This paper presents best practices for conducting survey research using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Readers will learn the benefits, limitations, and trade-offs of using MTurk as compared to other recruitment services, including SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. A synthesis of survey design guidelines along with a sample survey are presented to help…

Survey research is prevalent among many professional fields. Both cost effective and time efficient, this method of research is commonly used for the purposes of gaining insight into the attitudes, thoughts, and opinions of populations. Additionally, because there are several types of survey research designs and data collection instruments, the…

Missing data are a common occurrence in survey-based research studies in education, and the way missing values are handled can significantly affect the results of analyses based on such data. Despite known problems with performance of some missing data handling methods, such as mean imputation, many researchers in education continue to use those…

It is not uncommon that researchers face difficulties when performing meaningful cross-study comparisons for research. Research associated with the distance learning realm can be even more difficult to use as there are different environments with a variety of characteristics. We implemented a mixed-method analysis of research articles to find out…

Many see trust as an important social resource for the welfare of individuals as well as nations. It is therefore important to be able to identify trust and explain its sources. Cross-country survey analysis has been an important tool in this respect, and often one single variable is used to identify social trust understood as trust in strangers,…

Using data from national socio-economic panel surveys in Australia, Britain and Germany, this paper analyzes the effects of individual preferences and choices on subjective well-being (SWB). It is shown that, in all three countries, preferences and choices relating to life goals/values, partner's personality, hours of work, social participation…

Although the mail survey has been widely criticized as a viable research methodology, it remains the most feasible approach for retrieving data from large, widely-dispersed populations. This paper suggests that there exists a readily accessible body of pragmatic recommendations which, if adhered to throughout the instrument design and data…

A comparison of the data from the 1976 "Editor and Publisher" poll regarding newspapers' editorial endorsements with data from a survey of the nation's voters suggests that the poll overstates the partisanship of the press and its Republican bias. (GT)

There are times in survey research when missing values need to be estimated. The robustness of four variations of regression and substitution by mean methods was examined using a 3x3x4 factorial design. The regression variations included in the study were: (1) regression using a single best predictor; (2) two best predictors; (3) all available…

This study examines and compares the purpose, content, and form of the problem statement by researchers in disciplines other than library and information science (LIS). Their assessments of the attributes of a problem statement were compared to the literature and an evaluation of problem statements evidenced by researchers within LIS. (Contains 16…

A study was conducted at Los Angeles Pierce College (LAPC) to test the relative reliability of small-sample telephone interviewing and large-sample mailings with postcard and telephone reminders for student follow-up. The study involved conducting a telephone survey of 245 former students who had enrolled at LAPC in four program areas, and a mail…

Addresses two related problems: what are the appropriate measures for comparing effects of blocks or compounds of variables (each block conceived as having a single effect) when the causal ordering is assumed to be known, and how can single measures be created for each such block or compound, so that the comparisons can be made. (Author/JM)

This document consists of four symposium papers each providing a critical examination of a particular data collection technique in vocational education research. Texts of the following presentations are provided: "Mail Survey Research," by Betty Heath-Camp; "The Telephone Interview as a Data Collection Technique," by James P. Key; "The Personal…

"Student Powered" research, defined as a comprehensive reliance on or involvement of students as research staff members in all or most phases of a serious research effort, is discussed. It is suggested that there are several conditions necessary for student powered mail survey questionnaire research projects to be initiated, that there…

College administrators are complaining that "Yahoo! Internet Life" magazine used a flawed surveying process and inaccurate data to select the institutions it named in a recent ranking of "American's 100 Most Wired Colleges." Even some institutions faring well in the ranking have concerns about the survey, citing problems with…