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Collect Data with a Survey

Resources for learning about and conducting public opinion and other research surveys, including recruitment, questionnaire design, and online survey software.

Questionnaire Design

Use "Logic" in your survey software to hide irrelevant questions from participants. In an online survey, you should never have a question starting with "If yes,...". or "If no,....":
Articles
Videos
  • 7 tips for good survey questions (~4 min) Elon University Poll
    • Consistent Interpretation, Personal Questions, Social Desirability, Known Answer, Double Barreled Questions, Biased Wording, Pretest.
  • Writing Good Survey Questions (~3.5 min) Dr Nic's Maths and Stats
    • Open-Ended vs Closed-Ended Questions. Easy to answer, Short, Correct Spelling and Grammar, Appropriate language, Specific, Realistic, Define your terms, One idea, Positive if possible, No double negative, Alternatives, Avoid overlap, Provide all alternatives, Avoid bias, Neutral questions, Pilot test
  • Scales and response options (~6 min) - Research Methods and Statistics
    • Likert scales; Scale construction; Well formulated questions: Short and simple, Unambiguous, Not suggestive, Answerable, Avoid Extreme wording; Response options: unambiguous, consistent, exhaustive, mutually exclusive
  • Response and rater bias (~4.5 min) - Research Methods and Statistics
    • Response Biases: acquiescence, social desirability, extreme response style, bias toward the middle; Rater biases: halo effect, generosity error, severity error.
Lists of Things to Remember
  • 20 tips for writing web surveys  by David Travis, UserFocus
    • Reminders of the factors to check for.
    • Purpose, Logic, Demos at the end, Ask for Comments, Pilot, Introduce the Survey, Keep it short, offer incentive, remind
    • Neutral wording, simple, avoid open-ended, general before specific, single vs multiple response, don't discourage responses with follow-ups.
    • Bipolar, balanced, one topic, middle boxes, consistent, allow N/A, consider don't knows, mutually exclusive

Books