A practical guide to producing standardized, and reliable, interviews, this volume represents a blending of social science theories of interviewing dynamics, the authors' own extensive research on interview-related error and research evidence from other prominent methodologists.

Students and researchers who want to improve the quality of their mail-survey data collection will find this book invaluable. The author considers such issues as: reducing sampling bias; questioning response errors; and obtaining good response rates from a mail surveys. The book also offers useful insights and tips on: problems to avoid in mail surveys; what type of rating scales to use; open-ended versus closed-ended questions; screening questions and skip instructions; question and response order effects; sampling strategies; and ways to reduce nonresponse errors - for example, by...