Recruitment of research participants through the Internet

Abstract

Despite an increasing amount of Internet research, issues in recruitment for studies in this environment rarely have been discussed. The purpose of this article is to provide some future directions for participant recruitment via the Internet, based on the experiences of recruiting participants for three Internet survey studies. The issues in the recruitment process include those related to low response rates, selected groups of participants, the importance of timing, and potential ethical issues. Based on the discussion of the issues, the following suggestions are proposed for future recruitment through the Internet: use of creative motivation strategies; sensitivity to the gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status of potential participants; consideration of the timing of data collection; and sensitivity to potential ethical issues.