Increasing participation rates and data quality in e-mail survey. An experimental design of research

Survey methodologists confront complicated choices regarding survey design since they want to ensure high participation rates and quality data in a relatively short period of time. Indeed, declining participation rates and inadequate data quality are serious problems in the field of surveys, particularly if they are ad-ministered via the Internet. This paper shows whether a shortened questionnaire and SMS/e-mail reminders maximize response rates and data quality. Our email survey is targeted at students registered in degree courses at the University of Milan Bicocca. It is an experiment, assessing the effects of different combinations of reminders and var-ious questionnaire lengths on participation, accuracy of filling out the questionnaire and overall response time.