Challenges in Survey Research
This work identifies methodological gaps for researchers in software engineering, but it is incremental as it compiles existing issues without introducing new solutions.
The paper addresses the under-discussed methodological challenges in survey research within empirical software engineering, compiling key issues from large-scale international surveys.
While being an important and often used research method, survey research has been less often discussed on a methodological level in empirical software engineering than other types of research. This chapter compiles a set of important and challenging issues in survey research based on experiences with several large-scale international surveys. The chapter covers theory building, sampling, invitation and follow-up, statistical as well as qualitative analysis of survey data and the usage of psychometrics in software engineering surveys.