policy, and interpersonal dynamics. They improve content and construct validity and add new insights into Americans’ abortion attitudes.

长期调查需要一种系统的方式来反映社会变化并保持项目与受访者的相关性，特别是当他们询问有争议的主题时，或者它们威胁到项目的有效性。我们提出了一个更新措施的协议，以保留内容和构建有效性。首先，实质性专家阐明当前和预期的未来辩论条款。然后，调查专家利用这一实质性投入和他们对现有措施的了解来开发和试验大量新项目。第三，研究人员分析试点数据以选择记录调查的项目。最后，这些项目出现在记录调查中，可供整个用户社区使用。记录调查具有更改内容的程序，以确定新项目是否只出现一次或成为核心的一部分。我们提供了在综合社会调查中制定新的堕胎态度测量的例子。当前的问题是在不同的情况下堕胎是否应该是合法的。新的堕胎项目询问道德、准入、国家政策和人际关系。它们改进了内容并构建了有效性，并为美国人的堕胎态度增添了新的见解。