A Comparison of Web and Mail Survey Response Rates

Abstract

The Internet (also called the World Wide Web or the Web) is increasingly looked at as a means of surveying the public (Couper 2000). Possible advantages of using the Internet include cost savings associated with eliminating the printing and mailing of survey instruments (Cobanoglu, Warae, and Morec 2001) as well as time and cost savings of having returned survey data already in an electronic format. For special populations that regularly use the Internet, the Web has been found to be a useful means of conducting research (Couper, Traugott, and Lamias 2001; Sills and Song 2002). In some instances, a mixed-mode strategy has been suggested as a means for exploiting the advantages of Web surveys and minimizing nonresponse (Dillman 2000; Schaefer and Dillman 1998). To reliably use a mixed-mode strategy (e.g., mail surveys and Web surveys) or to select among alternative survey modes, researchers must understand and demonstrate the equivalency and complementarity, or relative strengths of alternative modes (Dillman 2000). Researchers have used survey response rates as one measure of equivalency.