On-line survey administration has many appealing features to researchers, most obviously, the potential cost savings compared to telephone or face-to-face modes. In addition, there may be a preference for self-administered web surveys by the public, given the convenience and minimal intrusion. The paper is an analysis of an embedded experiment in a follow up survey in four English-speaking countries in 2010. The data is part of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Project, being conducted in 20 countries around the world. The ITC project evaluates the effects of national tobacco policies using longitudinal survey data strategically collected before and after policy changes. The 20 countries included
in the project represent half the world‘s population, and 60% of the world‘s smokers. The four Englishspeaking countries are: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Four Country Recontact survey is in its eighth wave. Two experimental cells were included in the Wave 8 recontact survey, randomly assigning participants to a regular, or additional financial incentive, to encourage completion of an on-line version rather than once again participating by telephoneadministered questionnaire. Differences in response rates by mode, as well as reported motivations to complete by web, would be analyzed in the paper. Specifically, the research questions are:
a. Does the amount of incentive directly impact the response by web?
b. Are there differences by country? Do differences by country exist in web uptake generally?
c. Similarly, are there gender/age differences by country for uptake, and gender/age differences by incentive amount?
d. Within the web respondents, further analysis would include stated mode preference for follow up by incentive amount, as well as tendency to answer honestly by web.