Reference Books
While many of our customers are experts in the area of survey design, all of them benefit from having resources like the books we list below. Whether for educational purposes, inspiration, or as reference, these books are invaluable additions to your bookshelf.
The Question Book
Tried to develop a survey "from scratch"? You know that the process is time consuming and often difficult. Thinking up or trying to find the "right" questions, getting them into the proper sequence, laying out the questionnaire, a cover page and instructions, getting the final questionnaire in a form that can be printed, involves significant time and cost. And, you may not have the resources to rely on outside vendors for your survey design task.
The QBGI is a unique resource that can save you countless hours and money. It includes both a Workbook and CD-ROM Software containing more than 2,500 survey questions, organized into more than 50 topical categories, for use in your survey design efforts, Twenty-two topical, short questionnaires that address a variety of survey information needs—these can be used "as is" or easily modified to meet your precise needs, and additional survey design support materials.
Designing and Conducting Survey Research: A Comprehensive Guide
Designing and Conducting Survey Research is a complete, practical guide to conducting sample survey research. In a comprehensive manner, it explains all major components of survey research, including construction of the instrument, administration of the process, and analysis and reporting of results. Clear, concise, and accessible, this guide explains how to conduct a survey research project from start to finish. Further, it shows how this research method can be applied in such diverse fields as urban affairs, social science, and public administration. Designing and Conducting Survey Research is an excellent tool that will help both professionals and students understand and explain the validity of sample survey research.
The Psychology of Survey Response
Drawing on classic and modern research from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and survey methodology, this book examines the psychological roots of survey data, how survey responses are formulated, and how seemingly unimportant features of the survey can affect the answers obtained.
Topics include the comprehension of survey questions, the recall of relevant facts and beliefs, estimation and inferential processes people use to answer survey questions, the sources of the apparent instability of public opinion, the difficulties in getting responses into the required format, and distortions introduced into surveys by deliberate misreporting.
An Introduction to Survey Research, Polling, and Data Analysis
An Introduction to Survey Research, Polling, and Data Analysis describes how surveys are conducted in such a way that they can be believed, explains how to read statistical reports and analyze data, and provides guidelines that are useful in evaluating polls. Using frequent examples from contemporary, large national surveys and polls as well as from the media, the authors stress understanding tables thoroughly before moving to interval statistics. In addition, they cover survey design, sampling and question-writing steps, interviewing and coding strategies, and survey analysis from frequency distributions and cross-tabulations to control tables and correlation/regression. They also cover the ethics of survey research and how to read and write survey research reports. Readers of this book will learn to distinguish good from bad polls and to better design and conduct their own surveys and polls.
How to Conduct Your Own Survey
A nuts-and-bolts guide to conducting your own professional-quality surveys without paying professional fees. How can you gauge public support for a cause or test the market for a product or service? What are the best methods for validating opinions for use in a paper or dissertation? A well-documented survey is the answer. But what if you don't have thousands of dollars to commission one? No problem. How to Conduct Your Own Survey gives you everything you need to do it yourself! Without any prior training, you can learn expert techniques for conducting accurate, low-cost surveys. In step-by-step, down-to-earth language, Priscilla Salant and Don A. Dillman give you the tools you need to:
- Determine which type of survey is best for you
- Estimate the cost of your survey
- Conduct mail, telephone, and face-to-face surveys
- Draw accurate samples
- Write effective questionnaires
- Compile and report results
- Avoid common survey errors
- Find reliable outside assistance
- And much more
How to Design, Implement, and Interpret an Employee Survey
Employee opinion is the most important barometer of employment conditions at any company. But marshalling hundreds (or thousands) of individual perceptions into a cohesive workplace initiative demands an organized approach. McConnell presents a practical start-to-finish methodology for getting the most out of an employee opinion survey, from determining what conditions to survey to completion of follow-up procedures. Adaptable to any purpose and organization, McConnell's proven strategies cover:
- Do's and don'ts of question design
- Selecting response type (multi-choice, rating scales, etc.)
- Practical methods for ensuring validity and reliability
- Survey administration
Additional chapters cover the nuts and bolts of implementation, communicating with employees about the survey, and how to score, group, and report survey results. Not least, this crucial book shows how to use survey results as a springboard to improved management/employee communication, working conditions, and productivity.
Employee Opinion Questionnaires: 20 Ready-to-Use Surveys That Work
If you’ve ever wanted to tap a ready-to-use questionnaire the same day you recognize your organization needs a survey, then help is finally at hand. Authors Paul and Kathy Connolly have designed a must-have collection of proven, reliable organizational surveys that anyone--from specialist human resources professionals to line managers and team leaders--can put to use immediately. Employee Opinion Questionnaires includes short, ready-to-use surveys organized into three groups: Use Issue-Focused Surveys to determine employee opinion on topics such as diversity, communications, and adaptability to change. Use Mission-Focused Surveys to gauge opinion on critical organizational issues, including employee alignment with mission, quality, ethics, and customer care. And use Event-Related Surveys for new hires, exit interviews, and assessing peoples’ attitudes following training.
Asking Questions: The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design -- For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires
Since it was first published more than twenty-five years ago, Asking Questions has become a classic guide for designing questionnaires and the most widely used method for collecting information about peoples attitudes and behavior. An essential tool for market researchers advertisers, pollsters, and social scientists, this thoroughly updated and definitive work combines time-proven techniques with the most current research, findings, and methods. The book presents a cognitive approach to questionnaire design and includes timely information on the Internet and electronic resources. Comprehensive and concise, Asking Questions can be used to design questionnaires for any subject area, whether administered by telephone, online, mail, in groups, or face-to-face. The book describes the design process from start to finish and is filled with illustrative examples from actual surveys.
Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method 2007 Update with New Internet, Visual, and Mixed-Mode Guide
For nearly two decades, Don Dillman's Mail and Telephone Surveys and the Total Design Method it outlined has aided students and professionals in effectively planning and conducting surveys. But much has changed since the TDM was developed in 1978. Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, Second Edition, thoroughly revised and updated by the author from his classic text, addresses these changes and introduces a new paradigm that responds to the recent developments that affect the conduct and success of surveys.
Using Web and Paper Questionnaires for Data-Based Decision Making: From Design to Interpretation of the Results
Using Web and Paper Questionnaires for Data-Based Decision Making is a practical handbook for creating exceptional questionnaires for a variety of purposes, including data-based decision making. Author Susan J. Thomas provides authoritative guidance for planning a survey project, creating a questionnaire, gathering data, and analyzing and communicating the results to a variety of audiences.
Features of this reader-friendly guidebook include
- Sample cover letters, invitations, parental permission forms, and planning templates
- Extensive examples, activities, and checklists
- Web-based questionnaire guidelines
- A step-by-step case study of a successful survey project
Offering suggestions for successfully using both Web-based and paper-based questionnaires, this practitioner-focused manual summarizes the key steps of successful survey projects and identifies critical success factors for each step.
Designed primarily for principals, district-level administrators, and teachers, this invaluable resource is also suitable for policymakers, state-level administrators, and graduate students in education and social sciences.