Dear Dr. Bridget Irene,

1. Where was your research conducted?

Pakistan

2. What was the response rate of respondents? 

Out of 400 only 15 replied.

3. How hard or how easy was it to find willing participants for your research.

It is very hard to convince people to reply through email/online survey. Moreover, there are some other factors which are important to consider as well. The reason for such a few replies, in my case, may be because people were largely unaware of the phenomena I was trying to measure. Although I tried to explain the terms which were difficult but the response rate was not impressive.

Similarly I conducted another online survey and the response rate was about 5% to 7%. Those who usually reply are your friends or family members or somehow they know you. 

One interesting factor which is important to note that once I shared an online survey through Head of Department of a University and therefore the response rate was quite high i.e., 15%.

Thank you so much for your assistance. Much appreciated

1. Where was your research conducted?

South Africa

2. What was the response rate of respondents? 

Out of 370, 307 responded (RR=83%)

3. How hard or how easy was it to find willing participants for your research

The data was collected over an eight month period. It was a very tedious task. In the first seven months, I had only 49 respondents, may be because, I did not put my heart to it; I was writing my methodology chapter. But the rest of the data was collected within five weeks of daily and hard drive. I devised a strategy of getting around it; and the response rate increased dramatically.  

Thank you so much Ethel. Much appreciated

Thanks Chalamalla. I am doing a research on the cultural factors (if any) that may explain why people respond more in certain demographic areas than others. In other to justify my claims, I am looking to compare response rates from  different areas. Hence my questions. 

But thank you for all the useful literature you have sent me. It will help me with the Literature review.

Best regards,

Bridget

Thanks Chalamalla. Much appreciated

Dear Bridget

I usually conduct research in Portugal andtimes to times I organize projects with researcher that come from other contries.

So, it is very difficult to get answers from online surbey, unless we use a panel sample.

Usually journals do not accept the snow  ball process. 

Journals always talk about bias. So be aware about it.

Sandra.

Thanks Sandra. Could you perhaps give me an indication of the response rates you receive for your researches? I am trying to compare rates from different demographic areas  with a view to understanding whether or not cultural factors contribute to the variation in response rates. Why we have more people responding in certain areas compared to other areas.

Its interesting that you can achieve such high levels of response rates in SSA. It seems quite unusual. The same challenge is very much evident in the MENA region. You'd be more than happy to hit the 30-40 percent levels. Here's what one of my colleagues at the American University of Sharjah thinks.

Kemp, L. J. (2010). Access to fieldwork:“strange” work in a Middle East setting. Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 3(4), 289-298.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17537981011089587