Insights for the Drop-off/Pick-up Method to Improve Data Collection

Abstract

Mail and telephone surveys are becoming increasingly expensive and unreliable, while internet-based surveys raise issues of geographic representation and other matters of authenticity. The Drop-Off/Pick-Up (DOPU) method is an alternative which can elicit higher response rates and reduce non-response bias issues. DOPU involves dropping off and picking up surveys in person and can yield high participation because personal interactions have been shown to stimulate norms of reciprocity. We share insights from our 2019 DOPU study of hydrocarbon energy export impacts in four communities that have experienced oil-by-rail transportation and related disasters, with surveys collected in two metropolitan and two rural communities in the U.S. Midwest and Pacific Northwest. We organize and present a suite of novel and established recommendations suitable for both scholarly and community-based researchers and practitioners to strengthen community support, improve fieldwork efficiency, increase response rates, and reduce costs in future DOPU studies.

Keywords:

• Drop-off/pick-up
• energy impacts
• environmental sociology/social theory < theory and theorists
• fossil fuel exports
• oil and gas
• survey methods < methods
• community engaged methods

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Shawn Olson-Hazboun, Doug Jackson-Smith, Jason Bleim, Joshua Fergen, Katie Finneran, Maria Fredericks, Matthew Hildreth, Andrew Kramer, Susan Kroger, and Ruchi Pathak for sharing their time and expertise in support of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by United States Department of Agriculture; National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Award number: 2019-67011-29551).