Survey Response Rate as a Function of Number of Signatures, Signature Ink Color, and Postscript on Covering Letter

Improving the response rate and quality in Web-based surveys through the personalization and frequency of reminder mailings

“…Regarding the first of these, many authors have observed an increase in response rate associated to the personalization of contact e-mails (Dodd and Markwiese 1987;Boser 1988). Similar effects have been observed for Web-based surveys (Schaefer and Dillman 1998;Newman et al 2002;Loosveldt 2002, 2003;Heerwegh et al 2004Heerwegh et al , 2005Joinson and Reips 2007), although there is no conclusive evidence of or explanation for the impact of personalized invitations on motivation and response rate.…”

Development and Validation of the Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale

“…Because of the small size of the pilot sample, it was decided to keep sev eral of the items with correlations more than .30 and less than .45 to determine whether the correlations were due more due to the implementation of several strategies, which have been reported to increase response rates for mail surveys. [17][18][19] The cost for printing and mailing the initial packet with four first-class stamps, two envelopes, five sheets of paper, and the bookmark was $2.10 per mailing, for a total of $1,163.40. The cost of purchas ing, printing, and mailing the postcard re minders was 49 cents per postcard ($131.32 total), with 268 postcards being mailed on January 19, 2002.…”

Effect on survey response rate of hand written versus printed signature on a covering letter: randomised controlled trial [ISRCTN67566265]

“…These studies also had methodological problems such as low response rates and small sample sizes. None has suggested any major advantage to one group or the other [2-6]. …”