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How to Conduct Surveys
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How to Conduct Surveys
A Step-by-Step Guide

Seventh Edition


March 2025 | 232 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Arlene Fink's How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide provides a concise and reliable resource for developing and running surveys. This practical guide walks the reader through the development of rigorous surveys and how to evaluate the credibility and usefulness of surveys created by others. The Seventh Edition highlights new and updated information on the use of generative artificial intelligence and increasing use of online sources, use of other new technology such as social media, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, and new sections on cultural validity and survey recruitment. Learning objectives and a new format help students better see and retain information in each chapter. Every chapter includes practice exercises designed to promote skills in analyzing, evaluating and producing information. Offering practical, step-by-step advice and written in the same clear and accessible style as prolific author Arlene Fink’s other works, How to Conduct Surveys focuses on guiding students through the numerous choices in survey design and analysis to develop rigorous surveys.
 
Preface
 
About the Author
 
Chapter 1. Conducting Surveys: Everyone Is Doing It
What Is a Survey?

 
When Is a Survey Best?

 
Self-Administered Questionnaires and Interviews: The Heart of the Matter

 
The Friendly Competition

 
A Survey Continuum: From Specific to General Use

 
Ethics, Privacy, and Confidentiality

 
Children and Survey Ethics

 
International Surveys

 
Formal Standards for Survey Ethics

 
 
Chapter 2. The Survey Form: Questions, Scales, and Appearance
The Content Is the Message

 
Define the Terms

 
Select Your Information Needs or Hypotheses

 
Make Sure You Can Get the Information

 
Do Not Ask for Information Unless You Can Act on It

 
Writing Questions

 
Organizing Responses to Open-Ended Survey Items: Do You Get Any Satisfaction?

 
Rules for Writing Closed Survey Questions

 
Responses for Closed Questions

 
Rating Scales

 
Children and Surveys

 
Online Surveys

 
Plain and Simple Survey Questions and Responses

 
Scaling

 
 
Chapter 3. Getting It Together: Some Practical Concerns
Length Counts

 
Getting the Survey in Order

 
Questionnaire Format: Aesthetics and Other Concerns

 
Branching Questions

 
Administration: Who Gives What to Whom?

 
Reliability and Validity: The Quality of Your Survey

 
Selecting and Adapting Surveys

 
The Survey Is Put on Trial: Guidelines for Pilot Testing

 
A Far-Reaching World: Surveys, Language, and Culture

 
 
Chapter 4. Sampling
Sample Size and Response Rate: Who and How Many?

 
Random Sampling Methods

 
Stratified Random Sampling

 
Simple Random Cluster Sampling

 
Systematic Sampling

 
Convenience Samples

 
Other Convenience Sampling Methods

 
Characterizing the Sample: Who Is In? Who Is Out?

 
Finding the Sample: Recruitment Modes

 
How Large Should Your Sample Be?

 
Statistical Methods: Sampling for Two Groups and an Intervention

 
Response Rate

 
Weighting

 
Margin of Error and Confidence Level

 
 
Chapter 5. Survey Design: Environmental Control
Which Designs Are Available?

 
Cross-Sectional Survey Designs

 
Longitudinal Surveys

 
Experimental Survey Designs

 
Other Survey Designs: Normative and Case Control

 
Case Control Design

 
Survey Design Validity

 
Surveys, Research Design, and Internal and External Validity

 
Surveys With Qualitative Data: Threats to Internal and External Validity

 
 
Chapter 6. Analyzing and Organizing Data From Surveys
What Is Typical Anyway? Some Commonly Used Methods for Analyzing Survey Data

 
Surveying Differences: Usual Methods

 
To Be or Not to Be: Statistician or Qualitative Analyst?

 
Content Analysis, Open-Ended Responses, and Comments

 
Putting the Cart in Front of the Horse: Selecting Analysis Methods

 
Data Management

 
 
Chapter 7. Presenting the Survey Results
Reproducing the Questionnaire

 
Using Tables

 
Drawing Pie Diagrams

 
Using Bar Graphs

 
Using Line Graphs

 
Drawing Diagrams or Pictures

 
Writing the Results of a Survey

 
Survey Reporting Checklists and Guides

 
The Oral Presentation

 
Slide Presentations

 
Oral Versus Written Reports: A Difference in Conversation

 
 
Index

Sample Materials & Chapters

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