Many studies were conducted to help researchers designing high quality surveys. Testing theoretical considerations, these studies create empirical evidence that should serve for guidance. However, we often come across surveys that do not follow those literature recommendations. While this might be due to the trade-offs between data quality, comparability (across time or countries), and costs, in this paper, we provide information about the scales used in practice by 10 well-established social science face-to-face surveys. We found that: 1) agree/disagree scales are used in all 10 surveys but in a maximum of 15.7% of the items; 2) most attitude or belief …

In many surveys, advance letters are the first point of contact with target persons. The letters have multiple objectives, such as informing about the survey request, gaining trust, and evoking participation. Numerous previous quantitative and experimental studies have varied the content and layout of advance letters to examine effects on outcome rates and nonresponse bias. In contrast, studies on advance letters using qualitative approaches are rather scarce, although they can provide more information on how respondents process advance letters and perceive certain aspects of advance letters. The present study implemented a cognitive pretest in which 20 participants evaluated three advance …

Little is known about the trade-off between response rates and sample selection on the one hand and costs of different incentives on the other hand in mature online panel surveys. In wave 5 of the Panel Survey of the Swiss Election Study (Selects), a conditional CHF 20 (cash) is used for the politically least interested, while the remaining sample is randomized in two incentive groups: a conditional CHF 10 (cash) and a lottery (5×300 CHF). In the two experimental groups, there are only small differences regarding sample composition, and response rates are only slightly higher in the more expensive cash …

Earlier studies suggest that multitasking and distractions are common in telephone surveys. When respondents engage in secondary activities or are being distracted, they may not be able to fully engage in the cognitive process of answering survey questions. As a result, multitasking may harm data quality. To assess the level of multitasking and distractions and their impact on data quality I draw on self-reports from a telephone survey (N=1000) conducted in Hungary in 2021. The results show that the majority of respondents were multitasking, whereas only 7.5 percent got distracted during the survey. Few factors predicted multitasking and distractions, while …