ABSTRACT

The basic idea of a survey is one that is familiar enough to most of us from everyday life. Surveys take many forms and play a number of different roles. At election time, surveys of a proportion of the electorate are used to forecast likely voting patterns. Businesses might use surveys that are targeted at particular groups of customers in order to plan their business and marketing strategies. And not all surveys require people to complete forms or answer questions-for example, a traffic survey might well involve counting the number and types of vehicles passing a particular point during different periods of the day. Similarly, a survey might study documents-for example, how many of the e-mails sent around an organisation have attachments, and what types of attachment are most commonly used. Indeed, the survey is a versatile tool and it is a form that is widely used in many ‘human-centric’ academic disciplines.