Total Survey Error in Practice

7Mobile Web Surveys: A Total Survey Error Perspective

Mick P. Couper,^1,2 Christopher Antoun,^*,3 and Aigul Mavletova⁴

¹ Survey Research Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

² Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

³ Center for Survey Measurement, U.S. Census Bureau, Suitland, MD, USA

⁴ Department of Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

7.1 Introduction

While mobile phones or cell phones have been a challenge for telephone survey researchers for some time, the Internet or web capabilities of mobile phones have begun to receive attention in the last few years. There are a number of ways that Internet‐enabled smartphones can affect survey data collection, and the implications of these for various sources of errors are only now being fully explored. There are three broad approaches to the opportunities and challenges posed by mobile web.

The first focuses on the many opportunities that such devices can bring to extend and enhance measurement (see AAPOR, 2014). These include the promise of “anytime, anywhere” or “in‐the‐moment” measurement, in which respondents can be prompted to provide survey responses at set times or based on location. The enhanced capabilities of smartphones allow respondents to capture and transmit pictures. Barcode and quick response (QR) code scanners also allow respondents to provide detailed information on actions they may have taken. Similarly, global ...