Survey research is an essential tool for social scientists, allowing them to collect data and insights from many people. To conduct a successful survey, there are several vital considerations regarding survey methodology that researchers must take into account. These...
Most surveys of alcohol-use ask about behaviors and patterns that happen days, weeks months or even years ago. It’s all retrospective recollection from study participants. It’s useful for identifying general trends but it’s fraught with measurement errors. And when the topic of the study is binge drinking, errors involving memory can increase. — even if you’re asking the question the next day.
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)…
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…