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Your Goals are to...
Get as much data as possible (avoid attrition and missing data)
Get Good Data
For Web Surveys
How to Pilot Test your Survey
Improving Survey Questions by
What is a good question? Although there are several potential sources for error in survey data, the validity of surveys is dependent upon the design of the question asked. This invaluable book shows how to word and format questions that will evoke the kind of answers for which they are designed and how to evaluate empirically survey questions. In addition, the book covers: how to write good questions aimed at collecting information about objective facts and events; measuring subjective phenomena; some alternative methods for attacking common measurement problems; how to evaluate the extent to which questions are consistently understood and administered; and how to evaluate the data resulting from a set of questions.
The Art of Asking Questions by
While the statisticians are trying to knock a few tenths off the statistical error, says Mr. Payne, errors of tens of percents occur because of bad question wording. Mr. Payne's shrewd critique of the problems of asking questions reveals much about the nature of language and words, and a good deal about the public who must answer the poller's questions. For public opinion pollers, census takers, advertising copywriters, and survey makers of all kinds this book will be a tool for the achievement of more reliable results. Originally published in 1951. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Designing Effective Web Surveys by
Designing Effective Web Surveys is a practical guide to designing web surveys, based on empirical evidence and grounded in scientific research and theory. It is designed to guide survey practitioners in the art and science of developing and deploying successful web surveys. The author guides the researcher through the steps involved, from the basic building blocks and suggests ways to increase visual impact and interactivity. Throughout, he considers the importance of layout and design, and attention is also given to the way questions are put together. The book is intended for academic, government, and market researchers who design and conduct web surveys.
Questions about Questions by
The social survey has become an essential tool in modern society, providing crucial measurements of social change, describing social life, and guiding government policy. But the validity of surveys is fragile and depends ultimately upon the accuracy of answers to survey questions. As our dependence on surveys grows, so too have questions about the accuracy of survey responses. Authored by a group of experts in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and survey research, Questions About Questions provides a broad review of the survey response problem. Examining the cognitive and social processes that influence the answers to questions, the book first takes up the problem of meaning and demonstrates that a respondent must share the survey researcher's intended meaning of a question if the response is to be revealing and informative. The book then turns to an examination of memory. It provides a framework for understanding the processes that can introduce errors into retrospective reports, useful guidance on when those reports are more or less trustworthy, and investigates techniques for the improvement of such reports. Questions about the rigid standardization imposed on the survey interview receive a thorough airing as the authors show how traditional survey formats violate the usual norms of conversational behavior and potentially endanger the validity of the data collected. Synthesizing the work of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Cognition and Survey Research, Questions About Questions emphasizes the reciprocal gains to be achieved when insights and techniques from the cognitive sciences and survey research are exchanged. "these chapters provide a good sense of the range of survey problems investigated by the cognitive movement, the methods and ideas it draws upon, and the results it has yielded." --American Journal of Sociology
Conducting Online Surveys by
Online surveys provide promising opportunities in today’s technological world. Conducting Online Surveys is a comprehensive guide to the creation, implementation, and analysis of e-mail and Web-based surveys. Authors Valerie M. Sue and Lois A. Ritter specifically address issues unique to online survey research such as selecting software, designing Web-based questionnaires, and sampling from online populations.