We know your survey is exciting and will divulge important findings; you know your survey is exciting and will divulge important findings. But darn those who don’t know this and so don’t participate. Or worse – those who do know this, but choose not to participate for some other reason. Their nonresponse can create uncertainty in how accurate our survey results actually are. If only we could survey robots or well-trained dogs who followed our instructions instead of people!
From the LaunchPad
Welcome to The Launchpad, SoundRocket’s blog, where we share our insights and musings on the science of doing science (well), #soundscience.
Web-Based Survey Testing: Seven Tips for More Effective Questionnaires
Testing a web-based survey is one of the most detested activities to many in the survey research business. It requires patience, persistence, and tremendous focus. Finding someone who enjoys testing and is good at it is a valuable asset to any survey research team.
A wonderful resource for many details about testing questionnaires (including a chapter on web-based surveys) is Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questionnaires.
Here are seven tips to better web-based survey testing practices for your next study…
Research Wonder: Weather conditions looming? Now, tell me about your social anxiety
I wonder…
Why do we NOT routinely capture data about respondents’ local current temperatures and cloud cover, recent or upcoming extreme weather, regional pollen counts, and other related data while we collect survey data?
Ethical Research: IRBs and ResearchKit
When Apple’s ResearchKit was announced, almost immediately some squawked about the ethical problems that may be raised by its use. One argument suggested that because teens use iPhones, and because teens “aren’t supposed to take part in medical studies without parental consent” this would be bad. The argument proceeds…
Survey Data Collection Part 2: 12 Pre-launch Steps to Quality Data
Use this as a checklist for your own studies – or as a tool to evaluate survey research collaborators. Researchers who do not consider each of these elements will make disastrous mistakes. A solid researcher is not one who is perfect – it is one who learns from past mistakes. Here are the final six (of twelve)…
Survey Data Collection Part 1: 12 Pre-launch Steps to Quality Data
Ready to Launch a Survey? It’s just a press of a button, right?
How I wish that were the case! As with any science, care must be taken to ensure there is a consistent application. Bias introduced by inconsistencies in the study implementation is not desirable. Survey researchers can minimize such bias by…
Six Common Mistakes in Survey Research
Survey research is a part of the scientific process – and even a science on its own. So why do researchers abandon the science when they implement their studies? An astronomer would not go to the hobby store to buy a telescope to study the galaxy. A geneticist would never purchase non-sterile test tubes from an unknown source to capture saliva samples from research subjects. So why do social scientists routinely treat their own data collection tools this way?
ResearchKit: will Apple change social science research? Geolocation, iSperm, and DNA
It seems that every few days, an announcement brings forth a new use for Apple’s ResearchKit. My first reaction was one of excitement, mixed with horror. The excitement stemmed from…