Managing and minimizing online survey questionnaire fraud: lessons from the Triple C project

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• families
• online survey
• fraud detection
• lessons learned

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for our project comes from two Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grants: P2C HD042828, to the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology (CSDE) at the University of Washington and P2C HD065563 to the Duke Population Research Center (DuPri) at Duke University. Additionally, support for research assistance came from a Shanahan Endowment Fellowship and a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development training grant, T32 HD101442-01, to the UW’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. Additional funding was received from seed grants from the Population Health Initiative at the University of Washington, the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and the Department of Psychology and the Learning Research and Development Center at University of Pittsburgh. Funds also came from the UW’s Department of Sociology and UW’s Department of Epidemiology.

Notes on contributors

Aasli Abdi Nur

Aasli Abdi Nur, MPH, is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology and fellow with the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. Her current research focuses on gender, fertility, and demographic methods, specifically the methodological approaches used to measure fertility change and family planning behavior as well as the challenges with their application. She received her MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University with a graduate certificate in maternal and child health. She has published research on women’s health, mental health, and behavior adoption approaches during the Covid-19 pandemic

Christine Leibbrand

Christine Leibbrand, PhD, is an Institutional Analyst with the Office of Planning and Budgeting at University of Washington. Christine received her MA and PhD in Sociology from University of Washington, with concentrations in Demography and Social Statistics. Her current research focuses on assessing student and institutional outcomes in order to inform policy decisions at the university level and beyond. She has also published on segregation, neighborhood outcomes, the health impacts of gun violence on mothers and children, and internal migration within the United States.

Sara R Curran

Sara R. Curran, PhD, is a professor of sociology, international studies, and public policy and governance at the University of Washington. She is also the Director of the UW’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. She is a demographer who studies population dynamics domestically and internationally, gender, climate change, and research methods. Her research is supported by NIH, NSF, and private foundations and has been published widely.

Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal

Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, PhD, is a professor of psychology and Senior Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a developmental scientist who studies how socioeconomic circumstances relate to opportunities for healthy growth and development. Her research examines key contexts including families, schools, early care and education settings, neighborhoods, and public policies. Her research involves both primary data collection as well as the analysis of large, publicly-available databases. She has published extensively in leading journals in psychology and education. Her research program has been supported by grants from NIH, NSF, and several private foundations.

Christina Gibson-Davis

Christina Gibson-Davis, PhD, is a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke University. She is a family demographer who studies the health and well-being of low-income families and their children, concentrating on factors that determine familial and child flourishing, including economic and policy inputs and family structure. She has extensive expertise in using large, administrative data sets and been the PI or co-PI on several foundation, NSF, and EPA-funded grants. Her work has been published in top demography, psychology, and medical journals.