Web Survey Methodology guides the reader through the past fifteen years of research in web survey methodology. It provides practical guidance on the latest techniques for collecting valid and reliable data and offers a comprehensive overview of research issues. Core topics from preparation to questionnaire design, recruitment testing to analysis and survey software are all covered in a systematic and insightful way. The reader is presented with key concepts and key findings in the literature, covering measurement, non-response, adjustments, paradata, and cost issues. The book also discusses the hottest research topics in survey research today, such as internet panels, virtual interviewing, mobile surveys and the integration with passive measurements, e-social sciences, mixed modes and business intelligence.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33367389
Research into cognitive aspects of survey response has indicated unfamiliar terms as one of the psycholinguistic determinants of question comprehensibility problems. In this paper the estimates of wording familiarity based on text corpora for the English and Slovenian languages were used to detect potentially incomprehensible wordings in two web survey questionnaires for international exchange students at the University of Ljubljana, one for incoming (English) and the other for outgoing students (Slovenian). Two versions of the questionnaire were developed for each language, one with low-frequency (complex) and the other with high-frequency (improved) wordings, and compared in a split-ballot experiment. The results show a lower drop-out rate and a decreased subjective perception of difficulty for the improved language versions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33807709
Survey research literature predominantly focuses on methodological issues (such as survey errors and survey modes) which are related to the fielding activities of the survey data collection process. Much less attention is given to the broader administrative, managerial, infrastructural and process-integration aspects of pre-fielding (i.e., planning, conceptualization, questionnaire development, testing) and post-fielding (i.e., data preparation, automated analysis, archiving, dissemination, publication). There is also a serious lack of attention to the integrative potential of information-communication technology (ICT) for the survey process, at least in the mainstream (or in vast majority) of ICT tools that support the survey data collection process. We argue in this chapter that conceptual barriers often keep research processes (unnecessarily) disintegrated, despite the fact that the technical potential of ICT is already developed enough for much more integration. This chapter deals with a specific case of (web) questionnaire development, which illuminates the above mentioned barriers. First, we review current practice. Next, we show gains of a conceptually integrative approach. In the conclusion, we discuss the findings and identify potential directions for future research.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33079645
Mobile phones have gained an important role in the personal communication of older adults with the members of their social support networks. Research shows that older adults increasingly use the mobile phone for maintenance and development of social interactions with their family members, peers, and caregivers as providers of emotional support and social companionship. Therefore, this study explores how retired older adults in Slovenia use mobile phones as personal devices for supportive communication as well as how the characteristics of their social support networks are related to the frequency of mobile phone communication with their network members. Using ego-centered social support network data, collected on a nationwide representative sample of retired older adults in Slovenia, this study found that the composition of emotional support and social companionship networks scarcely predict the frequency of mobile phone communication of older adults with their network members. Conversely, according to the results, it seems that more frequent in-person and landline phone communication with network members are positively associated with mobile phone communication, suggesting that older adults extend their communication sphere with a mobile phone in their support networks. Finally, the results indicate that sociodemographic characteristics of older adults, such as age, social-economic status, and living alone, significantly determine the frequency of mobile communication with their network members, even though their magnitude varies depending on the type of social support network.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33244509
This paper presents and demonstrates an approach to the evaluation of various survey designs with simultaneous consideration of the errors and costs. It focuses on the designs involving the web mode and discusses their potential to replace traditional modes for probability surveys of the general population. The main idea of this approach is that part of the cost savings enabled by the web mode can be allocated to incentives and complementary survey modes to compensate for the Internet non-coverage and the higher nonresponse. The described approach is demonstrated in an experimental case study that compares the performance of mixed-mode designs with the web mode and prepaid cash incentive with that of an official survey conducted using the face-to-face and telephone modes. The results show that the mixed-mode designs with the web mode and incentives can greatly increase the response rate, which even surpasses that of the conventional survey modes, but still offer substantial cost savings.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33791325