How To Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide

by Arlene Fink, Jacqueline Kosecoff

Popular for helping readers to organize a rigorous survey and evaluate the credibility of other ones by giving them practical, step-by-step advice, the Second Edition of this book now also computer-assisted and interactive surveys and how they contrast with telephone and face-to-face surveys; guidelines for preparing informed consent statements for survey respondents; ways to ensure the sample you have is large enough to detect a difference between groups (if one exists); ways to ask questions about ethnicity; how to read computer output containing survey results; how to prepare a structured abstract of a survey report; new survey data analysis techniques, such as odds ratios, relative risks, and confidence intervals as well as sampling techniques, such as snowball sampling; and guidelines for preparing overheads and slides to report survey results with illustrations of how an oral presentation of survey results differs from a written one.

Genres: Nonfiction, Research, School

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1985

About the author

Arlene Fink (Ph.D.) is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the Langley Research Institute. Her main interests include evaluation and survey research and the conduct of research literature reviews as well as the evaluation of their quality. Dr. Fink has conducted scores of literature reviews and evaluation studies in public health, medicine, and education. She is on the faculty of UCLA's Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and is a scientific and evaluation advisor to UCLA's Gambling Studies and IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling & Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) programs. She consults nationally and internationally for agencies such as L'institut de Promotion del la Prevention Secondaire en Addictologie (IPPSA) in Paris, France, and Peninsula Health in Victoria, Australia. Professor Fink has taught and lectured extensively all over the world and is the author of over 135 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbooks.

Reviews

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for EdD program. I actually really enjoyed this one! It was organized well and written in a manner that was easy to understand. It included many breakdowns and guidelines that I expect to refer back to both as I write my dissertation and present or publish in my profession. I recommend this to anyone getting ready for a major research project!

[Ed Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A textbook for a grad level research methods class. As texts go, it is pretty good - plenty of checklists and examples, and written in plain English. It’s likely to stay in the library after the course ends. Short, easy to read and good reference. Not much more to ask for in a textbook.

[Abdullah Alhaidari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and practical with many examples. This is a good introduction to those who never conducted a survey. It is also a good read for beginners who want to learn a bit more about this topic.

[Taylor Piva · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book is dry in its presentation, the content is a great introduction to conducting surveys. The information is very rudimentary, so it is ideal for beginners.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Textbook for a one-credit class I'm taking this semester. It's fine.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 4th edition for a stats class in school and I found the information to be very helpful and very detailed. If this is your first experience in creating a survey I would use other resources as well because this book is in so much detail it can be very dry at times.

[Ali Crain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic information. Great for anyone who has never conducted a survey.