New Technology and Research: An Analysis of Internet Survey Methodology in Political Science

Rapidly changing technology has created countless new opportunities for political scientists in teaching and research. One such innovation is the development of web surveys. Web surveys are accessed online by respondents and the data can be downloaded directly into a statistical program such as SPSS. While web surveys require respondents to have Internet access, which precludes conducting general population surveys via the web, in fact many of the populations of interest to political scientists such as interest groups, elected officials, and bureaucrats have near universal access to the web. The purpose of this article is to review the advantages and disadvantages of this technique and to outline important design and implementation considerations relevant to political science.

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