This weekend is the deadline for submitting a presentation proposal to this year’s conference of the European Survey Research Association. That’s one the two major the conferences for people who love to talk about things like nonresponse bias, total survey error, and mixing survey modes.
As in previous years, it looks like the most heated debates will be on mixed-mode surveys. As survey methodologists we have been struggling to combine multiple survey modes (Internet, telephone, face-to-face, mail) in a good way.
Instead of separating out mode effects from nonresponse and noncoverage effects through statistical modeling, it is perhaps better to design our mixed-mode surveys in such a way so that mode effects do not occur. The key principle in preventing the mode effects from occurring, is to make sure that questionnaires are cognitively equivalent to respondents. This means that no matter in which survey mode the respondents participate, they would give the same answer.