Introduction

The preceding chapters have provided guidance on all the aspects of a survey up to the point of actually implementing the survey. In this chapter, a few suggestions and some guidance are provided on the implementation of the survey itself. The chapter begins with a discussion on the selection and training of interviewers and supervisors, then continues with the fielding of the survey, and concludes with discussion about issues that are likely to arise in the execution of many surveys of human populations.

Interviewer selection

Somewhat tongue in cheek, it is not uncommon to hear university lecturers talk about using students as interviewers, largely because they are comparatively inexpensive and readily available to most research projects. However, the use of students is often not a good idea for the role of interviewers. All surveys, except fully postal surveys, require interviewers. Even postal surveys require survey staff to pack survey materials and ensure that survey packages are sent out to the correct sample of interviewees. For the next few paragraphs, the focus is on interviewers, rather than other survey staff.