title: Postal surveys versus electronic mail surveys. The tortoise and the hare revisited.
abstract: The advent of computer-based technology has led to a consideration of change in research methods that exploit the advantages of computer-mediated communications. In survey research, electronic mail (e-mail) has anecdotally shown particular promise as a data collection tool. This article compares traditional postal and nontraditional e-mail surveys within the context of a larger listserv evaluation project in terms of overall return rate, distribution of survey returns over time, response to initial and follow-up mailings, representativeness of respondent groups, thoroughness of survey completion, and the likelihood of respondents to include additional written comments. In summary, whereas postal surveys were shown to be superior to e-mail surveys with regard to response rate, all things being equal, the decision of which to use may be situation-specific, dependent on issues such as survey cost, desire for convenience and timeliness in data collection, and need for higher response rates, among others.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, USA.
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Mavis
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Brocato
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002170:Canada; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D015709:Correspondence as Topic; D003625:Data Collection / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D009862:Online Systems; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States