Strand Leader: Dr. Olga Maslovskaya, University of Southampton
RS4 will investigate the main barriers to effectively conducting self-completion surveys in both cross-sectional and longitudinal contexts. It will explore ways to optimise design characteristics, with the aim of achieving more representative samples of the general population. RS4 will build on the work conducted by GenPopWeb2 and SDC-net as well as several major UK social surveys. The main challenges associated with self-completion general population surveys are associated with the absence of field interviewers to facilitate recruitment and retention of participants, and, additionally in a UK context, the absence of a sampling frame of named individuals.
We will consult with key UK survey practitioners and commissioners and review existing literature as well as carry out analysis of existing data to identify good practice and inform a series of practitioner guides with recommendations, which focus on different aspects of recruitment when an interviewer is not present (such as QR codes, number of reminders, incentives, colour and style of envelopes, days of the week for postage of envelopes and other strategies). RS4 will also include work to advance knowledge on targeted survey procedures, developing and comparing methods for identifying optimum designs within a cost constraint and providing survey designers with clear guidelines.
Certain population subgroups may struggle to take part in self-completion surveys, such as those with special needs or the functionally illiterate. A literature review will be conducted followed by a production of a good practice guide to define ways to make it easier for those groups to take part.
It is still unclear whether a Knock-to-Nudge (KtN) approach to establish contact with respondents brings improvements in data quality and sample inclusiveness. Recommendations will be made on whether this strategy should become an integral part of self-completion surveys and whether it has a post-pandemic future.
Building on recommendations on within-household selection methods of individuals in self-completion surveys from the GenPopWeb2 project (Maslovskaya et al. 2022; Nicolaas 2022), this RS will examine work outside the UK such as in the ESS and from studies in the USA and will bring that together with recent UK based evidence and produce a good practice guide for survey practitioners. This area is of importance due to the absence of a sampling frame of individuals in the UK (Lynn, 2020).