Thread: Can one redistribute a survey to (some of) the same people? Or is this a no-no.

Apologies if this is the wrong subsection.

I'm trying to replicate some findings from a survey I distributed a couple years ago (the sample size was about 500 people). Is it a problem-- a statistical faux pas if you will-- if some of the people who filled out the original survey take it again?

I don't remember the consensus on this. I sent out the original survey about 2 years ago, so I'd be surprised if the original respondents would even remember. (I can get a lot of responses through particular university email lists I have access to). It's for academic research.

Don't you have the original questionnaire? Why give out questionnaires if you don't keep the data somewhere secure for decades? With today's PC's toy can easily store the information for decades if you so desire. Just send out the surveys again I doubt anyone will remember what they answered.

I went through a rather lengthy phase of diligently filling out surveys.

Perhaps I am 'old school' but I really do not care for the format of most of today's surveys and have become very selective about which ones I give my time to. SurveyMonkey or whatever it is called now, does not even get opened by me anymore. It offended me several times in the past and that's it. Toast!

If I really have something of importance to convey, I am more likely to write a letter directly to the appropriate department and c.c. it to the respective Minister. Send it double registered so they have to sign and acknowledge receipt. A bit of investment in time, proper English and a paper trail pretty much guarantee at least an acknowledgement.

To answer the question in the opening post, if I were one of the original responders, I would recall having taken the survey and would not bother doing it again unless it related to a topic that was in flux in which case my position may have changed.

Thanks for the input, but I'm wondering if there is some hard and fast rule about this. You see I want to alter some parts of the questionnaire; I'm tweaking it to improve it, essentially. Not much has changed overall.