"Any other comments?" Open questions on questionnaires - a bane or a bonus to research?
"Any other comments?" Open questions on questionnaires - a bane or a bonus to research?
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DOI：
10.1186/1471-2288-4-25
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发表时间：
2004-11-08
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Thomas, Kate J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
O'Cathain, Alicia;Thomas, Kate J
背景技术背景：在结构化调查表结尾通常提出的“任何其他评论”一般性开放性问题有可能提高答复率，详细说明对封闭性问题的答复，并使答复者能够确定封闭性问题中没有涉及的新问题。然而，我们认为，许多研究人员已经收集了这样的数据，并未能分析或present.Discussion：一般开放式问题结束时的结构化问卷可以提出一个问题，因为他们的不舒服的状态是严格的既不是定性也不是定量数据，随之而来的缺乏明确的围绕如何分析和报告他们，以及时间和专业知识需要这样做。我们建议，这些问题的价值可以优化，如果研究人员开始与他们希望从这样的问题产生的数据类型的清晰的理解，并采用适当的策略时，设计的研究。其目的可以是生成深度数据或“故事”，从有目的地定义的群体的受访者进行定性分析，或产生可量化的数据，代表抽样的人口，作为一个“安全网”，以确定可能补充封闭的问题的问题。这可能会优化数据和分析的质量，减少是否以及如何分析这些数据的困境，并导致更道德的方法来最好地利用答卷人提供的数据。
BACKGROUND: The habitual "any other comments" general open question at the end of structured questionnaires has the potential to increase response rates, elaborate responses to closed questions, and allow respondents to identify new issues not captured in the closed questions. However, we believe that many researchers have collected such data and failed to analyse or present it.DISCUSSION: General open questions at the end of structured questionnaires can present a problem because of their uncomfortable status of being strictly neither qualitative nor quantitative data, the consequent lack of clarity around how to analyse and report them, and the time and expertise needed to do so. We suggest that the value of these questions can be optimised if researchers start with a clear understanding of the type of data they wish to generate from such a question, and employ an appropriate strategy when designing the study. The intention can be to generate depth data or 'stories' from purposively defined groups of respondents for qualitative analysis, or to produce quantifiable data, representative of the population sampled, as a 'safety net' to identify issues which might complement the closed questions.SUMMARY: We encourage researchers to consider developing a more strategic use of general open questions at the end of structured questionnaires. This may optimise the quality of the data and the analysis, reduce dilemmas regarding whether and how to analyse such data, and result in a more ethical approach to making best use of the data which respondents kindly provide.