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For more information on conducting an Internet or Web survey, you might begin by looking at: Casting the Net: Surveying an Internet Population. Chapter 10, contrasts email and Web-based survey techniques and examines practical issues of Web surveying Conducting Web-Based Surveys, discusses problems of data quality with Web surveys, ways to increase low response rate (a common problem), and describes software tools available for use in conducting Web surveys Feasibility of Computer-Assisted Survey Interviewing In Africa, explores use of audio computer-assisted self-interviewing in several areas of Kenya, discusses one survey and explores the technical challenges faced by data collecting teams Using the Internet for Survey Research, an article in an online journal, Sociological Research Online; describes survey research using the Internet to reach an international audience of drug dealers, who are difficult to reach under normal circumstances; examines sampling issues; argues that an Internet survey can produce valuable data although issues of interpretation and generalization remain Response rate We have referred to response rate previously: Now we shall define it more precisely and show its importance in describing the outcome of sampling. The response rate is the percentage of completed interviews over all the interviews you expected to have completed. The formula for calculating a response rate is:
The number of expected interviews generally is equal to the size of the sample. The ideal response rate is 100%, but this is seldom achieved. Despite one's best efforts, some interviews cannot be completed. Some respondents cannot be located or, if located, are not home when the interviewer comes or fail to be there at a scheduled time. Occasionally, a respondent refuses to be interviewed. Sometimes, the investigator has to discard an interview because the responses are clearly unusable. As the number of interviews not completed increases, there is an increasing danger that the sample for which interviews are completed no longer is a random sample of the target population. Consequently, the sample of persons who were interviewed may no longer represent the target population from which the initial sample was drawn. When the response rate the response rate falls below 50% the basis for generalizing is considered weak. Response rates above 50% are generally considered acceptable, but response rates in the 80% or higher range are far more desirable. In most areas in developing countries, surveys based on interviewing result in high response rates, frequently over 90% (Stycos, 1983). If you conduct interviews in some area of your country, your response rate probably will be high as well. If it is not, you can almost be sure that something serious was wrong. The most frequent reasons for a low response rate are poor questionnaire construction and poor interviewing techniques. Lower rates of response are generally obtained when questionnaires are mailed or given to persons for them to complete and return. For these surveys, responses rates are often 30% or lower. Data from such poor returns have limited value for drawing conclusions.
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