Web Survey Bibliography
Title Participant recruitment and data collection through Facebook: the role of personality factors
Author Rife, S. C.; Cate, K. L.; Kosinski, M.; Stillwell, D.
Source International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 19, 1, pp. 69-83
Year 2016
Database Taylor and Francis Online
Access date 06.03.2016
Abstract As participant recruitment and data collection over the Internet have become more common, numerous observers have expressed concern regarding the validity of research conducted in this fashion. One growing method of conducting research over the Internet involves recruiting participants and administering questionnaires over Facebook, the world’s largest social networking service. If Facebook is to be considered a viable platform for social research, it is necessary to demonstrate that Facebook users are sufficiently heterogeneous and that research conducted through Facebook is likely to produce results that can be generalized to a larger population. The present study examines these questions by comparing demographic and personality data collected over Facebook with data collected through a standalone website, and data collected from college undergraduates at two universities. Results indicate that statistically significant differences exist between Facebook data and the comparison data-sets, but since 80% of analyses exhibited partial η2 < .05, such differences are small or practically nonsignificant in magnitude. We conclude that Facebook is a viable research platform, and that recruiting Facebook users for research purposes is a promising avenue that offers numerous advantages over traditional samples.
Access/Direct link Journal Homepage (Abstract) / (Full text)
Year of publication2016
Bibliographic typeJournal article
Web survey bibliography - International Journal of Social Research Methodology (13)
- Incorporating eye tracking into cognitive interviewing to pretest survey questions; 2016; Neuert, C.; Lenzner, T.
- Participant recruitment and data collection through Facebook: the role of personality factors; 2016; Rife, S. C.; Cate, K. L.; Kosinski, M.; Stillwell, D.
- Presentation matters: how mode effects in item non-response depend on the presentation of response options...; 2016; Zeglovits, E.; Schwarzer, S.
- Email subject lines and response rates to invitations to participate in a web survey and a face-to-face...; 2015; Sappleton, N.; Lourenco, F.
- The quality of responses to grid questions as used in Web questionnaires (compared with paper questionnaires...; 2015; Dominguez, J. A.; de Rada, V. D.
- PDAs in socio-economic surveys: instrument bias, surveyor bias or both?; 2013; Escobal, J., Benites, S.
- IVR and web administration in structured interviews utilizing rating scales: exploring the role of motivation...; 2011; Yang, Y., Callegaro, M., Bhola, D. S., Dillman, D. A.
- Item non-response rates: a comparison of online and paper questionnaires ; 2009; Denscombe, M.
- Having their say: email interviews for research data collection with people who have verbal communication...; 2009; Ison, N.
- Quality Criteria for Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research: A View from Social Policy...; 2008; Bryman, A., Becker, S., Sempik, J.
- The effect of personalization on response rates and data quality in web surveys; 2005; Heerwegh, D., Vanhove, T., Matthijs, K., Loosveldt, G.
- Computer software and qualitative analysis: trends, issues and resources; 2000; Lee, R. M., Esterhuizen, L.
- 'Once would be enough': some reflections on the issue of safety for lone researchers ; 1999; Kenyon, E., Hawker, S.