Web Survey Bibliography
(a) Relevance & Research Question
High drop-out rates are considered a major shortcoming of web surveys and considerably threaten data quality. However, until recently survey breakoff has received limited scholarly attention and knowledge about the reasons causing respondents to terminate surveys early is still fractional. In political science, the topic has been particularly neglected. Enhanced understanding of the complex processes leading to breakoff is needed in order to develop standard guidelines for web surveys that help in minimising drop-out rates.
(b) Methods & Data
Connected to the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) a seven-wave campaign online tracking has been conducted with about 14,000 respondents, thereof 3,000 drop-outs. This data allows for a detailed analysis of drop-outs: Given the applied quota design, personal information is available even about those respondents who answered some questions but did not finish the survey. As many questions were included in each wave, yet being asked at different questionnaire positions and being surrounded by various items, contextual effects on drop-out can be analysed.
In terms of research methods, among other things, life tables were presented to observe how breakoffs are distributed throughout the survey. Discrete-time survival models with page-varying covariates are estimated for each wave separately, including both respondent characteristics as well as questionnaire and page characteristics.
(c) Results
Our main findings can be summarised as follows:
In accordance with recent research, we find drop-out to be a function of both respondent characteristics and page characteristics. For instance, higher educated people are less likely to break off, whereas open questions tend to produce significantly higher drop-outs.
In the course of the survey, the drop-out-risk tends to decrease.
Varying the context a question is embedded in, may affect the number of drop-outs, thus breakoff in web surveys is not unchallengeable.
(d) Added Value
Our findings confirm some results of previous research dealing with breakoff in web surveys. The reasons for breakoffs thus seem to be largely independent of the survey topic. Even more essential, based on the empirical results, some prospects for reducing the number of drop outs in web surveys by questionnaire and page design are provided.
Conference Homepage (abstract) / (presentation)
Web survey bibliography (109)
- Telephone versus Online Survey Modes for Election Studies: Comparing Canadian Public Opinion and Vote...; 2017; Breton, C.; Cutler, F.; Lachance, S.; Mierke-Zatwarnicki, A.
- Comparing acquiescent and extreme response styles in face-to-face and web surveys; 2017; Liu, M.; Conrad, F. G.; Lee, S.
- The Failure of the Polls: Lessons Learned from the 2015 UK Polling Disaster; 2017; Sturgis, P.
- Incorporating eye tracking into cognitive interviewing to pretest survey questions; 2016; Neuert, C.; Lenzner, T.
- Are interviews costing £0.08 a waste of money? Reviewing Google Surveys for Wisdom of the Crowd...; 2016; Roughton, G.; MacKay, I.
- The Effects of a Delayed Incentive on Response Rates, Response Mode, Data Quality, and Sample Bias in...; 2016; McGonagle, K., Freedman, V. A.
- Privacy Concerns in Responses to Sensitive Questions. A Survey Experiment on the Influence of Numeric...; 2016; Bader, F., Bauer, J., Kroher, M., Riordan, P.
- Does survey mode matter for studying electoral behaviour? Evidence from the 2009 German Longitudinal...; 2016; Bytzek, E.; Bieber, I. E.
- Forecasting proportional representation elections from non-representative expectation surveys; 2016; Graefe, A.
- Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk; 2016; Berinsky, A.; Huber, G. A.; Lenz, G. S.
- Report of the Inquiry into the 2015 British general election opinion polls; 2016; Sturgis, P., Baker, N., Callegaro, M., Fisher, St., Green, J., Jennings, W., Kuha, J., Lauderdale, B...
- Sample Representation and Substantive Outcomes Using Web With and Without Incentives Compared to Telephone...; 2016; Lipps, O.; Pekari, N.
- Evaluating a New Proposal for Detecting Data Falsification in Surveys; 2016; Simmons, K.; Mercer, A. W.; Schwarzer, S.; Courtney, K.
- Identifying Pertinent Variables for Nonresponse Follow-Up Surveys. Lessons Learned from 4 Cases in Switzerland...; 2016; Vandenplas, C.; Joye, D.; Staehli, M. E.; Pollien, A.
- Methods can matter: Where Web surveys produce different results than phone interviews; 2016; Keeter, S.
- HUFFPOLLSTER: Why Reaching Latinos Is A Challenge For Pollsters; 2016; Jackson, N. M.; Edwards-Levy, A.; Velencia, J.
- Moderators of Candidate Name-Order Effects in Elections: An Experiment; 2016; Kim, Nu.; Krosnick, J. A.; Casasanto, D.
- Measuring Generalized Trust: An Examination of Question Wording and the Number of Scale Points; 2016; Lundmark, S.; Giljam, M.; Dahlberg, S.
- Online and Social Media Data As an Imperfect Continuous Panel Survey; 2016; Diaz, F.; Garmon, F.; Hofman, J. K.; Kiciman, E.; Rothschild, D.
- Translating Answers to Open-ended Survey Questions in Cross-cultural Research: A Case Study on the Interplay...; 2015; Behr, D.
- Using Video to Reinvigorate the Open Question; 2015; Cape, P.
- On Bias Adjustments for Web Surveys; 2015; Fan, L.; Lou, W.; Landsman, V.
- Measuring Political Knowledge in Web-Based Surveys: An Experimental Validation of Visual Versus Verbal...; 2015; Munzert, S.; Selb, P.
- Mode System Effects in an Online Panel Study: Comparing a Probability-based Online Panel with two Face...; 2015; Struminskaya, B.; De Leeuw, E. D.; Kaczmirek, L.
- Data collection mode effect on feeling thermometer questions: A comparison of face-to-face and Web surveys...; 2015; Liu, M., Wang, Yi.
- Do Attempts to Improve Respondent Attention Increase Social Desirability Bias?; 2015; Clifford, S.; Jerit, J.
- HUFFPOLLSTER: Pollsters Debate If Modern Surveys Can Be Trusted; 2015; Blumenthal, M.; Edwards-Levy, A.; Velencia, J.
- Can a non-probabilistic online panel achieve question quality similar to that of the European Social...; 2015; Revilla, M.; Saris, W. E.; Loewe, G.; Ochoa, C.
- Data Collection Mode Effects On Political Knowledge; 2014; Liu, M., Wang, Y.
- Self-reported cheating in web surveys on political knowledge; 2014; Jensen, C., Thomsen, J. P. F.
- The Power of Partisanship in Brazil: Evidence from Survey Experiments; 2014; Samuels, D., Zucco, C.
- Online Polls and Registration-Based Sampling: A New Method for Pre-Election Polling; 2014; Barber, M. J., Mann, C. B., Monson, J. Q., Patterson, K. D.
- Does Survey Mode Still Matter? Findings from a 2010 Multi-Mode Comparison; 2014; Ansolabehere, S., Schaffner, B. F.
- Measuring Political Participation—Testing Social Desirability Bias in a Web-Survey Experiment; 2014; Persson, M., Solevid, M.
- What Does the Satisfaction with Democracy Measure Mean to Respondents in Different Countries? How Cross...; 2014; Behr, D., Braun, M.
- Professional respondents in nonprobability online panels; 2014; Hillygus, D. S., Jackson, N. M., Young, M.
- Online panels and validity; 2014; Groenlund, K., Strandberg, K.
- Two Are Better Than One: The Use of a Mixed-Mode Data Collection to Improve the Electoral Forecast; 2014; de Rada, V. D., Pasadas del Amo, S.
- The Short-term Campaign Panel of the German Longitudinal Election Study 2009. Design, Implementation...; 2013; Steinbrecher, M., Rossmann, J.
- Relative Mode Effects on Data Quality in Mixed-Mode Surveys by an Instrumental Variable; 2013; Vannieuwenhuyze, J. T. A., Revilla, M.
- Web Versus Outbound: A Mode Face-Off Following the Presidential Debate; 2013; Marlar, J.
- Propensity Score Weighting – Can Personality Adjust for Selectivity?; 2013; Glantz, A., Greszki, R.
- Especially for You: Motivating Respondents in an Internet Panel by Offering Tailored Questions; 2012; Oudejans, M.
- Presidential Elections in Iceland 2012 – Did online panel surveys give false hope to new candidates...; 2012; Jonsdottir, G. A., Dofradottir, A. G., Bjornsdottir, A. E.
- Effects of Technical Difficulties on Item Nonresponse and Response Favorability in a Mixed-Mode Survey...; 2012; Gibson, J. L.
- Where is Neutral? Using Negativity Biases to Interpret Thermometer Scores; 2012; Soroka, S., Albaugh, Q.
- I Got a Feeling: Comparison of Feeling Thermometers with Verbally Labeled Scales in Attitude Measurement...; 2012; Thomas, R. K., Bremer, J.
- Scrutinizing Dynamics – Rolling panel waves in theory and practice; 2012; Faas, T., Blumenberg, J. N.
- Toward wiser public judgment; 2011; Yankelovich, D., Friedman, W.
- Mass informed consent: Evidence on upgrading democracy with polls and new media; 2011; Simon, A. F.