The Question Bank Graham Hughes & Julie Gibbs Department of Sociology University of Surrey Research Methods Festival, July

2 Aims of the presentation The Question Bank – an introduction Navigation around Qb website Advantages and disadvantages of using available questions

3 What is the Qb? A source of questionnaire materials for social researchers Key instruments from UK surveys Freely available online (no registration required) There to help: Researchers developing new surveys Secondary data analysts Teachers and students of research methods

4 What material do we hold? –Questionnaires from important social surveys –Related methodological material –Commentary on topics and concepts –Bibliographies and links to other resources –NO DATA! Three main areas of the site; –Questionnaires –Topics –Resources

Structure of Questionnaires Section 5 Index British Crime Survey Overview20053 x PDFs20046 x PDFs20037 x PDFsLink Map General Household Survey Overview Link Map

6 Questionnaires In PDF files to preserve original formats Separate file for each distinct instrument Bookmarked for easy navigation Related material, e.g. diaries, advance letters, leaflets for respondents Methodological information, e.g. dates of fieldwork, sampling procedures

7 Topics 22 Key social science topic areas Linked to important surveys Commentary on social measurement in most of those areas Key Variables chapters

8 Resources Bibliographies related to topic areas Links to related resources All about the QB! (User Guide) ONS Harmonisation Materials Data Collection Factsheets

9 Searching the QB 68,000 pages 75 Survey Series 22 Topic Sections = A lot of material !! Three strategies to find a question –Questionnaires menu (going directly to a relevant file) –Topics menu (to learn which surveys may be relevant) –The Search Engine (using key words)

10 The Search Engine –Indexes entire site everyday and creates a database for user to search –Searches HTML and PDF documents –Highlights all keywords –Ranks according to relevance –Directs you to the first relevant page in each file Advanced search function –Search using “any”, “all” or “without” key words –Search for “exact phrases” (e.g. to find all examples of a particular question) –Limit search to one survey series, and/or one year –Restrict search to just PDFs or just HTMLs

11 Using the Qb: Summary Readily accessible bank of questions Flat structure to make comparisons easier Additional material to help clarify concepts Questions –Process of operationalisation already proved –Tried and tested in the field See showcards, advance letters etc.

12 Reusing Available Questions –Use ready-made questions in new combinations –Adapt existing questions to develop other concepts –Compare response category sets for some types of question –Route to find relevant secondary data –Locate several datasets which include specific variables of interest –Find out about a survey carried out in another department or research area –Teaching students of research methods

13 Advantages of Reusing Questions The questions are likely to be good indicators of the original measurement concept, and include codes In some cases you can see the response rates to the question (via Nesstar at ESDS or UK Data Archive) Savings in terms of; –Costs – no developers needed –Time – researching and testing –No pilot testing needed of individual questions (though still need to pilot the whole questionnaire) Comparisons to other surveys in the field

14 Disadvantages of Reusing Questions Might not find exactly what you need (or may measure wrong concept) Copyright issues (especially with ‘measurement instruments’) Need a very good understanding of the original context (takes time to read and find) Computer programmed questionnaires can be very complicated (routing etc.)

15 Future of the Qb Survey Resources Network  Question Bank  Survey Link Scheme  Methodological Research Projects Successful bid announcement expected August 2008 Hand-over Qb from Surrey by 31 st October 2008