Comparing Two Forms of an E-mail Survey: Embedded vs Attached

Abstract

After this paper reviews the literature on online surveys, it describes an experiment that compares an embedded e-mail survey with an attached e-mail survey. The embedded survey yielded a significantly higher response rate than the attached survey, but there were no differences between the two methods on response speed, number of item omissions, or response bias. Suggestions are offered to future researchers of online surveys.