March 26, 2025
Research Highlight: Self-administered Web & Mail Survey Modes
A recent paper published in Demography by Brady West, Mick Couper, Bill Axinn, James Wagner, Rebecca Gatward, Htay-Wah Saw & Shiyu Zhang (Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science) demonstrates that self-administered web and mail survey modes are viable and cost-effective alternatives to in-person surveys, which require interviewers to conduct.
Their work centered on national survey data collections with a focus on reproductive health (like the National Survey of Family Growth), and which include topics like relationships, contraceptive use, desire for future pregnancy, forced intercourse, etc.
This is important for projects that collect data from the general public, because these methods can be implemented to collect important data during times when in-person surveys are not possible (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, or other shocks).
Brady West, Mick Couper, Bill Axinn, James Wagner, Rebecca Gatward, Htay-Wah Saw & Shiyu Zhang (2024). Toward a New Approach to Creating Population-Representative Data for Demographic Research. Demography, 61(6): 1759-1791.