Polling Rank

A Comparative Judgment Tool

Sydney Kessler, Brien Alkire, Bridget R. Kane

ToolPublished Mar 4, 2026

This guide describes a comparative judgment software tool called Polling Rank, which takes a list of text items as an input and outputs a ranking of those items based on pairwise comparisons made by human participants. Although there are existing commercial tools for conducting comparative judgment, Polling Rank was developed by RAND researchers to provide flexibility in adapting applications of comparative judgment to unique, project-specific needs.

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Kessler, Sydney, Brien Alkire, and Bridget R. Kane, Polling Rank: A Comparative Judgment Tool. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TLA3721-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command/Space Systems Integration Office (USSF SSC/SSIO) and conducted by the Force Modernization and Employment Program within RAND Project AIR FORCE.

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