The Survey Form
Arlene Fink

“To decide on a survey’s content, you have to define the attitude, belief, value, or idea being measured. For example, what is meant by fear? By a liberal perspective? By self-efficacy?”

Introduction to Online Surveys
Vera Toepoel

“Web surveys can be used to collect great amounts of data in little time using quantitative methods as well as to collect qualitative data one would not easily find outside of the Internet”

The State of Survey Methodology
Michael J. Stern, Ipek Bilgen & Don A. Dillman

“In this overview, we discuss the current state of survey methodology in a form that is useful and informative to a general social science audience. The article covers existing challenges, dilemmas, and opportunities for survey researchers and social scientists”

Different Types of Panel Data
Simonetta Longhi & Alita Nandi

“Panel surveys can be collected for different purposes and, like other surveys, they have different features. In this chapter we discuss the main aspects of panel surveys: who is interviewed, how many times, how the data can be collected. We then give a short overview of some frequently used panel datasets”

The Answering Process
Giampietro Gobo & Sergio Mauceri

“Designing the data collection system without taking account of the interviewee’s point of view would be like designing a product or service without considering the habits and needs of the users or clients”

Improving Survey Methods With Cognitive Interviews in Small- and Medium-Scale Evaluations
Katherine Ryan, Nora Gannon-Slater & Michael J. Culbertson

“We assess the extent to which cognitive interviews, used to test survey questions as part of the process of questionnaire design and refinement, can strengthen the quality of survey evidence for small- and medium-scale evaluations”

Data Cleaning
Erin Ruel, William Edward Wagner III & Brian Joseph Gillespie

“In this chapter we extend data cleaning to include examining diagnostics, interviewer or mode effects, and longitudinal attrition. Data cleaning involves simple and effective steps that will ensure the highest quality data for analysis purposes”

Broader Context of Web Surveys
Mario Callegaro, Katja Lozar Manfreda & Vasja Vehovar

“We first address aspects that have considerable indirect methodological relevance for web surveys and provide a closer look at the definition of the web survey mode, data quality, web survey mode effect and costs”

Methodological Considerations in Using Complex Survey Data
Debbie L. Hahs-Vaughn, Christine M. McWayne, Rebecca J. Bulotsky-Shearer, Xiaoli Wen & Ann-Marie Faria

“Using data from the nationally representative Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES; 1997 and 2000 cohorts), three diverse multilevel models are presented that illustrate differences in results depending on addressing or ignoring the complex sampling issues”

Sampling in Special Contexts
Edward Blair & Jonny Blair

“Here, we discuss various contexts that are of interest to many social researchers. We consider the following:

• Sampling for online research
• Sampling visitors to a place
• Sampling rare populations
• Sampling organizations 
• Sampling groups such as influence groups or elites
• Sampling for panel research
• Sampling in international contexts
• “Big data” and survey sampling
• Incorporating new technologies"

The Randomized Response Technique
James Allen Fox

“Since survey respondents tend to conceal embarrassing or threatening information, particularly when an interviewer might disapprove, the element of chance can be used to inoculate their responses yet at the same time provide the researcher with sufficient data for statistical analysis of prevalent rates, means, and variances, as well as estimating various measures of association”