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Assessing Survey Research, a principled approach An application to Internet surveys. Benoît Gauthier Circum Network Inc. PMRS Annual Conference Riding the Communications Revolution Ottawa, April 23-25, 2001. The problem. Exploring the incidence of Internet research on survey quality
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Assessing Survey Research,a principled approachAn application to Internet surveys Benoît Gauthier Circum Network Inc. PMRS Annual Conference Riding the Communications Revolution Ottawa, April 23-25, 2001
The problem • Exploring the incidence of Internet research on survey quality • Need a way to assess survey quality • No structured framework exists • Same problem in various contexts, in particular in the judicial process
Criteria for quality research • Rigour • recognized best practices of survey research • Neutrality • absence of bias • Balance • sufficient yet parsimonious resources • Transparency • all the relevant background for an assessment
Survey research building blocks • Questionnaire • Sampling • Data collection • Data management • Data analysis • Reporting
The case of Internet surveys • Internet survey-specific issues • Mick P. Couper (POQ, 2000) • sampling frame coverage • non-response, for probability samples • browser variations in rendering • panel conditioning (longitudinal studies)
The case of Internet surveys • Sampling frame coverage = sN • Non-response = sN • Browser variations = qN • Panel conditioning = cN • Only neutrality is at issue
Conclusion • Internet-based surveying does not affect the basics of good research • Only 3 of 24 assessment areas show specifics • Good research is good research, on or off the Internet
Coordinates Benoît Gauthier Circum Network Inc. 819.770.2423 4 819.770.5196 gauthier@circum.com http://circum.com