Comparing response rates in e-mail and paper surveys: A meta-analysis
Comparing response rates in e-mail and paper surveys: A meta-analysis
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DOI：
10.1016/j.edurev.2008.01.003
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发表时间：
2009-01-01
影响因子：
11.7
通讯作者：
Fan, Xitao
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shih, Tse-Hua;Fan, Xitao
这项荟萃分析研究了过去10年内的35项研究结果，这些结果直接比较了电子邮件和邮件调查的回复率。个别研究报告了关于电子邮件和邮件调查之间回复率差异的不一致结果，但电子邮件调查的回复率通常低于邮件调查(平均低约20%)。两个研究特征(人口类型和后续提醒)可以解释不同研究中电子邮件和邮件调查回复率的一些差异。对于涉及大学人群的研究，电子邮件和邮件调查之间的回复率差异要小得多，甚至可以忽略不计，这表明电子邮件调查与针对大学人群的邮件调查具有合理的可比性。将跟踪提醒作为一项具有统计意义的研究特征的发现被证明在某种程度上是反常的。事实证明，其他研究特征(即文章类型、调查对象随机分配到电子邮件和邮件调查模式以及使用激励措施)在统计上对解释邮件和电子邮件调查之间的回复率差异并不有用。这一研究结果表明，在这个互联网技术的时代，邮件调查在获得更高回复率方面仍然优于电子邮件调查。(C)2008爱思唯尔有限公司。保留所有权利。
This meta-analysis examined 35 study results within last 10 years that directly compared the response rates of e-mail versus mail surveys. Individual studies reported inconsistent findings concerning the response rate difference between e-mail and mail surveys, but e-mail surveys generally have lower response rate (about 20% lower on the average) than mail surveys. Two study features (population type and follow-up reminders) could account for some variation in the e-mail and mail survey response rate differences across the studies. For the studies involving college populations, the response rate difference between e-mail and mail surveys was much smaller, or even negligible, suggesting that e-mail survey is reasonably comparable with mail survey for college populations. The finding about follow-up reminder as a statistically significant study feature turns out to be somewhat an anomaly. Other study features (i.e., article type, random assignment of survey respondents into e-mail and mail survey modes, and use of incentives) did not prove to be statistically useful in accounting for the variation of response rate differences between mail and e-mail surveys. The findings here suggest that, in this age of internet technology, mail survey is still superior to e-mail survey in terms of obtaining higher response rate. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.