ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the many ways to administer surveys. With rapid changes in technology, the methods used to distribute and administer surveys have changed as well. Surveys can be administered face to face, in the mail, over the telephone, and online. However, training interviewers and arranging face-to-face interviews is often very time consuming and costly. Although they increase response rate, face-to-face surveys are not suitable for questions that are more personal or challenging. Surveys on sexual behavior and history or criminal and illegal activity may be more challenging to administer face to face than they would be over the telephone, or through other means. The presence of the interviewer might affect the results of the survey and the answers respondents provide. Unlike interviewers in a face-to-face survey, interviewers in a telephone survey can talk to people all over the country in one evening, meaning that researchers need fewer people to carry out a survey.
