Partial book profile

Survey & Questionnaire Design: Collecting Primary Data to Answer Research Questions

A practice-oriented guide to designing surveys and questionnaires that collect valid, reliable primary data to answer well-formulated research questions.

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What it’s about

This concise, practice-focused ebook walks researchers, students, and managers through the full arc of survey design—from formulating a sharp research question and hypothesis, through writing clear factual and non-factual questions, choosing appropriate levels of measurement, coding responses, and ensuring validity and reliability, to laying out a self-completion questionnaire. Drawing on the authors' years of teaching survey methods at University College Cork and grounded in established survey-methodology literature (Fowler, Dillman, Sudman & Bradburn, Oppenheim), it pairs concrete examples, exercises, video links, and a sample small-business questionnaire to help readers avoid the common pitfalls that produce confused respondents and useless data. If you want to collect primary data that actually answers your question, this book gives you the practical decision rules to do it.

The through-line

Who it’s for: A researcher, student, or manager who wants to collect primary data that genuinely answers their research question.
The problem: They need to design a survey that produces valid, reliable, analysable data. They feel uncertain and overwhelmed about whether their questions are good enough and fear collecting useless data.
The plan: Formulate and clarify your research question, hypothesis, and objectives.
Review the literature and choose a deductive or inductive approach.
Design clear, standardised factual and non-factual questions.
Choose appropriate levels of measurement and code responses systematically.
Test the instrument for validity and reliability.
The payoff: A valid, reliable questionnaire that yields analysable data and answers the research question.

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Additional reading

Survey Research Methods · Fowler, F.J. Jr.
Referenced for fundamental concepts like validity, reliability, and the risks of asking hypothetical questions.
Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement · Oppenheim, A.N.
The book opens with a quote from this author, positioning it as a foundational text on the difficulty and importance of proper questionnaire design.
Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys · Schuman, H. & Presser, S.
Listed in the 'Further Reading' section, indicating it's a key academic resource for understanding question form, wording, and context effects.
Asking Questions – A Practical Guide to Questionnaire Design · Sudman S. & Bradburn, N.M.
The source for the 'Two Priests' anecdote, highlighting its status as a classic practical guide on question wording.

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