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Supplements

Title Frequency of question types in web surveys
Abstract

Web survey questions can be structured depending on various criteria, from measurement levels (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) to HTML elements involved (radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down menu, entry field). In addition, the technical features of each web survey software can also implicitly structure certain question type options, according to their selection from related categories in the menus and submenus of graphical user interface (GUI). We present here the corresponding question type frequencies for the case of specific open-source web survey software, where half a million questions from 30 thousands web survey questionnaires were analysed. It seems that questions related to radio buttons - where exactly one category needs to be selected from multiple and mutually exclusive categories - strongly dominate in popular web survey practice; they amount for almost two thirds of all questions.

Supplement status

Supplement to Chapter 2, Web Survey Methodology,

Last update: May 2015

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