A guide for the design and conduct of self-administered surveys of clinicians.

urvey research is an important form of scientific inquiry 1 that merits rigorous design and analysis. 2 The aim of a survey is to gather reliable and unbiased data from a representative sample of respondents. 3 Increasingly, investigators administer questionnaires to clinicians about their knowledge, attitudes and practice 2,4,5 to generate or refine research questions and to evaluate the impact of clinical research on practice. Questionnaires can be descriptive (reporting factual data) or explanatory (drawing inferences between constructs or concepts) and can explore several constructs at a time. Questionnaires can be informal, conducted as preparatory work for future studies, or formal, with specific objectives and outcomes. Rigorous questionnaires can be challenging and labour-intensive to develop, test and administer without the help of a systematic approach. 5 In this article, we outline steps to design , develop, test and administer valid questionnaires with minimal bias and optimal response rates. We focus on self-administered postal and electronic surveys of clinicians that are amenable to quantitative analysis. We highlight differences between postal and electronic administration of surveys and review strategies that enhance response rates and reporting transparency. Although intended to assist in the conduct of rigorous self-administered surveys, our article may also help clinicians in the appraisal of published surveys. Design Determining the objective A clear objective is essential for a well-defined survey. Refining initial research objectives requires specification of the topic, respondents, and primary and secondary research questions to be addressed. Identifying the sampling frame It is often impractical for investigators to administer their questionnaire to all potential respondents in their target population , because of the size of the target population or the difficulty in identifying possible respondents. 4 Consequently, a sample of the target population is often surveyed. The " sampling frame " is the target population from which the sample will be drawn. 6 The " sampling element " refers to the respondents from whom information is collected and analyzed. 6 The sampling frame should represent the population of interest. To this end, certain sampling techniques (e.g., surveying conference attendees) may limit generalizability compared with others (e.g., surveying licensed members of a profession). Ultimately , the sampling technique will depend on the survey objectives and resources. Sample selection can be random (probability design) or deliberate (nonprobability design). 6 Probability designs include simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified sampling and cluster sampling. • Simple random sampling: Every individual in …