Questionnaires are utilized to collect data for research studies. They often feature open or closed-ended questions, however some questionnaires might use a combination of both. Questions that are open give respondents the freedom to respond in their own words. Closed questions give respondents an array of predetermined answers which they can pick from. Questionnaires can be administered in various ways, such as face-to-face interviews, telephone calls, postal mail, or even online.
Online questionnaire surveys have become more popular but it’s essential to ensure that the data collected are reliable and accurate. To ensure this, the researcher should be able to accurately gauge response rates and monitor the number of people who complete the survey. The researcher should also be able to identify potential reasons why a person might not respond and take steps to address these issues (e.g. sampling bias).
Additionally the cost of conducting online surveys is less than traditional methods, making them a potentially attractive alternative to traditional questionnaire-based research. However, this method is not without its drawbacks: online questionnaires can be difficult to analyze to determine their validity and quality and could lead to social desirability impacts in the sample of respondents.
There are numerous methods to minimize the negative impact of these limitations on online questionnaires as well as web-based experiments. This article provides specific strategies that researchers can apply to increase the reliability and quality of their online questionnaires. These include: (i), paying participants right away after they have completed the survey has the lowest response rate than waiting for all responses or an intermediary method; (iii), asking participants to provide their names for receipt preparation does not reduce or increase social desirability and (iv), framing the fixed portion of a participant’s payment as “for answering the survey” and providing feedback on progress improves the quality of responses