Is questionnaire acceptable approach for respected journals?
Yes it is acceptable.
What is the most effective approach to applying a questionnaire for scientific research? The reason for using questionnaire is to measure the awareness of security in social media for university students in the Middle East.
First you need to know your research problem, research objectives, research questions, perform rigorous literature review and construct your conceptual framework / research model with relevant hypotheses. Then you need to operationalize your construct / variable e.g. awareness of security in social media etc. by adopting / adapting well tested questionnaires. Cite & seek approval from the original author of the questionnaire also. Only when there is lacking of such questionnaire, then you develop your own & pilot test it for validity & reliability before collecting responses from respondents. Wishing you all the best.