All Publications
Publications from the National Congregations Study range from general overviews to writings about specific topics. They are aimed at academic, clergy, and lay audiences. If copyright restrictions prevent your download of an article for which Mark Chaves is one of the authors, please contact us with your request and we will send a copy to you. Also, if you have used NCS data to write something, or if you know of something that has been written using NCS data, please let us know so we can add it to the list of study writings.
Survey Data Collection Methods and Discrepancy in the Sociological Study of Religious Congregations
Adler, Gary, Brad R. Fulton and Catherine Hoegeman. 2020. Sociology of Religion 81(4): 371–412
How Many Congregations Are There? Updating a Survey-Based Estimate
Brauer, Simon G. 2017. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56(2):438-448.
Religious Organizations: Data Resources and Research Opportunities
Chaves, Mark. 2002. American Behavioral Scientist 45(10):1523–49.
Continuity and Change in American Congregations: Introducing the Second Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Shawna L. Anderson. 2008. Sociology of Religion 69(4):415–40.
Changing American Congregations: Findings from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Shawna L. Anderson. 2014. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53(4):676– 86.
The National Congregations Study: Background, Methods, and Selected Results
Chaves, Mark, Mary Ellen Konieczny, Kraig Beyerlein and Emily Barman. 1999. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38(4):458–76.
Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark, Mary Hawkins, Anna Holleman and Joseph Roso. 2020. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 59(4): 646-650.
Assessing the Validity of Key Informant Reports about Congregations’ Social Composition
Frenk, Steven, Shawna L. Anderson, Mark Chaves and Nancy Martin. 2011. Sociology of Religion 72(1):78–90.
RELTRAD2: Refining the State of the Art of Religious Classification by Reconsidering the Categorization of Nondenominational Respondents
Gaghan, Josh, and David Eagle. 2024. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week? An Alternative Approach to Measurement
Hadaway, C. Kirk and Penny Long Marler. 2005. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44(3):307–322.
The Politics of 130,000 American Religious Leaders: A New Methodological Approach
Malina, Gabrielle, and Eitan Hersh. 2021. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 60(4):709–25.
Measuring Religion in Different Spatial Contexts: How Surveys Involving Religion Inconsistently Determine Locations
Miller, Brian J. 2016. Review of Religious Research 58:285-304.
Exploring Religious Congregations’ Registration With the IRS
Scheitle, Christopher P., Erica J. Dollhopf, and John D. McCarthy. 2016. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 45(2):397 – 408.