Survey

When to use:

When needed to collect a lot of data (accepts various types of information) in a short time frame, with little cost.

How to use:

1. Prepare the survey. Keep in mind that open questions give much better qualitative data, which takes much longer to be analysed, and closed questions tend to get higher response rates, but give less detail;
2. Think about the survey sampling and share the survey with the targeted population;
3. In case it’s self-completed remotely, an online tool will be needed (in Studyportals, we use Surveygizmo or Typeform). Sometimes researchers read it to participants and complete it “In Loco” (anywhere).

Advantages:

- Is good for analysing big amounts of data (of many different kinds) statistically;
- Cheap;
- Fast method;
- Can reach many users anywhere.

Disadvantages:

- All information is self-reported (which can lead to inconveniences such as bias, variance and lack of memory). Since the information gathered might not be accurate, it’s useful to combine it with other methods;
- Researchers have to be very careful setting up questions, so they are correctly understood by respondents and interpreting the results correctly before making further decisions.