[Air-L] advance table of contents of the "Social Science Computer Review"

Ulf-Dietrich Reips u.reips at ikerbasque.org
Mon Aug 30 04:56:54 PDT 2010


Dear colleague:

Below is the advance table of contents of the 
"Social Science Computer Review" for Summer 2011. 
This issue will appear through Sage Online is a 
few months and in print in May 2011. Other 
advance (and past) contents are found at 
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/sscore/contents.htm

Best wishes
--u

Social Science Computer Review
Volume 29, No. 2
Summer 2011


Special issue on Web Survey Methods

Measuring political knowledge in telephone and 
web surveys: A cross-national comparison / Zan 
Strabac & Toril Aalberg
Abstract:
Fast pace of technology changes makes conduction 
of high-quality web surveys increasingly easy, 
and performance of web surveys should be 
continuously monitored. In this article a 
comparison is made of the results of telephone 
and web surveys of items measuring international 
news knowledge. We compare web surveys of general 
populations conducted in the USA and Norway in 
January 2009 with their telephone replications 
conducted in the same month. Results show rather 
small differences between web and telephone 
surveys, particularly in Norway. We discuss the 
results and make recommendations for use of web 
surveys and for future methodological research.

Words, numbers and visual heuristics in web 
surveys: Is there a hierarchy of importance? / 
Vera Toepoel & Don A. Dillman
Abstract
Respondents follow simple heuristics in 
interpreting the visual features of questions. We 
carried out two experiments in two panels to 
investigate how the effect of visual heuristics 
affects the answers to survey questions. In the 
first experiment we varied the distance between 
scale points in a five point scale to investigate 
whether respondents use the conceptual or visual 
midpoint of a scale. In the second experiment we 
used different endpoint labels of a five point 
scale, by adding different shadings of color and 
numbers that differed both in sign and value (2 
to -2), to study whether options that are similar 
of appearance are considered conceptually closer 
than when they are dissimilar in appearance. We 
predicted that there is a hierarchy of features 
that respondents attend to, with verbal labels 
taking precedence over numerical labels, and 
numerical labels taking precedence over visual 
cues. Our results confirmed our hypothesis: the 
effect of spacing of response options and 
different endpoints was only apparent in polar 
point scales and not in fully labeled scales. In 
addition, our study on two panels, with one 
consisting of extremely trained respondents and 
the other of relatively fresh respondents, shows 
that trained respondents are affected by the 
distance between response options while 
relatively new respondents are not. To reduce the 
effect of visual cues, taking into account the 
robustness of results, we suggest it is better to 
use fully labeled five-point scales in survey 
questions.

Response rates and data quality in web and mail 
surveys administered to PhD holders / Maite 
Barrios, Anna Villarroya, Ángel Borrego, & 
Candela Ollé
Abstract
Despite the extensive use of Web surveys today, 
there are certain methodological factors related 
to participant cooperation and data quality which 
remain unclear and require further study. Here, 
we compare responses to a survey administered in 
two formats - electronic, or by post - in terms 
of overall response rate and the quality of the 
data collected. Web and mail questionnaires were 
sent to a sample of 572 PhD holders, asking them 
about aspects related to their academic career 
and personal and family data in order to 
investigate the factors that determine scientific 
productivity. The Web questionnaire elicited a 
significantly higher response rate than the mail 
questionnaire. Response rates did not differ 
between males and females; however, topic 
salience had an effect on the response rate. 
Finally, data quality was higher in Web surveys 
than in the mail surveys, with fewer overall 
errors, fewer missing items and longer responses 
in open-ended questions.

Sliders for the smart: Type of rating scale on 
the web interacts with educational level / 
Frederik Funke, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, & Randall K. 
Thomas
Abstract
Slider scales and radio buttons scales were 
experimentally evaluated in horizontal and 
vertical orientation. Slider scales lead to 
statistically significantly higher break-off 
rates (odds ratio = 6.9) and substantially higher 
response times. Problems with slider scales were 
especially prevalent in participants with less 
than average education, suggesting the slider 
scale format is more challenging in terms of 
previous knowledge needed or cognitive load. An 
alternative explanation, technology-dependent 
sampling (Buchanan & Reips, 2001), cannot fully 
account for the present results. The authors 
clearly advise against the use of Java-based 
slider scales and advocate low-tech solutions for 
the design of Web-based data collection. 
Orientation on screen had no observable effect on 
data quality or usability of rating scales. 
Implications of item format for Web-based surveys 
are discussed.

Response rates and data quality in web and mail 
surveys administered to PhD holders / Maite 
Barrios, Anna Villarroya, Ángel Borrego, & 
Candela Ollé
Abstract
Despite the extensive use of Web surveys today, 
there are certain methodological factors related 
to participant cooperation and data quality which 
remain unclear and require further study. Here, 
we compare responses to a survey administered in 
two formats - electronic, or by post - in terms 
of overall response rate and the quality of the 
data collected. Web and mail questionnaires were 
sent to a sample of 572 PhD holders, asking them 
about aspects related to their academic career 
and personal and family data in order to 
investigate the factors that determine scientific 
productivity. The Web questionnaire elicited a 
significantly higher response rate than the mail 
questionnaire. Response rates did not differ 
between males and females; however, topic 
salience had an effect on the response rate. 
Finally, data quality was higher in Web surveys 
than in the mail surveys, with fewer overall 
errors, fewer missing items and longer responses 
in open-ended questions.


Reports and Communications

Is public trust in government associated with 
trust in e-government? / Simon Horsburgh, Shaun 
Goldfinch, & Robin Gauld
Abstract
The term e-government describes the use of 
information and communications technology, 
particularly the internet, for the delivery of 
public services. As governments invest in 
e-government, there is only limited knowledge of 
the extent of public trust in the new electronic 
modes of delivery; we also know little about 
whether there is any relationship between trust 
in government and trust in e-government. This 
article reports on research designed to probe 
this issue. Drawing on survey data from Australia 
and New Zealand, a series of hypotheses are 
tested pertaining to relationships between public 
trust in government and in e-government, in the 
use of information and communications technology 
and trust in e-government, and support for 
e-government investment and development. Trust in 
government was found not to be correlated with 
trust in facets of e-government service 
provision, but was associated with support for 
e-government investment. More intensive internet 
users were more likely to trust e-government 
services.

Political participation of teenagers in the 
information era: The case of the 2008 Korean 
Candlelight Protests / Yun Seongyi & Chang 
Woo-young
Abstract

This study examines the environments and the 
characteristics of political participation of 
teenage political participation. The 2008 
Candlelight Protests of Korea is used as the case 
of this study. Traditionally, teenagers in Korea 
have known to disengage from political affairs 
because they are usually worn by intense academic 
challenge and competition. In that sense, 
participation of teenagers at such a large scale 
shown in the 2008 Candlelight Protests of Korea 
can only be explained as huge shift in political 
preference of teenagers and conventional social 
norms. In that sense, the case of 2008 
Candlelight Protests of Korea has shown great 
implications for the political potential of new 
media, which is capable of revolutionizing the 
political socialization patterns of youth. Survey 
results demonstrated that the internet had become 
an important tool from which the teenagers 
collected political information and channels 
which they utilized to organize and mobilize. 
Numbers also showed that the degree of the 
youth's socio-political interests were higher 
than the adult's. Other notable fact found was 
that female students showed more aggressive 
involvement than male students and this could be 
explained by the difference in the internet usage 
pattern between male and female students. In 
using media, adolescent girls displayed more 
relationship and objective oriented behaviors 
than the boys.

VODYS: An agent-based model for exploring 
campaign dynamics / Girish J. Gulati, Charles R. 
Hadlock, & Juliet F. Gainsborough
Abstract
The literature on campaigns has considered a 
number of factors that affect whether and how 
someone votes, including demographics, campaign 
strategies, and social milieu. Understanding the 
dynamics of campaigns, however, is complicated by 
the fact that researchers cannot observe much of 
what happens during an election cycle. Typically, 
studies rely on voter recollections of 
conversations, contacts, and media exposure. In 
addition, because data are collected at discrete 
points in time, most models of voter turnout 
cannot capture the dynamic nature of an 
individual's interactions during a campaign 
cycle. Agent-based models offer a way to overcome 
these data limitations by allowing us to model 
the dynamics of voter turnout over the course of 
many weeks as individuals move back forth between 
home and work environments, interacting with 
neighbors and colleagues. In this paper, we 
present an agent-based model of campaign 
dynamics, VODYS, and conduct three simulations to 
demonstrate the utility of agent-based models for 
exploring the effects of contact and context on 
political behavior.
-- 
Ulf-Dietrich Reips
	Ikerbasque Research Professor     
	Departamento de Psicología
	Universidad de Deusto
	Apartado 1, 48080 Bilbao, España

Secretary & Fax: +34 944 139 085
http://iscience.deusto.es/



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