Journal of Applied Statistics, 33 (4), May 2006, p405-415.
The author failed to reference an article in the American Psychologist (“How the Questions Shape the Answers” by Norbert Schwarz, 1999, Volume 54, p93-105), nor did the author properly identify or quote extracts from that work which subsequently appeared in the above article, (now retracted) from Journal of Applied Statistics.
The extracts which were not referenced or quoted are as follows: the section on Questionnaire Design p. 406–407; the sub-section on Open versus Closed Response Formats p. 408; the subsection on Frequency Scales and References Periods; and the majority of the section dealing with Rating Scales p. 409–410,, excluding the paragraphs dealing with surveys conducted by the author and Figure 1. Overall, 90% of the text in the whole Questionnaire Design section p. 406-410 of the paper is reproduced without referencing from the article in the American Psychologist detailed above. The remainder of the paper, Individual Surveys, Household Surveys and Establishment Survey onwards, is the original work of the author.
The author is therefore in breach of the publication rules for Journal of Applied Statistics, and of the warranty made to Taylor & Francis regarding originality. We note that the then Editor of Journal of Applied Statistics published the (now retracted) article in good faith.
Taylor & Francis
September 2011
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