Batagelj and Vehovar describe the technical and methodological
aspects of Web surveys. The data in the article is taken from a national
WWW survey in Slovenia.
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Bradley, N. (1999). Sampling for Internet Surveys. An
examination of respondent selection for Internet research. University
of Westminster. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://users.wmin.ac.uk/~bradlen/papers/sam06.html
Bradley, a marketing professor in the Harrow Business School, University
of Westminster, London, discusses methods of probability and non-probability
sample selection with various types of Internet surveys and Internet users
types.
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Bradley, N. (1999). Sampling
from Internet discussion groups. University of Westminster. Retrieved
March 20, 2002, from http://users.wmin.ac.uk/~bradlen/papers/sam05.html
Bradley writes about the use of the Internet for qualitative research
through samples obtained from Internet discussion groups. His study was
designed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of an e-mail questionnaire
with these samples.
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Comley, P. (2000). Pop-up
surveys. What works, what doesn't work and what will work in the future.
The Worldwide Internet Conference Net Effects 3, Dublin, Ireland,
ESOMAR Publication Series - Volume 237. Retrieved March 20, 2002,
from http://www.virtualsurveys.com/papers/popup_paper.htm
This paper discusses the history, benefits, and problems of pop-up
surveys. Particular attention is paid to response rate.
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Dillman, D. (2001). Don
Dillman. Social and economic sciences Research Center, Washington
State University. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/
Many of Dillman's research papers
that he authored or coauthored are available on this site, <http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers.htm>.
The site is equipped with a search engine to find specific resources.
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Eaton, B. (1997). Internet
surveys: Does WWW stand for why waste the word. Retrieved March 20,
2002, from http://www.quirks.com/articles/article.asp?arg_ArticleId=244.
Eaton looks at Internet surveys from the three golden rules of research:
(1) Don't ask men for the opinions of women. (2) Look for your sample;
don't let your sample rule you. and (3) You can only vote once.
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Goldby, T. J., Savitskie, K., Stank,T.P., & Vickery,
S.K. (2001, March). Web-based
surveys: reaching potential respondents on-line. Decision Line. Retrieved
March 20, 2002, from http://www.decisionsciences.org/Newsletter/Vol32/32_2/32_2res.pdf.
These three professors and a third year Ph.D. candidate describe the
positives and negatives of Web surveys, and their experience
with a Web survey of service performance. They offer advice for improvement
of design of future Web surveys, including the placement of submit buttons
that affects delivery of packets.
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Ho, K. (1999). New technologies
for survey research I. Research and Statistical Support.
University of North Texas. Retrieved March 22, 2002, from http://www.unt.edu/rss/class/survey1/
Ho has provided the outline and material for a course in survey research
which focuses on conducting and administering surveys. This course using
FrontPage and SPSS or SAS for data analysis. The site includes examples
of Web surveys and exercises.
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Kehoe, C.M., & Pitkow, J.E. (1996). Surveying
the territory: GVU's five WWW user surveys. The World WideWeb Journal
1 (3) 77-84. Retrieved March 20, 2002 from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/papers/w3j.html.
The authors discuss the results of responses from over 55,000
Web users in five different surveys . The paper discuss both the
evolving Web survey methodology as well as the changing Web population
at the time.
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The question
bank: Social surveys online. (2001). Department of Sociology,
University of Surrey. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/docs/home47.htm
This British site contains surveys and survey questions, arranged by
topic and year. The site has a map and a search engine, and is easy to
navigate. It is designed for social science researchers, analysts,
and teachers and students of survey methods.
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Web Surveyor.
(1997 -2002). Websurveyor Corporation. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://www.websurveyor.com/home_intro.asp
This commercial company, which provides survey software and hosting,
has produced several white
papers about Web surveys, <http://www.websurveyor.com/learn_whitepapers.asp>.
Although written for a general audience, they have useful information for
survey professionals. The site also has links to more academic
papers, particularly those of Dillman <http://www.websurveyor.com/learn_articles.asp>.
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Jones, S. (ed.) 1999. Doing Internet research. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage. ( Available St. Mary's University SMU ZA4201 D65 1999)
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Ward, D. (1999). Getting the most out of Web-based surveys. American
Library Association. Library and Information Technology Association.
David Ward, the author of the book is the Reference Services
Coordinator for the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois.
The book, based on techniques he has used in his work on academic and commercial
Web sites, shows how to create robust Web surveys, focusing on the front
end with HTML forms, and the back end with PERL scripts, security, and
importing data. The appendices include HTML form code, PERL scripts, advice
on comma delimited files, creating a database with FileMaker Pro, as well
as examples of surveys.
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Ware, C. (2000) Information Visualization: Perception for Design.
Colin Ware. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann; 438 pp.; $59.95;
(ISBN1-55860-511-8.)
The book explores the art and science of why we see things the
way we do. It has valuable information for the serious interface designer
or presentation designer. See review
by Terence Brooks, University of Washington.
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Cho, H., & LaRose, R. (1999). Privacy issues in Internet surveys.
Social
Science Computer Review. 17 421-434.
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Crawford, S.D., Couper, M.P., & Lamias, M.J. (2001). Web Surveys:
Perception of burden. Social Science Computer Review. 19 146-162.
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DeRouvray, C., & Couper, M. (2002). Designing a strategy for reducing
“no opinion” responses in web-based surveys. Social Science Computer
Review. 20 3-9.
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Epstein, J., Klinkenberg, W. D., Wiley, D., & McKinley, L. (2001).
Insuring sample equivalence across Internet and paper-and-pencil assessments.
Computers
in Human Behavior. 17 339-346.
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Fleitas, J. (1998). Spinning tales from the World Wide Web: Qualitative
research in an electronic environment. Qualitative Health Research.
8, 283-292.
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Kaye B.K., & Johnson T.J. (1999). Research Methodology: Taming the
Cyber Frontier. Social Science Computer Review. 17 323-337.
This is an extensive bibliography of current articles and papers from
conferences about Web surveys.
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Barak, A. (2002). Internet
social research methodology. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://construct.haifa.ac.il/~azy/refmetho.htm.
Barak, a professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, has put
together an up-to-date (2002) and extensive bibliography of resources about
Web surveys, particularly relevant to his area of research.
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Research
Methods Resources on the WWW: Questionnaires. (2002). Vancouver: UBC.
School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies. Retrieved March 20,
2002, from http://www.slais.ubc.ca/resources/research_methods/question.htm
Although not specifically addressing Web based surveys, this bibliography
features a wealth of resources about questionnaires: question design, question
tone, question order, open-ended questions, coding, and pretesting.
There are links to a number of PowerPoint presentations and book chapters
as well.
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WebSM. Web survey methodology. (2002).
Research in Internet in Slovenia. Retrieved April 3, 2002, from http://www.websm.org/literabc.html.
The purpose of the site is to link information relevant toWeb survey
methodology. The idea was for the site grew out of a session on Web
surveys at the annual American Association for Public Opinion Research
(AAPOR) in 1998. The site has links to key researchers in Web based
surveys and their works. The site has alphabetical,
chronological,
and subject indexing, as
well as links to past and upcoming conferences
where Web surveys are the conference focus, and online
discussion groups where Web surveys are being discussed.
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Graf, I. (2000). Web
Based Surveys An Overview. Survey Research Laboratory. University of
Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://www.srl.uic.edu/seminars/WEB/sld001.htm.
This twenty-six slide presentation examines a number of issues surrounding
Web surveys: probability sampling, formatting, fielding the questionnaire,
and outsourcing.
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General
Survey Articles That Are Worth A Visit
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Gendall, P. (1998). A
framework for questionnaire design: Labaw revisited. Marketing
Bulletin 9 28-39. Retrieved March 10, 2002, from http://marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz/article9/article3b.asp
Philip Gendall , Professor of Marketing and Head of Department
of Marketing, Massey University, has revisited Labaw's (1980)book, Advanced
questionnaire design , which has been largely dismissed and, according
to Gendall, wrongly dismissed by academics. Gendall discusses the
conceptual model of questionnaire design that Labaw put forward in her
book. He uses a pyramid to convey the ideas that Labaw discussed, with
the general principles at the top and specific principles at the bottom.
At the top of this pyramid is the concept of respondent orientation, and
at the bottom, the specific principles of question wording and graphic
design. The single, most fundamental questionnaire design principle
presented by Labaw is that the respondent controls the questions you can
ask, the words you use, the topics you will explore, and the methodology
you will use.
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Taylor-Powell, Ellen. (1998). Questionnaire
design: Asking questions with a purpose. University of Wisconsin. Extension.
Cooperative Education. Retrieved March 20, 2002, from http://www1.uwex.edu/ces/pubs/pdf/G3658_2.PDF
This well- layed-out, twenty page booklet offers advice for constructing
a questionnaire, wording questions, formatting the questionnaire, and pretesting
the questionnaire, with question examples to illustrate most of the topics
considered.
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