Publication
Handling Do-Not-Know Answers: Exploring New Approaches in Online and Mixed-Mode Surveys
de Leeuw, E. D., Hox, J. J. & Boevé, A., 2016, In : Social Science Computer Review. 34, 1, p. 116-132 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Documents
- Handling Do-Not-Know Answers Exploring New Approaches in Online
Final publisher's version, 325 KB, PDF document
DOI
An important decision in online and mixed-mode questionnaire design is if and how to include a “do-not-know” (DK) option. Mandatory response is often a default option, but methodologists have advised against this. Several solutions for the DK category are suggested. These include (1) not explicitly offering a DK, but skipping questions is allowed, (2) explicitly offering a DK option with visual separation from the substantive responses, and (3) using the interactivity of the web to emulate interviewer probing after a DK answer. To test these solutions, experimental data were collected in a probability based online panel. Not offering DK, but allowing respondents to skip questions, followed by a polite probe when skips occurred, resulted in the lowest amount of missing information. To assess the effect of probing across different modes, a second experiment was carried out that compared explicitly and implicitly offering the DK option for web and telephone surveys.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 116-132 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Social Science Computer Review |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
ID: 21055560