Do respondents using smartphones produce lower quality data? Evidence from the first large scale UK mixed-device survey - Understanding Society Wave 8
Do respondents using smartphones produce lower quality data? Evidence from the first large scale UK mixed-device survey - Understanding Society Wave 8
Some social surveys in the UK have either transitioned to online data collection or are in the process of transitioning. The Covid-19 pandemic forced rapid moves to online data collection for some surveys. There are still some concerns regarding the quality of data produced by respondents using smartphones for survey questionnaire completion. This paper uses the first available in the UK, large scale mixed-device survey, Understanding Society Wave 8, where 40% of the sample were assigned to an online mode of data collection. It allows comparison of data quality between different devices. Different data quality and differential reporting indicators are assessed. The results suggest that even when the questionnaire is not optimised for a smartphone, we should not be concerned about respondents using smartphones in social surveys, even for longer surveys, such as Understanding Society, as break-off rates are very low and data quality between devices is not very different.
Maslovskaya, Olga
9c979052-e9d7-4400-a657-38f1f9cd74d0
Smith, Peter W.F.
961a01a3-bf4c-43ca-9599-5be4fd5d3940
Durrant, Gabriele
14fcc787-2666-46f2-a097-e4b98a210610
Maslovskaya, Olga
9c979052-e9d7-4400-a657-38f1f9cd74d0
Smith, Peter W.F.
961a01a3-bf4c-43ca-9599-5be4fd5d3940
Durrant, Gabriele
14fcc787-2666-46f2-a097-e4b98a210610
Maslovskaya, Olga, Smith, Peter W.F. and Durrant, Gabriele
(2024)
Do respondents using smartphones produce lower quality data? Evidence from the first large scale UK mixed-device survey - Understanding Society Wave 8.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology.
(In Press)
Abstract
Some social surveys in the UK have either transitioned to online data collection or are in the process of transitioning. The Covid-19 pandemic forced rapid moves to online data collection for some surveys. There are still some concerns regarding the quality of data produced by respondents using smartphones for survey questionnaire completion. This paper uses the first available in the UK, large scale mixed-device survey, Understanding Society Wave 8, where 40% of the sample were assigned to an online mode of data collection. It allows comparison of data quality between different devices. Different data quality and differential reporting indicators are assessed. The results suggest that even when the questionnaire is not optimised for a smartphone, we should not be concerned about respondents using smartphones in social surveys, even for longer surveys, such as Understanding Society, as break-off rates are very low and data quality between devices is not very different.
Text
Paper_DataQuality_UnderstandingSociety_deanonimised_final
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 29 July 2024
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 493218
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/493218
ISSN: 1364-5579
PURE UUID: 6c3b5097-740c-412b-b04e-7bad83133ed8
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Date deposited: 28 Aug 2024 16:31
Last modified: 29 Aug 2024 04:01
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