“Simplified survey language” to improve participation and response quality in web surveys (SimplSurv)

Web surveys are an essential part of social science research. To ensure high participation and response quality, it is crucial to design questionnaires including accompanying materials such as invitation lettersthat are easily understood by everyone.

Although previous survey methodological research on the comprehensibility and complexity of questions and accompanying materials highlights the importance of linking verbal and visual aspects, there is currently a lack of a holistic approach in survey methodology that gives equal consideration to aspects of wording, structure, and visual design. Plain language (PL) perspective offers a holistic approach to textual information, promoting clear and concise language. PL should always be tailored to the needs of the target group and the target situation. However, PL does not consider the unique characteristics of web surveys, and there are no established guidelines for its application yet.

To address this, our project aims to develop a ‘simplified survey language’ (SSL) specifically for web surveys, combining survey methodology research with best practices in PL. SSL aims to enhance survey accessibility, increase participation particularly among those with low literacy skills (e.g., respondents with lower levels of education or with German as a second language), and facilitate cognitive response processing for all respondents and thereby enhancing response quality.

The proposed project has four objectives. The overarching aim is (i) to assess the impact of using SSL as compared with standard language (SL) for questionnaires and accompanying materials on survey participation and response quality in a probability-based web survey. To achieve this overarching goal, the upstream objectives include: (ii) establishing a list of criteria for SSL based on a literature review, database review, and expert interviews, (iii) determining the best translation process from standard language (SL) to SSL by assessing three stand-alone and two team-based translation approaches including survey experts and PL experts, and (iv) evaluating the most effective method for implementing SSL by assessing five different implementation approaches to provide questionnaires in SSL and SL and their impact on response quality and respondent acceptability.

Our planned project significantly contributes to further developing the questionnaire design for web surveys, thereby ensuring improved response quality and inclusion of all population groups, regardless of the respondents’ educational background and literacy skills.