Guidelines for Internet Surveys

To aid researchers, the WPI IRB has prepared a set of guidelines, including an example of an email request to participate, for implementing Internet or Web surveys. The guidelines do not cover issues of sampling or survey design, but rather methodological and ethical issues that arise in contacting respondents and soliciting their cooperation.

The IRB believes that researchers have an ethical obligation to follow best practices to assure valid results. Otherwise, it would be “unethical to burden respondents with a request for participating” (Groves et al., 2009:372). This means that before researchers begin a survey, they should consult appropriate references on how best to conduct surveys. A good reference for Internet surveys is Dillman, Smyth, and Christian’s Internet, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (2009). Another valuable resource is the set of “Best Practices” found on the American Association for Public Opinion Research, an organization dedicated to establishing professional standards for survey records.

The first step in implementing a survey is to contact respondents and ask them to participate. The sample letter, modeled after Figure 7.12 in Dillman, Smyth, and Christian (2009), contains the essential elements of an email request for an Internet survey. Notice that the request describes the topic of the survey, how or why the respondent was selected to participate, and how to access the survey; assures that participation is voluntary and all responses are confidential; and provides contact information for those who have questions or comments.

The sample email request describes an Internet survey in which researchers can identify who completes the survey. For surveys in which an individualized ID is not provided, where respondents simply click on the link to gain access to the survey, responses can be anonymous. In the latter case, the request should state that participation is voluntary and anonymous.

Although email contacts may seem relatively informal, it is still important to maintain the professionalism of the contacts. Therefore, you should not follow such common email practices as avoiding punctuation, using all capital letters, and using acronyms (e.g., BTW = “by the way” or FYI = “for your information”).

One common indicator of survey quality is the response rate—the number of people who complete the survey divided by the number who are contacted. Obtaining an adequate response rate in Internet surveys is especially difficult; however, there are several ways to increase the likelihood that a contact will respond. First, personalize the request as much as possible. Research has shown that students are more likely to respond to a salutation that is personalized (Dear [First Name]) than one that is not (Dear student). They are also more likely to respond to individual messages than to bulk email in which the message is sent to multiple recipients at once; bulk messages may also be flagged as spam. Additionally, as Dillman, Smyth, and Christian (2009:273) point out, the appearance of multiple email addresses “in the ‘To’ field raises serious ethical considerations, as confidentiality can no longer be ensured.”

Another means of increasing response rates is to use carefully spaced reminders or follow-up requests, which are a common practice in surveys. They are most effective when the content of the message is not repeated over and over but varies somewhat with each request. Usually, two or three follow-ups are used, as additional requests may irritate contacts and are not likely to yield significant gains.

References

Dillman, Don A., Jolene D. Smyth, and Leah Melani Christian, Internet, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009.

Groves, Robert M., Floyd J. Fowler, Jr., Mick P. Couper, James M. Lepkowski, Eleanor Singer, and Roger Tourangeau, Survey Methodology, 2nd Edition, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009.