The dilemma of survey nonresponse

Library&InformationScienceResearch

25(2003)239–263

Thedilemmaofsurveynonresponse

JacquelynBurkell

FacultyofInformationandMediaStudies,MiddlesexCollege,

TheUniversityofWesternOntario,London,OntarioN6A5B7,Canada.

E-mailaddress:jburkell@uwo.ca(J.Burkell).

Abstract

Anexaminationofthelibraryandinformationscience(LIS)literaturerevealsthatsurveyspub-lishedfrom1996through2001inthreemajorLISjournalshaveanaverageresponserateof63%,andalmostthreefourthsofthesurveyshavearesponseratelessthan75%(thelevelthatiswidelyheldtoberequiredforgeneralizability).Consistentwiththepracticeinotherdisciplines,however,mostLISresearchersdonotaddresstheissueofnonresponsebeyondreportingthesurveyresponserate.ThisarticledescribesastrategythatLISresearcherscanusetodealwiththeproblemofnonresponse.Asafirststep,theyshouldusemethodologicalstrategiestominimizenonresponse.Toaddressnonresponsethatremainsdespitetheuseofthesestrategies,researchersshoulduseoneofthefollowingstrategies:carefuljustificationofadecisionsimplytointerpretsurveyresultsdespitenonresponse,limitingsurveyconclusionsinrecognitionofpotentialbiasfromnonresponse,orassessingandcorrectingforbiasfromnonresponse.

D2003ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.

1.Introduction

Libraryandinformationscience(LIS)researchersstudytheneeds,challenges,andproblemsofinformationprofessionalsandinformationusers,andsurveysareanexcellentmethodofcollectinginformationabouttheopinionsandexperienceofresearchparticipants.SurveysarethereforeamongthemostwidelyusedmethodsinLISresearch(Blake,1994;Callison,1997;Dimitroff,1995;Feehan,Gragg,&Havener,1987;Fidel,1993;Goodall,1996;Julien,1996;Julien&Duggan,2000;McKechnie,Baker,Greenwood,&Julien,2002;Preitz,1980–81;Simpson,1992).GiventheprevalenceofsurveysasamethodofcollectingdatainLIS,issuesofsurveymethodologyareofparamountimportancetoLISresearchers.

0740-8188/03/$–seefrontmatterD2003ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.doi:10.1016/S0740-8188(03)00029-X

240J.Burkell/Library&InformationScienceResearch25(2003)239–263

SpecificissuesthathavebeenaddressedintheLISliteratureincludeoptimizationofsampledesign(Lakner,1998)andtheutilityofe-mailremindersforsurveyssentbyregularmail(Roselle&Neufeld,1998).HernonandSchwartz(2000)raisedanothercriticalissueinsurveymethodology:theproblemofnonresponse.Theyremarkedthat,intheLISliterature,‘‘insufficientattentionhasfocusedonreturnratesandwhetherthepopulationistrulyrep-resented’’(p.119),andasked,‘‘Whatcanbedonetogetasufficientnumberofrespondents?’’and‘‘Howcanweframetheimpositiontogaincooperation?’’(p.118).Thisarticleaddressesthesequestionsandotheraspectsoftheproblemofnonresponse.

Well-designedsurveysareeffectiveresearchinstrumentsforgatheringquantitativedata.Whenthosedataarecollectedfromacarefullyselectedrepresentativesampledrawnfromalargerpopulation,theresultscanbegeneralizedbeyondthesurveyrespondentstotheentirepopulationofinterest.Thereis,however,arecurrentproblemencounteredbyvirtuallyallsurveyresearchersthataffectsthisgeneralization:peoplewhoareaskedmaynotrespond.Studentsofpsychologyareintroducedtotheconceptofthe‘‘blindspot,’’anareaoftheretinathatreceivesnodirectvisualinput.Ourvisualsystemrespondsby‘‘fillingin’’themissingdata,relyingoninformationfromsurroundingareastoprovidea‘‘bestguess’’aboutwhatappearswherewecannotactuallysee.Thisinductiveprocessworkswellinasmooth,continuousworldwheretheseenisagoodapproximationoftheunseen.Theprocessfails,however,whennewandunexpectedvisualinformationiscontainedcompletelywithintheboundariesoftheblindspot.Inthiscase,startlingandpotentiallyimportantinformationgoescompletelyunnoticed.

Surveyresearchershaveananalogousblindspottocontendwith:themissingdatathatresultfromnonresponse.Theresearcherreceiveslittleornoinformationfromnonrespon-dentsandisfacedwiththechallengeofformingacompletepictureofthesurveyedpopulationfromincompletedata.Thesolutionmostoftenadoptedissimplytofillinthegapwithinformationcollectedfromrespondents,assumingthattheirdataapproximatesthedatamissingfromnonrespondents.Thissolutionworkswellifnonrespondentsdonotdifferfromthosewhoprovidedata,butitfailsifthetwogroupsaredifferentinwaysthatinfluencetheirsurveyresponses.Whensurveyresultsaregeneralizedtothepopulationinthelattercase,itisasifthenonrespondentsdonotexist:thepopulationthatisdescribedbythesurveyresultsisthepopulationofrespondentsonly.

Theconsequencesofnonresponseforconclusionsbasedonsurveydatacanbeserious.Librarypatronsatisfactionwouldbeoverestimatedifthoselesshappywithlibraryserviceswerealsolesslikelytorespondtoasatisfactionquestionnaire.Librarianworkloadwouldbeunderestimatedifthosebusiestintheirworkcouldnotfindthetimetocompletethesurvey.Academiclibrariesfacedwiththedifficultdecisionofwhethertodiscontinuejournalsubscriptionsmightuseasurveytocollectpatroninputonthequestion,onlytobemisledabouttheneedsofthegeneralpopulationifthosewhodonotusethejournalssimplydonotrespondtothesurvey.Ineachofthesecases,thedatafromnonrespondentswouldhavechangedthesurveyconclusions.

Nonresponseintroducesanunresolvabledilemma:ultimately,assessmentof,andcorrec-tionfor,nonresponserequiresthatresearcherseitherestimatedatafororextractdatafromthoseindividualswhohavenotprovidedanydata.Thisdilemmaisacentralissueinsurvey

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methodology.In1999,anentireconference(theInternationalConferenceonSurveyNonresponseinPortland,Oregon)wasdevotedtononresponse(Groves,Dillman,Eltinge,&Little,2002).Itiswidelyheldthataresponserateof75%to90%issufficienttosup-portgeneralizationsfromthesurveyedsampletothepopulationofinterest(Ary,Jacobs,&Razavieh,1996;Gall,Borg,&Gall,1996;Kerlinger,1986;Tuckman,1999).Overall,however,onlyabout70%ofthoseapproachedagreetocompleteasurvey,andthereisevidencethatnonresponseratesareincreasing(Brehm,1993).Surveysofsomegroupsshowevenlowerresponserates:forexample,approximately60%ofphysiciansrespondtosurveyrequests(Cummings,Savitz,&Konr …… 此处隐藏：2958字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……