From paper-and-pencil to screen-and-keyboard: Toward a methodology for survey research on the Internet Chapter in DOING INTERNET RESEARCH

copyright 2002 by Sandra Katzman

Japanese

From paper-and-pencil to screen-and-keyboard: Toward a methodology for survey research on the Internet Chapter in DOING INTERNET RESEARCH

Witmer, D.F. and Colman, R.W. and Katzman, S.L.

1999

Edited by Steve Jones

Published by Sage Publications Newbury Park, California

ISBN 0-7619-1594-X hardback

ISBN 0-7619-1595-8 paperback



Are traditional paper-and-pencil methods adaptable to on-line studies? We thought that a short e-mail questionnaire would yield a higher response rate than a long questionnaire. We wondered if the number of items or the sheer length affected response rate more.

This study indicates that survey methodology does not translate point for point to computers from older "lower-tech" forms of communication. On-line research requires incentives for participation, messages separate from the instruments, and safeguards against alteration of the questionnaires. The study also raises the question of how questionnaire length affects response rate, but could not provide unequivocal answers due to a low response rate.