Nur Aasli Abdi, Leibbrand Christine, Curran Sara R, Votruba-Drzal Elizabeth, Gibson-Davis Christina
Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Office of Planning and Budgeting, University of Washington, USA.
Int J Soc Res Methodol. 2024;27(5):613-619. doi: 10.1080/13645579.2023.2229651. Epub 2023 Jul 3.
With the increasing sophistication of online survey tools and the necessity of distanced research during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online questionnaires for research purposes has proliferated. Still, many researchers undertake online survey research without knowledge of the prevalence and likelihood of experiencing survey questionnaire fraud nor familiarity with measures used to identify fraud once it has occurred. This research note is based on the experience of researchers across four sites who implemented an online survey of families' experiences with COVID-19 in the U.S. that was subject to substantial fraud. By the end of data collection, over 70% of responses were flagged as fraudulent with duplicate IP addresses and concurrent start/end times representing the most common indicators of fraud observed. We offer lessons learned to illustrate the sophisticated nature of fraud in online research and the importance of multi-pronged strategies to detect and limit online survey questionnaire fraud.
随着在线调查工具日益复杂，以及在新冠疫情期间进行远程研究的必要性，用于研究目的的在线问卷的使用激增。然而，许多研究人员在进行在线调查研究时，并不了解调查问卷欺诈的发生率和可能性，也不熟悉欺诈发生后用于识别欺诈的措施。本研究报告基于四个地点的研究人员的经验，他们在美国实施了一项关于家庭新冠疫情经历的在线调查，该调查遭受了大量欺诈。到数据收集结束时，超过70%的回复因重复IP地址和同时开始/结束时间而被标记为欺诈，这是观察到的最常见的欺诈指标。我们提供了经验教训，以说明在线研究中欺诈的复杂性，以及多管齐下的策略在检测和限制在线调查问卷欺诈方面的重要性。
