Standard Mail Research Articles

Response to mail surveys on resource‐based recreation topics: A behavioral model and an empirical analysis

Abstract The ability to predict response rates to mail surveys is important in estimating sample size and in assessing the probable need for a nonrespondent follow‐up study to improve the accuracy of population estimates. Predictive models of response rates to mail surveys are scarce, and none has examined leisure or recreation resource‐related studies. This report starts with a behavioral model that takes the potential respondent's perspective. On the basis of the model, variables affecting response rates are hypothesized, operationalized, and tested in 38 studies, each of which used standard mail survey techniques including a cover letter, printed questionnaire booklet, and three reminder letters. Saliency of the topic in combination with the type of survey audience, the amount of hypothetical questions used, the number of pages, the height of the type used, and the month of survey implementation were all statistically significant predictors of response rate.

Chemoprophylaxis in the surgical ward: Results of a national survey in Italy

As part of a national program for the control of hospital acquired infections, a survey on the use of antibiotic chemoprophylaxis was conducted in 1050 public hospitals in Italy (95% of the total number of hospitals in the country). In each hospital, the chief of the general surgery ward was interviewed by means of a standard mail questionnaire. Answers were obtained from 479 surgeons (45.6%) after two mailings. More than 60% of these reported that they used chemoprophylaxis in clean surgery (mastectomy, splenectomy, hernioplasty). More than 80% used antibiotic prophylaxis in surgery in which antimicrobial prophylaxis is facultative (i.e. elective cholecystectomy, gastric resection), and 97.1% used antibiotic prophylaxis in large bowel surgery. The authors recorded starting times and duration of chemoprophylaxis. Cephalosporins were found to be the most commonly used antibiotics followed by penicillin.

CAUL annual survey of electronic retrieval systems

An annual survey of online bibliographic retrieval system usage has been carried out since 1981. In 1987, the survey was extended to cover CD-ROM in more detail than previously. A standardized mail questionnaire was distributed to 26 tertiary education libraries throughout Australia. Questions about CD-ROM included titles available, service funding, charging policy, user training and problems encountered. Questions about online searching included system usage, vendors accessed, budget allocation, charging policy, modem/network usage and problems encountered.

Efficient computer-user interface in electronic mail systems

This paper explores the question of improving the user-computer interface. The approach is one of observing and codifying various parameters that influence the efficiency of the interface in the context of electronic mail tasks. First, we observe “expert” and “regular” users of a mail system and identify the sources of efficiency. The data indicates that experts use a different, more specialized set of commands in performing standard mail tasks. While experts perform these tasks with fewer errors and more “completely”, it is not clear that they achieve this any faster than regular users. Recommendations for system design are made. In addition, errors made by subjects are codified. The major proportion of errors observed fall under syntactic and typographical categories. Implications for error recovery and prevention are discussed.