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Mail Survey Response Rate: A Meta-Analysis of Selected Techniques for Inducing Response
Abstract
This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of experimental studies which have examined ten different factors felt to influence response rates to mail surveys. The form of meta-analysis used clearly defines the individual impact of each of the factors examined. Results indicate that prenotification and follow-ups increase the response rate, as does the type of outgoing postage used. Furthermore, studies sponsored by a university receive greater returns. Increases in the size of the monetary incentive used appear to have decreasing marginal gains. Finally, some evidence exists to suggest that the color of the questionnaire influences response rate.
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Citations
Cited by
Response rates to mail surveys published in medical journals
Asch, D. A., Jedrziewski, M. K., & Christakis, N. A. (1997) · Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(97)00126-1 · Cited by 2,110
One Hundred Years of Social Psychology Quantitatively Described
Richard, F. D., Bond, C. F., & Stokes-Zoota, J. J. (2003) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.7.4.331 · Cited by 1,558
E-mail Survey Response Rates: A Review
Sheehan, K. B. (2006) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2001.tb00117.x · Cited by 1,441
The Design and Administration of Mail Surveys
Dillman, D. A. (1991) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.so.17.080191.001301 · Cited by 1,311
Comparing Response Rates from Web and Mail Surveys: A Meta-Analysis
Shih, T.-H., & Fan, X. (2008) · Field Methods · doi:10.1177/1525822x08317085 · Cited by 1,159
Metadata
- Authors
- Fox, R. J., Crask, M. R., & Kim, J.
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1988
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 467
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2159987121
- Cited by
- 670
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 26.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Fox, R. J., Crask, M. R., & Kim, J. (1988). Mail Survey Response Rate: A Meta-Analysis of Selected Techniques for Inducing Response. Public Opinion Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1086/269125
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
