Series editor's foreword p. ix
Preface p. xi
Why survey? p. 1
Our approach to this book p. 1
What is a survey? p. 5
Methods of data collection in surveys p. 6
Surveys and other research strategies p. 7
The success of the survey p. 9
Critiques of surveys p. 12
Response to the critiques of surveys p. 14
The social context of surveys p. 15
Why are people willing to take part in surveys? p. 17
Why are people reluctant to take part in surveys? p. 19
Research ethics p. 22
An invitation to survey research p. 23
Further reading p. 24
Theory into practice p. 25
The components of the modern social survey p. 25
The survey as a research strategy p. 28
Types of survey design p. 31
Relations between theory and research p. 32
Incorporating a theoretical dimension into surveys p. 35
Reliability and validity p. 39
Further reading p. 41
Planning your project p. 42
Reviewing your assets p. 42
Setting the timetable p. 46
Computing and software resources p. 47
Gaining access to organizations p. 49
Three methods of gathering data p. 51
Email and interactive surveys p. 56
Diaries p. 57
Choosing a method of gathering data p. 58
Combining methods of data gathering p. 58
Further reading p. 60
Selecting samples p. 61
Introduction p. 61
Theoretical populations p. 63
Probability sampling strategies p. 64
Accuracy, precision and confidence intervals p. 75
Sample size and sampling error p. 76
Other types of error that affect surveys p. 77
Sampling strategies: non-probability sampling p. 79
Further reading p. 83
Collecting your data p. 84
Doing it yourself p. 84
Commissioned research p. 85
Covering letters for postal questionnaires p. 86
Approaching respondents for an interview p. 90
Piloting p. 90
Distribution and return of questionnaires p. 92
Further reading p. 93
Designing the questions: what, when, where, why, how much and how often? p. 94
The sociological imagination p. 94
Understanding what matters to respondents p. 95
Recognizing differences between respondents p. 96
Using unambiguous language sensitively p. 98
The role of open-ended questions p. 101
Tackling the social desirability problem p. 103
Questions about respondents' knowledge p. 104
Avoiding overlapping categories p. 104
Asking about age p. 105
Avoiding double-barrelled questions p. 106
Avoiding negatives, double negatives and worse p. 106
The main things that go wrong in designing questions, and how to prevent them p. 107
The most frequently raised problems, and our answers p. 112
Questionnaire layout p. 114
Designing interview schedules p. 118
Setting up for coding p. 121
Further reading p. 123
Processing responses p. 124
Introduction p. 124
Manual, semi-automated and automated data input p. 125
Data file formats and data types p. 127
Constructing the codebook p. 128
Levels of measurement p. 129
Pre-coding and post-coding p. 131
Missing data p. 132
Multiple responses p. 132
Checking and cleaning the data p. 133
Further reading p. 134
Strategies for analysis p. 135
Introduction p. 135
Dimensions of analysis p. 136
Analysis of open-ended responses p. 137
Examining single variables p. 139
Measures of central tendency, dispersion, spread and shape p. 142
Standardizing variables p. 143
Statistical inference and sampling error p. 143
Cross-tabulation p. 144
Testing hypotheses and statistical significance p. 147
Measures of association for nominal variables p. 149
Measures of association for ordinal variables p. 152
Measures of association for ratio variables - correlation p. 152
Multivariate analysis p. 155
Further reading p. 160
Presenting your findings p. 161
Writing for an audience p. 161
Characteristics of the classic research report p. 163
Use of tables, figures and diagrams p. 166
Reporting on the research methods p. 170
Advantages of the classic approach p. 171
Disadvantages of the classic approach p. 172
Writing up p. 173
Writing p. 173
Writing up and writing p. 174
Further reading p. 175
Glossary p. 176
The Travel Survey questionnaires p. 184
Websites of professional associations p. 189
References p. 190
Index p. 194