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Some Methodological Uses of Responses to Open Questions and Other Verbatim Comments in Quantitative Surveys
[journal article]
Abstract
"The use of open-ended questions in survey research has a very long history. In this paper, building on the work of Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Howard Schuman, we review the methodological uses of open-ended questions and verbatim responses in surveys. We draw on prior research, our own and that of other... view more
"The use of open-ended questions in survey research has a very long history. In this paper, building on the work of Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Howard Schuman, we review the methodological uses of open-ended questions and verbatim responses in surveys. We draw on prior research, our own and that of others, to argue for increasing the use of open-ended questions in quantitative surveys. The addition of open-ended questions - and the capture and analysis of respondents' verbatim responses to other types of questions - may yield important insights, not only into respondents' substantive answers, but also into how they understand the questions we ask and arrive at an answer. Adding a limited number of such questions to computerized surveys, whether self- or interviewer-administered, is neither expensive nor time-consuming, and in our experience respondents are quite willing and able to answer such questions." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
online survey; quantitative method; survey; data collection method; questionnaire; data quality; response behavior; survey research; text analysis
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Free Keywords
open questions; verbatim comments
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 115-134
Journal
Methods, data, analyses : a journal for quantitative methods and survey methodology (mda), 11 (2017) 2
ISSN
2190-4936
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution