I plan on creating a survey for bobwhite quail hunters in Texas to determine if they self-limit during times of low bobwhite abundance and I am considering an online survey but wanted to maximize my response rate so was wondering if online or mailed survey was the best option.
it´s been discussed in several studies; here are some: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977413000331
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-5823.2010.00112.x/abstract
http://dare.uva.nl/document/218227
I have read in several texts that mailed surveys have an extremely low response rate. Are you familiar with SurveyMonkey.com? You might want to consider their basic (free) survey creation services, and use snowball sampling to disseminate the survey to that population.
it´s been discussed in several studies; here are some: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977413000331
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-5823.2010.00112.x/abstract
http://dare.uva.nl/document/218227
mailed surveys has a response rate below 10%. In any case, you should not only think of response rate but also on selection bias and, if you have some information on the population (all hunters) on non-reponse weighting. Maybe the probability of answering of hunters with age between 35-45 is much higher than for other groups but they do not self-limit during times of low bobwhite abundance as other groups...
Undoubtedly the best source of practical advice about how to maximize response rates for both mail and online surveys is "Internet, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method" by Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth and Leah Melani Christian.
The majority of authors have found that e-mail and web-based surveys have a lower response rate than postal surveys, although a lower number of authors did not find differences. Web an email surveys tend to have a moderate or poor performance in response rates. Maybe it can be compensate if by email you can reach a larger number of hunters. The most important variable in getting good responses rates is to convince respondents that it is in their interest to answer the questioner.
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