ESS document date: 3 February 2014 Field Procedures in the European Social Survey Round 7: Enhancing Response Rates Ineke Stoop, Achim Koch, Verena Halbherr, Rory Fitzgerald, Sally Widdop 1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2 2 Interviewers .................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Selecting interviewers: experience and training ................................................................... 4 2.2 Briefing interviewers about all aspects of the study ............................................................. 4 2.3 Interviewer assignment sizes and overall workload .............................................................. 5 2.4 Payment of interviewers ........................................................................................................ 5 2.5 Monitoring interviewers’ progress ........................................................................................ 6 3 Reducing the number of noncontacts ............................................................................................ 7 3.1 Number, timing and mode of calls......................................................................................... 7 3.2 Length and timing of fieldwork period .................................................................................. 8 4 Minimising the number of refusals ................................................................................................ 9 4.1 Advance letters ...................................................................................................................... 9 4.2 Respondent incentives........................................................................................................... 9 4.3 Converting people who initially ‘refuse’ participation ........................................................ 10 5 Unable and other reasons for nonresponse ................................................................................. 12 6 Specification, references and literature ....................................................................................... 13 6.1 Specification, guidelines and related documents ................................................................ 13 6.2 References ........................................................................................................................... 13 6.3 Background literature .......................................................................................................... 14 6.3.1 General ............................................................................................................................ 14 6.3.2 Interviewer characteristics and nonresponse ................................................................. 14 6.3.3 Interviewer training ......................................................................................................... 14 6.3.4 Establishing contact ......................................................................................................... 14 6.3.5 Minimising refusal ........................................................................................................... 15 6.3.6 Respondent incentives .................................................................................................... 15 1 The HQ-CST of the ESS requests that the following citation for this document should be used: Stoop, I., Koch, A., Halbherr, V., Fitzgerald, R., & Widdop, S. (2014). Field Procedures in the European Social Survey Round 7: Enhancing Response Rates. The Hague: European Social Survey, SCP. Earlier versions of this document relating to previous rounds of fieldwork are available at www.europeansocialsurvey.org .