NORC was (with Australia, Germany and Great Britain) one of four founding members of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The ISSP mounts a program of collaborative international comparative survey research. It develops an annual international module, administered in national surveys that take place in participating countries; all participating countries also collect data on a set of core demographic items. The ISSP has included 58 countries.
The annual ISSP module is administered as part of the GSS; two international modules have been included in each GSS since 1994, so that all ISSP modules have been fielded in the United States.
The GSS housed the Secretariat of the ISSP between 1997 and 2003. Director of the GSS Tom W. Smith served as the Secretary-General of the ISSP during this period.
