This paper aims to explore the response-order effects for rating questions presented in item-by-item and grid formats. It was hypothesized that the primacy effect occurs for both formats of questions, and that this effect is dependent on age, education, and type of device used for responding to questions. Two randomized experiments were conducted…

In this study, we investigate whether mobile device use in surveys can be predicted. We aim to identify possible motives for device use and build a model by drawing on theory from technology acceptance research and survey research. We then test this model with a Structural Equation Modeling approach using data of seven waves of the GESIS panel. We…

Introduction: Web-based epidemiologic surveys are being widely used, but still present lower response rates compared to traditional methods. Their design can influence survey response rates. Objective: Analyse the influence of questionnaire length, frequency of reminders, and the interaction between them, on the response rates of five web-based…

Online surveys are increasingly used to investigate health conditions, especially among young people. However, this methodology presents some limitations including item nonresponse concerning sensitive and knowledge-related questions. This study aimed to suggest latent class analysis as the methodology to statistically deal with item nonresponse…

The need to elicit public opinion about predefined topics is widespread in the social sciences, government and business. Traditional survey-based methods are being partly replaced by social media data mining but their potential and limitations are poorly understood. This article investigates this issue by introducing and critically evaluating a…

Issues of positionality of Black African researchers researching African issues is seldom discussed in methodological literature. In this article, I reflect from an African perspective on issues of insider/outsider positionalities and of serendipity and unexpectedness during my fieldwork which are areas often dominated by writing from the global…

With the growing possibilities for conducting web surveys, researchers increasingly use such surveys to recruit student samples for research purposes in a wide array of social science disciplines. Simultaneously, higher education students are recurrently asked to complete course and teacher evaluations online and to participate in small-scale…

Survey researchers are increasingly concerned that the presence of other people (bystanders) may affect data quality in structured, face-to-face survey interviews. In this article, we study bystanders using data from 15,309 face-to-face surveys about technology from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Brazil and Guatemala. Our analysis (1) describes the…

This paper investigates the effect of interview mode (telephone vs. face-to-face) on responses to a 13-item module of identity questions covering distinct domains. With increasing moves towards mixed-mode implementation, especially in longitudinal surveys, establishing whether mode effects are likely to influence findings is of practical value. A…

Whereas the sample composition biases of web surveys have been discussed extensively for developed countries, studies for developing countries are scarce. This article helps to fill that gap by comparing similar non-probability-based web surveys (WEB) and probability-based face-to-face (F2F) surveys both to each other and to the labor force. An…

This study expands our knowledge of consent in linking survey and administrative data by studying respondents' behaviour when consenting to link their own records and when consenting to link those of their children. It develops and tests a number of hypothesised mechanisms of consent, some of which were not explored in the past. The hypotheses…

In recent years, implicit measures of attitude have emerged as increasingly important methods in research with adults; however, they have been used less often in research with children or adolescents. The present article seeks to initiate wider discussion on the potential for using implicit measures with young people by providing readers with an…

Whilst there is no doubt that fieldwork research involving active criminals contains risks and dangers, this is not always the case. Drawing on interviews conducted with illegal tiger skin suppliers and traders in Lhasa (Tibet), this article challenges orthodox understandings of criminological fieldwork. My experience in Lhasa speaks to three…