METHODS - Survey methods
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What is a survey   http://www.whatisasurvey.info/   This "booklet is written primarily for non-specialists and is free of charge. Its overall goal is to improve survey literacy among individuals who participate in ...Surveys".

The rest of these sites are grouped by academic, government, private, and organization, but within each group, are presented in no particular order.
 

Academic sources:

Statistical Good Practice Guidelines - Overview   http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ssc/publications/guides.html   Several booklets are available from this site, including  Some Basic Ideas of Sampling , Guidelines for Planning Effective Surveys  and Approaches to the Analysis of Survey Data
 

Statnotes Survey Research chapter http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/survey.htm   Good short chapter, introduction, to main issues of survey research.
 

Trochim, William M. The Research Methods Knowledge Base, Internet WWW page, at URL:  http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/   (version current as of August 2, 2000).  See chapter on surveys, at   http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.htm.   Just to mention, the site says "There is no commitment to supporting or maintaining this site in the future,"  but the survey page was last revised on June 2004.
 

Univ of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/evaluation/evaldocs.html   Some pdf files on evaluation and methods, including Program Development and Evaluation: Questionnaire Design: Asking Questions with a Purpose (G3658-2).  The root page is Program Development and Evaluation    http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/
 

How to conduct a survey    http://www.kevinboone.com/howto_survey.html    brief guide to major topics. From Kevin Boone, School of Computing Science, Middlesex University

 
Introduction to Data Collection and Analysis    http://www.deakin.edu.au/~agoodman/sci101/index.php    general intro book, with a few chapters on surveys, how to collect and analyze the data.


Cui, Wei Wei (2003). Reducing error in mail surveys.   http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=18   "Those conducting surveys should recognize four potential sources of error -- sampling error, non-coverage error, non-response error, and measurement error -- and take steps to minimize their impact. Any one of these sources of error may make the survey results unacceptable. This article describes the four types of errors and summarizes ways they can be reduced."


Frary, Robert B. (1996). Hints for designing effective questionnaires. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(3). Retrieved March 21, 2006 from    http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=5&n=3    "The purpose of this article is to offer tips in designing quality questionnaires and on avoiding common errors."


Questionnaires in Usability Engineering. A List of Frequently Asked Questions (3rd Ed.)   http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/resources/qfaq1.html    some pointers on making questionairres. Compiled by: Jurek Kirakowski, Human Factors Research Group, Cork, Ireland., University of Cork.


A Guide To Designing and Conducting Visitor Surveys   http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/marketing/az1056/    by Julie Leones, Extension Economist, 1998.


Guide to the Design of Questionnaires   http://www.leeds.ac.uk/iss/documentation/top/top2/top2.html   from Dr. Thomas F Burgess, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. "A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research"


A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development   http://www.testscoring.vt.edu/questionaire_dev.html    Also by Robert Frary.


Questionnaire Design and Surveys Sampling   http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/Business-stat/stat-data/Surveys.htm   overview of many topics, kind of from a statistical point of view.


Government Sources:

Listen and Learn, using customer surveys.   http://www.audit.wa.gov.au/reports/report98_5.html   This is available as a pdf file.  Also see their Preparing Performance Indicators - A Practical Guide,   http://www.audit.wa.gov.au/reports/preparingpis.html   .


Conduct of Sample Surveys  http://www.oesr.qld.gov.au/about-statistics/survey-methods/conduct-sample-surveys-qld/index.shtml   by Queensland Government Agencies

Developing and Using Questionnaires.  GAO/PEMD-10.1.7 October 1993 238 pp.  One of the GAO free books. Check out their page http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/erm.html.  This book is not listed but is available. Order one copy for free.  Order from the order page, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/ordtab.pl   The  booklet is described here   http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?rptno=PEMD-10.1.7&accno=150366   and this includes a link to the pdf file.
 

The National Statistical Service   http://www.nss.gov.au/nss/home.NSF/sdm?OpenView   has two guides: Basic Survey Design (a basic survey book) and An Introduction to Sample Surveys: A User's Guide. This last one is in the "other" section.
 

An Introduction to Panel Surveys in Transportation Studies   http://tmip.fhwa.dot.gov/clearinghouse/docs/surveys/panel_surveys/    general introduction to panel or longitudinal surveys.  Many issues are discussed, such as design, sampling, following households.  Not just for transportation studies.
 

Non-Response in Household Travel Survey    http://tmip.fhwa.dot.gov/clearinghouse/docs/surveys/nonresponse/   measuring, reporting, dealing with non response.
 

Air University Sampling and Surveying Handbook    http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awcerese.htm   This is in the Sampling and Surveys section
 

Survey steps   http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/12-539-XIE/steps.htm   from statcan  (statistics Canada). guidelines and principals.


Conducting Community Surveys: A Practical Guide for Law Enforcement Agencies   http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ccspglea.htm   basic review of issues.


Commercial or private sources:
 

Creative Research Systems at http://www.surveysystem.com  especially see their resources page http://www.surveysystem.com/resource.htm  a page on Resources for Survey Researchers, for example, survey design.
 

Gallup Organization  How polls are conducted   http://www.gallup.com/poll/101872/How-does-Gallup-Polling-work.aspx  They explain how they do their polls, take their sample, ask their questions.  Not a 'how to' but an instuctive example of how one major organization does it.
 

Guide to questionnaires and surveys http://members.tripod.com/frede_dast/conseil1_a.html  by Frédéric D'Astous.  "Within this web site, you will find information related to the creation of surveys and questionnaires."  Including info about how to look at survey issues, how to collect data, sampling.  Most of this is in english, but some in french.
 

Sysurvey   http://www.sysurvey.com/tips/whitepapers.asp   some basic pointers on survey methods.  They are also accepting papers and pointers from contributers. 


Statpac   http://www.statpac.com/surveys/   brief (very) overview of survey research, including discussion of cost, cover letters, and a nice little "Questionnaire Research Flow Chart". Qualities of a good question is longer and more detailed. There is also a nice little review of research about the questionnaire methodology here   http://statpac.com/research-papers/questionnaires.htm   with references.


Survey tool kit   http://survey.pearsonncs.com/index.htm   articles on various survey topics, like survey content, sampling, scaling, etc.

 

Organizations:

The American Association for Public Opinion Research. (AAPOR)  http://www.aapor.org/   has these sections on their web site:  Guidelines and Tools for Documenting Survey Results, and AAPORs IRB Task Force New FAQs for Survey Research Investigators


Basics of Developing Questionnaires  http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/questnrs.htm  Written by Carter McNamara, PhD.   Part of his site: Basic Guide to Program Evaluation  http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/fnl_eval.htm 
 

UN Statistical Division Household Surveys in Developing Countries http://unstats.un.org/unsd/hhsurveys/index.htm    technical report with sections on Design and implementation, design effect, analysis of data, survey costs.
 

Doing surveys on the internet

Also see the research page on this site, which has links about research of using the web.
 

Don Dillman's page  http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/    Papers section.  http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers.htm   As of 15 June, included were: Dillman, Don A. and Dennis K. Bowker. 2000. The Web Questionnaire Challenge to Survey Methodologists. Book Chapter Forthcoming.  Dillman, Don A., Robert D. Tortora, and Dennis Bowker. 1998. Principles for Constructing Web Surveys. SESRC Technical Report 98-50, Pullman, Washington.  Dillman, Don A., Robert D. Tortora, John Conradt, and Dennis Bowker. 1998.  Influence of Plain vs. Fancy Design on Response Rates for Web Surveys.  Presented at Joint Statistical Meetings, Dallas, Texas. August 1998.
 

Conducting Research Surveys via E-mail and the Web  http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1480/index.html   some guidelines, lit reviews. 2001.
 

Using Electronic Surveys: Advice from Survey Professionals   http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=1    "The study reports the perceptions and recommendations of sixty-two experienced survey researchers from the American Educational Research Association regarding the use of electronic surveys."  
 

Internet-based and Mail Survey: A Hybrid Probabilistic Survey Approach (Mathew Parackal)   http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw03/papers/


online survey design guide   http://lap.umd.edu/survey_design/index.html    how to design surveys on the web.


google list of orgs or companies that offer to do surveys on line   
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosted_Components_and_Services/Form_Data,_Polls,_and_Surveys/Polls_and_Surveys/
many free. I have no ties or experience with any of these orgs or companies.


Free tools for doing surveys

One company is  CoolSurveys   http://www.coolsurveys.com/   "you just cut and paste the html code and place it in your web site!  Within minutes, you will have your own interactive online CoolSurvey!"
Cool Surveys is listed here   http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccf/resources/gbk_ta/ta_gbk_rscs.html


Lime Survey   http://www.limesurvey.org/   another free survey tool
  mentioned here   http://www.olis.ri.gov/pubs/cesurvey2006.pdf


Automated phone surveys


Square Systems   http://info.opinion-8.com/survey-design-consultancy.html   has some information about designing surveys for automated phone surveys. See their guidelines   http://info.opinion-8.com/telephone-survey-design-guidelines.html   and they also have a page on question wording and question type.
  


Using PDAs to do surveys


overview of PDA data collection   http://www.lokilogic.com/pda_data_collection.htm   very brief overview of collecting data with PDAs.




ORGANIZATIONS WITH INFO ABOUT SURVEYS

American Statistical Association http://www.amstat.org/ and the Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS)  http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/   See especially SRMS's What is a Survey series here   http://www.whatisasurvey.info/    in html format or can download the entire file in pdf.  Some are: "more about mail surveys", "margin of error", and "what are focus groups".
 

Council of American Survey Research Organizations http://www.casro.org/    especially see their page Surveys and You:
Answers to some questions about survey research  http://www.casro.org/survandyou.cfm   They have brief descriptions of surveys, sampling, ethical considerations, info about research companies, other useful brief descriptions.  Also see their Code of Standards page:  http://www.casro.org/codeofstandards.cfm
 
 

page last updated and checked 1/5/08
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