Web Survey Bibliography
In a Sept. 1 post I reported on a groundbreaking study by a team of researchers led by David Yeager and Prof. Jon Krosnick of Stanford University, finding significant data quality problems in surveys of people who sign up to click through online questionnaires – so-called “opt-in” panels. Their study, laudably, was accompanied by highly detailed methodological disclosure.
Postings challenging its conclusions followed – one here from Prof. Douglas Rivers, CEO of an opt-in online company; another here from Joel Rubinson, chief research officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, many of whose members conduct or purchase such studies. At my invitation, Yeager, Krosnick and one of their co-authors, Harold Javitz of SRI International, a nonprofit research institute, have written a reply. It follows.
A bit of background: A professor of communication, political science and psychology, Krosnick is one of the nation’s leading academics in the field of survey research; among other honors, he recently was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He’s authored or co-authored more than 100 published articles or book chapters and six books on issues in survey research. Yeager is completing a PhD at Stanford. Both report no financial interest in any company that sells survey data, nor in any particular method used to collect survey data.
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