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Mixed-Device Online Surveys: A Total Survey Error Perspective 2

Coordinator 1Dr Olga Maslovskaya (University of Southampton)
Coordinator 2Professor Gabriele Durrant (University of Southampton)
Coordinator 3Professor Patrick Sturgis (University of Southampton)

Session Details

We live in a digital age with widespread use of technologies in everyday life. Technologies change very rapidly and affect all aspects of life, including surveys and their designs. Online data collection is now common in many countries and researchers are adapting online surveys in response to the requirements of mobile devices, especially smartphones. Mobile devices can facilitate collection of new forms of data such as sensor data. It is important to assess different sources of error in mixed-device online surveys.

This session welcomes submissions of papers on different sources of error in online surveys in both cross-sectional and longitudinal contexts. The following topics are of interest:

• Coverage issues
• Data quality issues
• Item nonresponse
• Unit nonresponse
• Breakoff rates
• Completion times
• Response styles
• Mobile device use
• Optimisation of surveys and adaptation of question design for smartphones and data quality,
• Impact of different questions’ designs or presentations on response quality across devices,
• New types of data collection associated with mobile devices such as sensor data and data quality.

We encourage papers from researchers with a variety of backgrounds and across different sectors, including academia, national statistics and research agencies.

This session aims to foster discussion, knowledge exchange and shared learning among researchers and methodologists around issues related to increased use of mobile devices for survey completion. The format of the session will be designed to encourage interaction and discussion between the presenters and audience.

The session is proposed by the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) Research Work Package 1 ‘Data Collection for Data Quality’. ‘Data Collection for Data Quality’ is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by a team from the University of Southampton. The project investigates amongst other topics mobile device use in mixed-device online surveys.