The Practice of Survey Research

Erin Ruel is associate professor of sociology and director of graduate studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She received her PhD in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003. In 2003, Erin took a postdoctoral position at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the Center for Demography of Health and Aging. While there, she continued to hone her survey research skills on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Soon after arriving in Atlanta to take an assistant professor position at Georgia State University (GSU) in 2005, she began the Urban Health Initiative, a longitudinal survey study of public housing residents facing involuntary relocation with GSU colleagues. Erin was principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health study on the health outcomes of relocated public housing residents and co-investigator on two National Science Foundation grants, examining social disorganization and social support for public housing residents. She employs quantitative and mixed methods to examine health disparities and the health consequences of racial residential segregation, neighborhood disadvantage, housing, and socioeconomic status. Ruel has published in numerous journals, including Demography, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Health and Place, Journal of Housing Studies, Cities, Sociology Compass, Journal of Adolescent Health, and Journal of Urban Health. William E. Wagner, III, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and Executive Director of the Social Science Research & Instructional Council of the CSU. He is co-author of Adventures in Social Research, 11th edition (SAGE, 2022), The Practice of Survey Research (SAGE, 2016), and A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Sciences (SAGE, 2020) and author of Using IBM (R) SPSS (R) Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science Statistics, 7th edition (SAGE, 2019). Brian Joseph Gillespie, Ph.D. is a researcher in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is the author of Household Mobility in America: Patterns, Processes, and Outcomes (Palgrave, 2017) and coauthor of The Practice of Survey Research: Theory and Applications (Sage, 2016) and Using and Interpreting Statistics in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences (Sage, 2018). He has also published research in a variety of social science journals on topics related to family, migration, the life course, and interpersonal relationships.

Part I: Before the Survey Chapter 1: Introduction to Survey Research What is survey research? How do you know if a survey is good? Surveys about Teachers: Are They Good Teachers? Applications of Survey Research Technology and Survey Research The Ethics of Survey Research Key Decisions about Survey Research: What's Ahead Part II: Questionnaire Design Chapter 2: Types of Surveys Omnibus Surveys Administration Importance of Proper Training of Interviewers Types of Surveys Chapter 3: The Survey Instrument The Cover Letter The Survey Instrument Appearance, Formatting, and Design Chapter 4: Survey Question Construction Concept Measurement: Traits, Assessments, and Sentiments Complex Concepts Question Development Responses to Questions Measurement Error Chapter 5: Validity and Reliability Reliability Correlation Types of Reliability and Estimation Validity Chapter 6: Pre-testing and Pilot Testing Pre-testing Pilot Testing Pre-test and Pilot Test Limitations Part III: Implementing a Survey Chapter 7: Selecting a Sample: Probability Sampling Sampling Terminology Sampling Theory Probability Sampling Techniques Chapter 8: Non-Probability Sampling and Sampling Hard to Find Populations Convenience Sampling Quota Sampling Purposive Sampling Sampling Hard to Find Populations Chapter 9: Improving Response Rates and Retention Response Rates and Non-response Errors Non-response Bias Attrition in Panel Studies Methods to Increase Participant Contact and Participant Cooperation Chapter 10: Technologies to Develop and Implement Surveys Mail Survey Administration Computer-assisted Interviewing Post-survey Data Entry and Data Cleaning Technology Contracting with a Research Center to Conduct the Survey Chapter 11: Data Collection The Self-administered Cross-sectional Mailed Survey The Self-administered Longitudinal Panel Mailed Survey Interviewer-administered Surveys Self-administered Web Surveys Comparing Survey Types Storage Needs Part IV: Post-Survey Data Management and Analysis Chapter 12: Data Entry Data Entry Documentation Chapter 13: Data Cleaning Simple Cross-sectional Data Cleaning Cosmetic Cleaning Skip Patterns Multiple-response Questions, Other Specify and Open-ended Questions Cleaning for Diagnostics Interviewer Effects/Mode Effects Cleaning Longitudinal Data The Codebook Chapter 14: Data Analysis for a Policy Report Policy Reports Descriptive Statistics Analysis for a Policy Report Summary The Report Write-up Chapter 15: More Advanced Data Analysis Explanatory Research Questions Journal Article Format Regression Analysis Addressing Missing Data OLS Regressions of the Positive Relocation Scale Creating Tables for the Journal Article and Writing-up the Results Chapter 16: Data Archiving Seeking External Funding for Your Survey Project Archiving Original and Final Data Data Format Archiving and Making Data Publicly Available Archives Epilogue Survey Administration checklist Survey Design and Organization Checklist Writing Good Questions Checklist Piloting or Pre-Testing the Survey Checklist Choosing a Sample Checklist Improving Response Rates Checklist

"Other survey research texts read as a dry report of what survey research is. This text reads as a personable text that walks the novice researcher through the survey research process, including all of the details considered by a seasoned survey researcher." -- Carol A. Angell, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse "[T]he book is organized in a very strategic and hands-on manner that will train students to think, plan, and implement a project like an experienced social scientific scholar using survey methods." -- Kenneth C. Yang, University of Texas at El Paso "The text is very well written, clear and easy to understand. It highlights main concerns throughout the survey research process." -- Silvia K. Bartolic, University of British Columbia "This textbook covers all of the important topics in survey research and does so at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduates." -- Richard E. Adams, Kent State University