Methodological Issues

Web-based surveys, like any research method, raise a range of methodological issues pertaining to sampling, response rates, etc. We do not attempt to address these issues in this tutorial, but we have collected some relevant links if you want to pursue them further.

R. Coomber, Using the Internet for Survey Research
Methodological issues raised by a Web-based survey of drug dealers.

C. Smith, Casting the Net: Surveying an Internet Population
"At any given moment there are thousands of surveys and polls being conducted on the web, yet surprisingly little scholarly research is reported about this new technique."

G. Yun and C. Trumbo, Comparative Response to a Survey Executed by Post, E-mail, & Web Form
"We detect a number of potentially important differences in the response characteristics of these three groups." Includes a September 2000 review of academic literature on Web-based surveys.