RE: 'INCREASING RESPONSE TO MAILED QUESTIONNAIRES BY INCLUDING A PENCIL/PEN'

摘要

In reading "Increasing Response to Mailed Questionnaires by Including a Pencil/Pen" (1), I was interested in the strong effects found by the authors. These results are valuable, offering an inexpensive means of improving response rates. Unfortunately, the reported findings are questionable in that they contradict previous research in this area, which found no significant effects from pencil incentives. According to the authors, the reasons for the differences were unclear. Upon closer review, it is apparent that their results may have been biased by the sample selection