Some worthwhile advice on questionnaire design

I’ve been carrying two journals around in my backpack for what seems like forever, hoping that I could find the time on an airplane or some other dead time to write something meaningful about two different articles on questionnaire design. But I’ve given up and now I am just going to refer you to them.

The first is in IJMR, is authored by Petra Lietz, and is titled, “Research into questionnaire design: a summary of the literature.” It’s a vast literature and no one should be expected to seriously overview it all in 25 pages but she hits many of the key design issues noting where there is disagreement or controversy among the leading methodologists. The second is in Social Science Computer Review and is by Paula Vicente and Elizabeth Reis. It carries the intriguing title, “Using Questionnaire Design to Fight Nonresponse Bias in Web Surveys.” The authors do a nice job of reviewing the academic literature on Web questionnaire design.

Now that we have figured out that bad questionnaire design is a major reason if not the most important reason for bad respondent behavior articles like these are must reading. But please, don’t stop there!