This article will explain the difference between response rate and completion rate, why each matters, and how both can impact the overall data quality of your survey.
Moving Beyond P Values: A New Era for Supporting Social Science Research
[Estimated Reading Time: 3-4 min] At SoundRocket, we often hear from our research partners who want to include p values in their summary databooks. These numbers have long been a staple in not just social science research but in many scientific inquiries. However, the...
Demographic Questions: Finding the Right Place in Your Survey
Demographic questions are often necessary to include in survey research. Here we visit the age-old question–where in the survey should they go? Recently a collaborator designing a survey for an academic research study asked if it...
How Long Should a Survey Questionnaire Be?
When designing a survey questionnaire, there are guidelines to consider regarding its length, including: 1. The purpose of the survey If the survey is designed to collect detailed information from respondents, it may need to be longer to capture what is needed. 2....
DEI Surveys & The Religion Question: Dr. J.T. Snipes in Conversation
Dr. J.T. Snipes and SoundRocket collaborated on the revision of a religious identity question, which will be part of our national benchmark DEI survey. In this conversation with Dr. Joshua Patterson of SoundRocket, Dr. Snipes discusses his research background and...
Satisficing: Why Survey Participants Give Quick, Inaccurate Answers
In a previous post we discussed how to minimize survey breakoff. Surveys are a great way to collect data but when designing a survey it’s important to consider how much is too much. Today we are going to discuss satisficing, how to keep respondents engaged, and in...
Good Surveys Come With Subtraction, Not Addition: How Questionnaire Length Leads to Breakoffs
We often hear—so how long can our questionnaire be? While we love surveys, the reality is most respondents don’t share our enthusiasm, which means long questionnaires can be bad for data quality. Today we are going to look at how long surveys can lead to breakoff, and...
Introducing Error Through Use of Web Survey Progress Indicators
In 1998, fascinated with the potential for the web to serve as a data collection platform, I wondered what sources of error may crop up with this new technology. Not surprisingly, we noticed early on that if participants did not finish a web-based survey in one...