Forum: Ideal and maximum length for a web survey

This paper aims to discover 'How long can/should a survey be?' by asking the question to respondents themselves in a web survey implemented by the Netquest fieldwork company in Mexico in 2016.
Forum

Ideal and maximum length for a web survey

Melanie Revilla

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Carlos Ochoa

Netquest

Introduction

How long can/should a survey be? This is a question that we have been asked many times, even if there has already been discussion as to whether there is such a thing as an ideal or maximum survey length. Indeed, some researchers ‘are convinced that survey instruments have a maximum length beyond which there is an increasing probability of premature termination, random responding, or other behavior patterns which result in data of lower quality’, whereas others argue that ‘a survey can be...

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