Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method

Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth, Leah Melani Christian

John Wiley & Sons, Aug 18, 2014 - Education - 528 pages

The classic survey design reference, updated for the digital age

For over two decades, Dillman's classic text on survey design has aided both students and professionals in effectively planning and conducting mail, telephone, and, more recently, Internet surveys. The new edition is thoroughly updated and revised, and covers all aspects of survey research. It features expanded coverage of mobile phones, tablets, and the use of do-it-yourself surveys, and Dillman's unique Tailored Design Method is also thoroughly explained. This invaluable resource is crucial for any researcher seeking to increase response rates and obtain high-quality feedback from survey questions. Consistent with current emphasis on the visual and aural, the new edition is complemented by copious examples within the text and accompanying website.

This heavily revised Fourth Edition includes:

• Strategies and tactics for determining the needs of a given survey, how to design it, and how to effectively administer it
• How and when to use mail, telephone, and Internet surveys to maximum advantage
• Proven techniques to increase response rates

• Guidance on how to obtain high-quality feedback from mail, electronic, and other self-administered surveys
• Direction on how to construct effective questionnaires, including considerations of layout
• The effects of sponsorship on the response rates of surveys
• Use of capabilities provided by newly mass-used media: interactivity, presentation of aural and visual stimuli.
• The Fourth Edition reintroduces the telephone—including coordinating land and mobile.

Grounded in the best research, the book offers practical how-to guidelines and detailed examples for practitioners and students alike.

Contents

• Sample Surveys in Our Electronic World: 3
• Reducing Peoples Reluctance to Respond to Surveys: 19
• Covering the Population and Selecting: 56
• The Fundamentals of Writing Questions: 94
• How to Write Open and ClosedEnded Questions: 127
• Aural Versus Visual Design of Questions: 169
• Ordering Questions and Testing for Question: 228
• Telephone Questionnaires and Implementation: 258
• Web Questionnaires and Implementation: 301
• Mail Questionnaires and Implementation: 351
• MixedMode Questionnaires and Survey: 398
• Responding to Societal Change and Preparing: 450
• References: 469
• Author Index: 491
• Subject Index: 497

About the author

Don A. Dillman, PHD, is Regents’ Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University. He received the Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics from the American Statistical Association and the Washington Statistical Society in 2000.

Jolene D. Smyth, PHD, is an associate professor in the Survey Research and Methodology Program and the Department of Sociology and is the Director of the Bureau of Social Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Leah Melani Christian, PHD, is a Director in Research Methods at Nielsen where her work focuses on panel recruitment and maintenance.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method
• Authors: Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth, Leah Melani Christian
• Edition: 4, illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2014
• ISBN: 1118456149, 9781118456149
• Length: 528 pages
• Subjects: Education / Evaluation & Assessment; Education / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Reference / General