Conducting field research with a vulnerable population is difficult under the most auspicious conditions, and these difficulties only increase during a pandemic. Here, we describe the practical challenges and ethical considerations surrounding a recent data collection effort with a high-risk population during the COVID-19 pandemic. We detail our strategies related to research design, site selection, and ethical review.

Advance translation is a method of source questionnaire development for multilingual survey projects to enhance translatability and (inter)cultural portability. The aim is to minimize translation issues in the final translation stage. I empirically tested the results of a previously conducted advance translation in a think-aloud study and analyzed the utterances made in a mixed-method approach, calculating chi-square statistics and cross-checking these by observational notes of the think-aloud sessions. My study confirms the usefulness of advance translation in making source items better to translate, thus improving final translation quality. It appears to be particularly useful for comprehensibility issues of the source text, irrespective of the target language. I recommend that advance translations be carried out into all languages and cultures into which the final source questionnaire is to be translated. This will improve source questionnaire translatability and, thus, final translation and overall cross-cultural data quality.

Previous survey research has found that prompt interventions for speeding and straightlining were effective at reducing these undesirable response behaviors in web surveys. However, the effects of prompt interventions on data quality measures are mixed, and it is unclear how prompt interventions affect key survey estimates. We conducted an experiment on prompt interventions using the National Cancer Institute’s 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey Push-to-Web Pilot Study. We used two types of prompts, one targeted speeding and the other targeted straightlining. We found no significant differences between the prompt and no-prompt conditions in overall web response rates. Also, we found that web respondents assigned to the prompt condition spent more time on the survey, had a lower percent of straightlining, and a lower percent of speeding on grid questions. Regarding key survey estimates, there were significant differences on estimates for one out of 40 items tested.

This article concerns online data capture using survey methods when the target population(s) comprise not just of several different language-using groups, but additionally populations who may be multilingual and whose total language repertoires are commonly employed in meaning-making practices—commonly referred to as translanguaging. It addresses whether current online data capture survey methods adequately respond to such population characteristics and demonstrates a worked example of how we adapted one electronic data capture software platform (REDCap) to present participants with not just multilingual but translanguaging engagement routes that also encompassed multimodal linguistic access in auditory, orthographic, and visual media. The study population comprised deaf young people. We share the technical (coding) adaptations made and discuss the relevance of our work for other linguistic populations.

Walking interviews generate contextualized dialogs and place-based narratives prompted by sites and routes. We used walking interviews with three refugee-background women in Australia to find out what the act of walking could reveal about notions of home and broader narratives of forced migration. We used a participatory approach to privilege women’s perspectives as co-creators of new knowledge on the topic.

The literature has no standard method for estimating the coverage of area probability segments in address-based frames. Versatility is desirable for different study needs, but standardization improves comparability. Many segment estimates are simple ratios of counts of frame addresses to control totals, or net coverage ratios. Challenges to segment ratios include geocoding error, outdated control totals, errors in the address frame, and systematic exclusion of types of addresses. We tested various net coverage ratios on segments selected for the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, and we share our results and recommendations for using net coverage ratios for estimating coverage for segments.

Empirical researchers using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) can work with crisp, multivalue, and fuzzy sets. The relative advantages of crisp and multivalue sets have been discussed in the QCA literature. There has been little reflection on the more frequent decision between crisp and fuzzy sets for which there often is no theoretical guidance. A review shows that researchers often prefer fuzzy over crisp sets, sometimes because they contain more information. This meets with the argument that fuzzy sets produce more conservative consistency measures and constitute tougher tests. In my article, I demonstrate analytically and with data from published QCA studies that the relationship between crisp sets, fuzzy sets, and the consistency score is ambiguous. It depends on the distribution of cases whether the consistency value is more or less conservative for fuzzy sets than for crisp sets. I outline the implications of the ambiguous relationship for empirical research.

This study describes a method for collecting data from non-literate, non-English speaking populations. Our Audio computer-assisted self-interview instrument with color-labeled response categories was designed for use with a helper assistance. The study included 30 dyads of non-literate older Hmong respondents and family helpers answering questions about health. Analysis of video recordings identified respondents' problems and helpers' strategies to address these problems. Seven dyads displayed the paradigmatic question-answer sequence for all items, while 23 departed from the paradigmatic sequence at least once. Reports and pauses were the most common signs of problems displayed by respondents. Paraphrasing questions or response categories and providing examples were the most common helper strategies. Future research could assess the impact of helpers' strategies on data quality.

Lacy, M. G., J. G. Snodgrass, M. C. Meyer, H. J. Francois Dengah II and N. Benedict. 2018. A formal method for detecting and describing cultural complexity: Extending classical consensus analysis. Field Methods 30(3):241–57. doi: 10.1177/1525822X18781756. In the above mentioned article, the affiliation for Jeffrey G. Snodgrass should be “Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.” The affiliation for Noah Benedict was correct, but the author footnote for him should be changed to 5.

This article compares pile sort data from frequently occurring items in a cultural domain with pile sort data on infrequently occurring items in that same cultural domain. Common practice in free-list analysis has a researcher discard infrequently occurring list items. This article confirms this practice and suggests that there is an underlying structure to both frequently and infrequently occurring list items.