Web-based experiments and questionnaires are vital epidemiologic techniques that offer vital information about public health and disease. They are a common method of collecting data, which are generally cheaper and less time-consuming than face-toface interviews, mail-in questionnaires, or automated telephone menu systems. Questionnaires and Web tests are not without limitations, and these must be addressed to obtain valid and reliable results.
A questionnaire can be affected by response bias. This is the tendency for respondents to answer questions based on their own opinions, rather than research objectives. The design of a questionnaire can influence responses in a variety of ways. For instance the wording of the question can affect whether respondents understand the question and interpret it in the same manner (reliable) or whether the internet-based.org/virtual-data-room-that-its-advanced-features/ question reflects the subject you are interested in (valid), and the ability of respondents to accurately answer (credible).
Respondents may also experience survey fatigue or lack of engagement with the questions and reduces the chance of them giving honest answers. A lack of incentives or compensation can make it difficult for respondents to fill out survey forms.
Online questionnaires can also pose difficult for certain research designs, like studies of reaction time or positioning. It is difficult to measure and control variables across participants due to the differences in settings for browsers operating systems, browser settings, and the size of screens.
Additionally, surveys conducted on the Web are only available to people who are keyboard and Internet knowledgeable, which currently isn’t a large portion of the population. It is also difficult to Web researchers to provide participants with a report after the window for their experiment has closed.
