Web Survey Bibliography
Relevance & Research Question:
Pre-testing survey instruments is a widely accepted method to test a survey before fielding it to the full sample. There are several advantages of pretesting an online survey, e.g., to collect information regarding survey responses or technical problems, to name only a few.
This study addresses the following questions:
(1) Is pre-testing used before fielding the online survey instrument to the full sample?
(2) Does frequency influence the usage of online survey tools and pre-testing?
(3) Are there differences in usage behavior across different areas (e.g. government, academic, non-profit or for-profit)?
(4) How large is the pretest sample?
Methods & Data:
Data has been collected via a web survey among users of LimeSurvey from July 2009 to October 2011. Of 40,663 responders 14,622 answered the question if they ever ran a pre-test or not. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and related statistical tests.
Results:
The core result is that pre-testing online surveys before fielding it to the full sample is now an established method:
(1) Around 65.9% of online survey tool users occasionally or always run a trial survey (pre-test) before fielding it to the full sample.
(2) There is a u-shaped significant relationship between usage frequency of online survey tools and conducting a pre-test (…).
(3) The amount of pre-tests is highest among academic users (62.9%) and lowest among governmental users (58.3%).
(4) Around 64.5 percent of online survey tool users conducted a pre-test using a pre-test sample size of between 1 and 100 cases.
Added Value:
The results of this study provide insights to pre-testing online survey tools. Despite the fact that nearly two-third of online survey tool users are running pre-tests with between 1 and 100 participants, there is potential for the remaining one third of customers to improve their quality of online surveys through pre-testing. Overall, this should lead to a higher acceptance of online surveys.
GOR Homepage (abstract)
Web survey bibliography - General Online Research Conference (GOR) 2012 (26)
- Is „chapterisation“ a viable alternative to traditional progress indicators ?; 2012; Spicer, R., Dowling, Z.
- Exploring New Pathways to Survey Recruitment; 2012; Bilgram, V., Stadler, D.Jawecki, G.
- Understanding selection bias in a worldwide, volunteer web-survey; 2012; Tijdens, K., Steinmetz, S.
- Does Mode Matter? Initial Evidence from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES); 2012; Blumenstiel, J. E., Rossmann, J.
- The Representativity of Web Surveys of the General Population compared to Traditional Modes and Mixed...; 2012; Klausch, L. T., Schouten, B., Hox, J.
- Surveytainment 2.0: Why investing 10 more minutes more in constructing your questionnaire is worth considering...; 2012; Muehle, A., Tress, F., Schmidt, S., Winkler, T.
- Market research online community (MROC) versus focus group; 2012; Zuber, M.
- Data quality in MAWI and CAWI; 2012; Mavletova, A. M., Blasius, J.
- Time use data collection using Smartphones: Results of a pilot study among experienced and inexperienced...; 2012; Scherpenzeel, A., Sonck, N., Fernee, H., Morren, Me.
- Scrutinizing Dynamics – Rolling panel waves in theory and practice; 2012; Faas, T., Blumenberg, J. N.
- Little experience with technology as a cause of nonresponse in online surveys; 2012; Struminskaya, B., Schaurer, I., Kaczmirek, L., Bandilla, W.
- Automatic Forwarding on Web Surveys – Some Outlines and Remarks; 2012; Selkaelae, A.
- Thinking, Planning & Operationalizing Empirical Mixed Methods Research Design; 2012; Ruhi, U.
- Continuous large-scale volunteer web-surveys: The experience of Lohnspiegel and WageIndicator; 2012; Oez, F.
- Is Pretesting Established Among Online Survey Tool Users?; 2012
- An Evaluation of Two Non-Reactive Web Questionnaire Pretesting Methods; 2012; Lenzner, T.
- Recommendations for implementing online surveys and simple experiments in social and behavioural research...; 2012; Hewson, C. M.
- High potential for mobile Web surveys: Findings from a survey representative for German Internet users...; 2012; Funke, F., Wachenfeld, A.
- A taxonomy of paradata for web surveys and computer assisted self interviewing (Casi); 2012; Callegaro, M.
- Can Social Media Research replace traditional research methods?; 2012; Faber, T., Einhorn, M., Hofmann, O., Loeffler, M.
- Bad Boy Matrix Question – Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?; 2012; Tress, F.
- Matrix vs. Single Question Formats in Web Surveys: Results from a large scale experiment; 2012; Klausch, L. T., de Leeuw, E. D., Hox, J., de Jongh, A., Roberts , A.
- Effects of Static versus Dynamic Formatting Instructions for Open-Ended Numerical Questions in Web Surveys...; 2012; Kunz, T., Fuchs, M.
- FamilyVote – Conducting online surveys with children and families; 2012; Geissler, H., Peeters, H.
- The influence of social desirability on data quality in face-to-face and web surveys; 2012; Keusch, F.
- Reducing the Threat of Sensitive Questions in Online Surveys; 2012; Couper, M. P.