Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial
Abstract Objective Web-based platforms have revolutionized the ability for researchers to perform global survey research. Methods to incentivize participation have been singularly focused on European and North American participants with varied results. With an ever increasing proportion of biomedica...
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doaj-eb2586c76fc642358959ddf99626b15e2020-11-25T00:28:08ZengBMCBMC Research Notes1756-05002019-02-011211610.1186/s13104-019-4146-yAltruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trialAndrew J. Cohen0Sam Washington1Christi Butler2Puneet Kamal3German Patino4Anas Tresh5Jorge Mena6Medina Ndoye7Benjamin N. Breyer8Department of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoDepartment of Urology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, University of California, San FranciscoAbstract Objective Web-based platforms have revolutionized the ability for researchers to perform global survey research. Methods to incentivize participation have been singularly focused on European and North American participants with varied results. With an ever increasing proportion of biomedical research being performed in non-western countries, assessment of novel methods to improve global survey response is timely and necessary. To that end, we created a three-arm nested randomized control trial (RCT) within a prospective cohort study to assess the impact of incentives on survey responsiveness in a global audience of biomedical researchers. Results Email invitations were sent to authors and editors involved in online publishing totaling 2426 participants from 111 countries. Overall we observed a 13.0% response rate: 13.3% for the control group, 14.4% for a group entered to win a gift card, and 11.1% for a group whose participation lead to donation to charity (p = 0.17). Year of publication nor country impacted response rate. Within subgroups, editors were significantly less likely to respond to the survey as compared to authors (6.5% vs. 18.9%; p-value < 0.01). With power to detect a 4.8% difference among groups, we could not detect an impact of incentives on global survey response.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13104-019-4146-yIncentivesSurvey responseGlobalDonationNested randomized control |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Andrew J. Cohen Sam Washington Christi Butler Puneet Kamal German Patino Anas Tresh Jorge Mena Medina Ndoye Benjamin N. Breyer |
spellingShingle |
Andrew J. Cohen Sam Washington Christi Butler Puneet Kamal German Patino Anas Tresh Jorge Mena Medina Ndoye Benjamin N. Breyer Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial BMC Research Notes Incentives Survey response Global Donation Nested randomized control |
author_facet |
Andrew J. Cohen Sam Washington Christi Butler Puneet Kamal German Patino Anas Tresh Jorge Mena Medina Ndoye Benjamin N. Breyer |
author_sort |
Andrew J. Cohen |
title |
Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
title_short |
Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
title_full |
Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
title_fullStr |
Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
title_full_unstemmed |
Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
title_sort |
altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
BMC Research Notes |
issn |
1756-0500 |
publishDate |
2019-02-01 |
description |
Abstract Objective Web-based platforms have revolutionized the ability for researchers to perform global survey research. Methods to incentivize participation have been singularly focused on European and North American participants with varied results. With an ever increasing proportion of biomedical research being performed in non-western countries, assessment of novel methods to improve global survey response is timely and necessary. To that end, we created a three-arm nested randomized control trial (RCT) within a prospective cohort study to assess the impact of incentives on survey responsiveness in a global audience of biomedical researchers. Results Email invitations were sent to authors and editors involved in online publishing totaling 2426 participants from 111 countries. Overall we observed a 13.0% response rate: 13.3% for the control group, 14.4% for a group entered to win a gift card, and 11.1% for a group whose participation lead to donation to charity (p = 0.17). Year of publication nor country impacted response rate. Within subgroups, editors were significantly less likely to respond to the survey as compared to authors (6.5% vs. 18.9%; p-value < 0.01). With power to detect a 4.8% difference among groups, we could not detect an impact of incentives on global survey response. |
topic |
Incentives Survey response Global Donation Nested randomized control |
url |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13104-019-4146-y |
work_keys_str_mv |
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