Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of Asia Pacific Decision Sciences Institute Hong Kong, June 14-18, 2006, pp. 459-464. SOME REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTING DATA IN VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES: A CASE STUDY Honglei Li Department of Decision Sciences & Managerial Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong EMAIL: Hongleili@gmail.com ABSTRACT Virtual Community (hereinafter as VC) studies are gaining increasing attention in academic field during past several years. Data collection in VCs is a new method for researchers interested in VC studies. This paper described the process of data collection in three VCs. The detailed procedures were elucidated and the reflections of the whole procedure were provided as the guideline for future researchers to collect data in VCs. The paper contributed to the existing body of knowledge and future studies from two perspectives. First, this study successfully collected data in three different types of VCs and provide future researcher a successful example of data collection in VCs. Second, by reflections on data collection process the paper pointed out three important factors to which future researchers should pay attention. The three factors are good questionnaire design, obtaining supports from VC organizers and discussion board managers, and winning the respondent’s heart with interactions and stimulants. Key words: data collection, virtual community 1. INTRODUCTION Virtual community (Hereinafter as VC) study is one of developing and undivided research branches that accompany Internet research and is gaining its paradigms along with both the practical development of VC technologies and the exploration of theories. During the previous decade, the number of VC studies appearing in IS journals is a rising curve starting virtually from zero and will keep on increasing by this potential. Figure 1 showed a curve that described the number of papers published by year. paper no. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Year Number of Papers paper no. FIGURE 1. Number of VC Publications by Year Empirical study is one of the most important studies to ultimately accumulate knowledge in one field and data collection is one of the most crucial parts in empirical study. Previous researchers who conducted empirical VC studies