Improving Survey Response

Ineke Stoop, Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands Head of the Department of Data Services and IT, Dr Stoop has worked in survey research and data quality for almost 30 years. She's a member of the advisory board for both Eurostat and the ISI. Her main research interest is nonresponse. Jaak Billiet, Centre for Sociological Research, K.U. Leuven, Belgium Professor Billiet is head of the Centre of Sociological Research and a member of the central co-ordination team of the European Social Survey. Achim Koch, Centre for Survey Research and Methodology, Germany Senior Researcher Achim Koch has been working in this area for 20 years. He was Director of the German General Social Survey between 1995 and 2004. Rory Fitzgerald, Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University, UK Senior Research Fellow Rory Fitzgerald has had many years experience working in surveying. Before moving to his current post he was Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) for 5 years. All four authors have published numerous articles in this area.

1. Backgrounds of nonresponse 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Declining response rates 1.3. Total survey quality and nonresponse 1.4. Optimising comparability 2. Survey response in cross-national studies 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Harmonisation models 2.3. Contactability 2.4. Ability to cooperate 2.5. Willingness to cooperate 2.6. Nonresponse bias 2.7. Ethics and humans 3. The European Social Survey 3.1. Introduction 3.2. What is the European Social Survey? 3.3. ESS design and methodology 3.4. Nonresponse targets, strategies and documentation 3.5. Conclusions 4. Implementation of the European Social Survey 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Basic survey features 4.3. Practical fieldwork issues 4.4. Summary and conclusions 5. Response and nonresponse rates in the European Social Survey 5.1. Data and definitions 5.2. Response and nonresponse rates in ESS 3 5.3. Response rate differences and fieldwork efforts 6. Response enhancement through extended interviewer efforts 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Previous research on contactability 6.3. Previous research on cooperation 6.4. Sample type and recruitment mode in the European Social Survey 6.5. Establishing contact in the European Social Survey 6.6. Obtaining cooperation in the European Social Survey 6.7. Effects of enhanced field efforts in the European Social Survey 6.8. Conclusion 7. Refusal conversion 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Previous research 7.3. Refusal conversion in the ESS 7.4. Refusal conversion and data quality 7.5. Discussion and conclusions 8. Designs for detecting nonresponse bias and adjustment 8.1. What is nonresponse bias? 8.2. Methods for assessing nonresponse bias 8.4. Final conclusions 9. Lessons learned 9.1. Introduction 9.2. Standardisation, tailoring and control 9.3. Achieving high response rates 9.4. Refusal conversion 9.5. Nonresponse bias 9.6. Contact forms and fieldwork monitoring 9.7. Into the future