Journal article
Surveying the General Public over the Internet Using Address-Based Sampling and Mail Contact Procedures
Public opinion quarterly, Vol.75(3), pp.429-457
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/115608
Abstract
We report results from two statewide experiments in Washington designed to test potential methods for using postal mail to obtain survey responses over the Internet from address-based samples of general public households. The five methods we test are: 1) sending Web and mail modes of response sequentially; 2) providing a prepaid $5 incentive; 3) offering an instruction card for responding over the Web; 4) sending the follow-up request by Priority Mail; and 5) providing an additional $5 incentive with this follow-up request. Results are evaluated from the standpoint of response rates, demographic representativeness of respondents, and survey costs and data collection times for Web and mail modes. We find that a "Web-plus-mail" design-mailing an initial Web request followed by a mail request-with the prepaid incentive offers much potential for obtaining Internet responses. In addition, the mail follow-up to the initial Web request significantly increases overall response rates and improves respondent representativeness. However, the results also show that a mail-only design consistently obtains higher response rates and a demographically similar sample compared to Web-plus-mail. We also find significant challenges in obtaining a representative sample of respondents with either Web or mail modes and in realizing the potential cost and speed benefits of the Internet in using postal mail contacts.
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Details
- Title
- Surveying the General Public over the Internet Using Address-Based Sampling and Mail Contact Procedures
- Creators
- Benjamin L MesserDon A Dillman
- Publication Details
- Public opinion quarterly, Vol.75(3), pp.429-457
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Identifiers
- 99900547849401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article