Reporting Response Rates for Telephone Surveys Used In Agricultural Economics Research

Response rates are one indicator of a survey's data quality, as a great deal of importance has been placed on the mail survey's response rate. However, a telephone survey's response rate usually is not reported. Even if one is reported, the numbers used in the calculation are rarely defined making the response rate interpretation unclear. Using a recent telephone survey of Pennsylvania dairy managers, this paper demonstrates how telephone survey data should be reported. Essentially, every research report should include a discussion of how the survey was conducted, a disposition table, and well-defined formulas used to calculate response rates.

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Telephone Sample Surveys: Dearly Beloved or Nearly Departed? Trends in Survey Errors in the Era of Declining Response Rates

Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology ◽

10.1093/jssam/smz044 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David Dutwin ◽

Trent D Buskirk

Keyword(s):

Data Quality ◽

Cell Phone ◽

Response Rate ◽

Linear Trend ◽

Low Cost ◽

Response Rates ◽

General Role ◽

Telephone Surveys ◽

The Past ◽

Fit For Purpose

Abstract Telephone surveys have become much maligned in the past few years, considering recent failures to correctly predict elections worldwide, response rates declining into the single digits, and the rise of low-cost, nonprobabilistic alternatives. Yet there is no study assessing the degree to which data attained via modern-day telephone interviewing has or has not significantly declined in terms of data quality. Utilizing an elemental approach, we evaluate the bias of various cross-tabulations of core demographics from a collection of surveys collected over the past two decades. Results indicate that (1) there has been a modest increase in bias over the past two decades but a downward trend in the past five years; (2) the share of cell phone interviews in samples has a significant impact on the bias; (3) traditional weighting largely mitigates the linear trend in bias; and (4), once weighted, telephone samples are nearly on par in data quality to higher response rate unweighted in-person data. Implications for the “fit for purpose” of telephone data and its general role in the future of survey research are discussed given our findings.

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Estimating Response Rates for Different Market Segments from Questionnaire Data

Journal of Marketing Research ◽

10.1177/002224378001700209 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 245-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Walter Dolde ◽

Richard Staelin ◽

Tsu Yao

Keyword(s):

Survey Data ◽

Response Rate ◽

Response Rates ◽

Differential Response ◽

Market Segment ◽

Questionnaire Data ◽

Market Segments ◽

Population Proportion ◽

Topic Interest ◽

Compare And Contrast

Often the response rate for a given market segment is a function of the relevance of the topic to that segment. Consequently, in situations where the topic interest differs among segments, it is not correct to use the proportion of returned responses that indicate interest in the topic as the estimate of the population proportion. The authors describe three different models useful in assessing differential response rates and the methods for estimating each model. An application of real survey data is used to compare and contrast the different estimates.

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Encouraging Physicians to Respond to Surveys through the Use of Fax Technology

Evaluation & the Health Professions ◽

10.1177/01632780022034642 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 348-359 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Shelly Y. Lensing ◽

Stephen R. Gillaspy ◽

Pippa M. Simpson ◽

Stacie M. Jones ◽

John M. James ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Observational Study ◽

General Practitioners ◽

Response Rate ◽

Pediatric Asthma ◽

Family Physicians ◽

Response Rates ◽

Survey Response ◽

Telephone Surveys ◽

Survey Response Rate ◽

Survey Participation

High response rates to surveys of physicians are difficult to achieve. One possible strategy to improve physicians’ survey participation is to offer the option of receiving and returning the survey by fax. This study describes the success of the option of fax communication in a survey of general practitioners, family physicians, and pediatricians in Arkansas with regard to pediatric asthma. Eligible physicians were given the choice of receiving the survey by telephone, mail, or fax. In this observational study, physicians’ preferences, response rates, and biases for surveys administered by fax were compared with mail and telephone surveys. The overall survey response rate was 59%. For the 96 physicians completing an eligibility screener survey, the largest percentage requested to be surveyed by fax (47%) rather than by telephone (28%) or mail (25%). Faxing may be one strategy to add to the arsenal of tools to increase response rates in surveying physicians.

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Are Interviews Costing £0.08 a Waste of Money? Reviewing Google Surveys for ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ Projects

International Journal of Market Research ◽

10.2501/ijmr-2017-015 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 199-220

Author(s):

G.W. Roughton ◽

Iain Mackay

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Data Quality ◽

Survey Data ◽

Response Rates ◽

Quality Data ◽

Collection Costs

This paper investigates whether a ‘wisdom of the crowd’ approach might offer an alternative to recent political polls that have raised questions about survey data quality. Data collection costs have become so low that, as well as the question of data quality, concerns have also been raised about low response rates, professional respondents and respondent interaction. There are also uncertainties about self-selecting ‘samples’. This paper looks at more than 100 such surveys and reports that, in five out of the six cases discussed, £0.08p interviews delivered results in line with known outcomes. The results discussed in the paper show that such interviews are not a waste of money.

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Response trends in a national random digit dial survey

Advances in Methodology and Statistics ◽

10.51936/ljbu4218 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 21-32

Author(s):

Robert Tortora

Keyword(s):

Response Rate ◽

Telephone Survey ◽

Response Rates ◽

Completion Rates ◽

Random Digit ◽

Random Digit Dial ◽

Over Time

This paper reviews response trends over 24 consecutive quarters of a National Random Digit Dial telephone survey. Trends for response rates and refusal rates are studied as well as the components of response rate, namely, contact, cooperation and completion rates. In addition other rates, including answering machine, busy and no answer are studied. While refusal rates declined over the six year period, contact and cooperation rates significantly declined causing response rates to decline. Answering machine rates and busy rates also showed a significant increase over time. Finally, correlation’s among the variables of interest are presented. The response rate is negatively correlated with the busy rate, the answering machine rate and the no answer rate. Implications of the above trends are discussed.

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Are Smileys Valid Answers? Survey Data Quality with Innovative Item Formats

10.31235/osf.io/dk9bc ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jacob Brauner

Keyword(s):

Data Quality ◽

Survey Research ◽

Survey Data ◽

Response Rate ◽

Research Articles ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Literature Study ◽

Specific Level ◽

Response Options

Introduction: Survey research is often designed based on multiple-choice questions although many other formats, also referred to as innovative item formats (IIF) exist, such as ranking, sorting, questions with pictures or smileys as response options. Research has suggested that IIF in a broad sense can strengthen data quality, but research is needed on a more specific level. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present research for separate IIFs about the data quality for that type of item. Method: A literature study was conducted to identify articles that test the data quality of IIF. For each IIF research was discussed regarding aspects of data quality, such as reliability, validity and response rate. Results: A total of 166 research articles were identified with data from 218,532 participants revealing aspects of 22 IIFs with 13 subcategories. The type of evidence on data quality is quite varied and for some IIFs the evidence is supportive, for some it is not and for some it is inconclusive. With 6 IIFs the evidence was estimated in favour hereof, for 11 IIFs the evidence was inconclusive, 1 unfavoured and for 3 there was no evidence. With 6 IIFs potential confounders were identified. Discussion: The study suggests further research is needed where evidence is scarce. The present study could initiate more extensive systematic reviews within specific categories of IIF.

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Addressing Data Collection Problems in Web-Mediated Surveys

Volume 3: 30th Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Parts A and B ◽

10.1115/detc2010-28353 ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicholas Meese ◽

Juani Swart ◽

Richard Vidgen ◽

Philip Powell ◽

Chris McMahon

Keyword(s):

Response Rate ◽

Telephone Survey ◽

Systems Development ◽

Web Surveys ◽

Web Based ◽

Telephone Surveys ◽

Sustainable Engineering ◽

Coverage Measurement ◽

Original Survey

Web-based approaches are increasingly being used for carrying out surveys, for example in research or to obtain user feedback in product and systems development. However, the drawbacks of web surveying are often overlooked. Errors in web surveys can be related to sampling, coverage, measurement, and non-response issues. Low response rates and non-response bias are particularly important for web-based surveys. This paper reports on a web-based survey in an international engineering consultancy, aimed at eliciting feedback on the development of systems to support sustainable engineering, that produced a low response rate. To investigate the reasons for this, a follow-up survey was conducted by telephone. The majority of those questioned were unaware of the original survey. The telephone survey showed that reasons for non-completion by those who were aware may be categorized as resources issues, relevance, and fatigue. Differences between those who were aware of the original survey and those who were not are explored and a gap is found between action and intention, i.e. good intentions to complete a survey are very unlikely to translate into action and completed surveys. The paper concludes with practical guidance for administering web-based surveys and observations on the merits of telephone surveys.

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Promised Incentives in Media Research: A Look at Data Quality, Sample Representativeness, and Response Rate

Journal of Marketing Research ◽

10.1177/002224378402100203 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 148-154 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Edward G. Goetz ◽

Tom R. Tyler ◽

Fay Lomax Cook

Keyword(s):

Data Quality ◽

Response Rate ◽

Response Rates ◽

Response Quality ◽

Sample Representativeness ◽

Media Research ◽

The Impact

The authors examine the effects of using promised incentives to increase respondent compliance in media research. The impact of promised incentives on data quality, sample representativeness, and response rate is studied. The use of promised incentives is found to increase response rates without lessening sample representativeness or response quality. In fact, the data suggest that incentives heighten response quality because they increase the attention respondents devote to the task for which they are being paid.

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Analysis of Factors Influencing Telephone Call Response Rate in an Epidemiological Study

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1155/2014/179375 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jorge Matías-Guiu ◽

Pedro Jesús Serrano-Castro ◽

José Ángel Mauri-Llerda ◽

Francisco José Hernández-Ramos ◽

Juan Carlos Sánchez-Alvarez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Epidemiological Study ◽

Response Rate ◽

Telephone Survey ◽

Response Rates ◽

Population Based ◽

Southern Spain ◽

Descriptive Epidemiology ◽

Geographical Differences ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Large Numbers

Descriptive epidemiology research involves collecting data from large numbers of subjects. Obtaining these data requires approaches designed to achieve maximum participation or response rates among respondents possessing the desired information. We analyze participation and response rates in a population-based epidemiological study though a telephone survey and identify factors implicated in consenting to participate. Rates found exceeded those reported in the literature and they were higher for afternoon calls than for morning calls. Women and subjects older than 40 years were the most likely to answer the telephone. The study identified geographical differences, with higher RRs in districts in southern Spain that are not considered urbanized. This information may be helpful for designing more efficient community epidemiology projects.

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