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. 2020 Oct 13;42(6):575-576.
doi: 10.1177/0253717620957496. eCollection 2020 Nov.

The Limitations of Online Surveys

Chittaranjan Andrade  1
Affiliations

The Limitations of Online Surveys

Chittaranjan Andrade. Indian J Psychol Med. .

Abstract

Online surveys are growing in popularity, perhaps because they are an easy, convenient, and inexpensive means of data collection. Online surveys commonly suffer from two serious methodological limitations: the population to which they are distributed cannot be described, and respondents with biases may select themselves into the sample. Research is of value only when the findings from a sample can be generalized to a meaningful population. When the population addressed by the survey cannot be described, and when the sample is contaminated by respondents with biases, findings from online surveys cannot be generalized and may therefore mislead.

Keywords: internet survey; limitations; online questionnaire; online survey; population; sample.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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