TY - JOUR

T1 - Is there a growing use of mobile devices in web surveys? Evidence from 128 web surveys in Germany

AU - Gummer, Tobias

AU - Höhne, Jan Karem

AU - Rettig, Tobias

AU - Roßmann, Joss

AU - Kummerow, Mirjan

N1 - Funding Information: We drew data from waves 1–50 of the German Internet Panel (GIP). The following variable used in our analyses are only available via the On-Site Data Access (ODA) facilities of the GIP for data protection reasons: device. A study description can be found in Blom et al. (). The GIP is part of the Collaborative Research Center 884 (SFB 884) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)—Project Number 139943784—SFB 884. We further drew on data from waves aa-hf of the GESIS Panel (GP). We used the datafile version 39.0.0 that was supplemented with device information. Moreover, we drew on data from waves 10–13 of the German Longitudinal Election Study—Panel (GLES-P) and waves 17–47 of the German Longitudinal Election Study-Tracking (GLES-T) that were each supplemented with device information. A list of surveys and waves used in our study, as well as information for data access via the GESIS Data Archive (study number, doi) is provided in “Appendix Table ”.

PY - 2023/1/10

Y1 - 2023/1/10

N2 - Recent advances in web survey methodology were motivated by the observation that respondents increasingly use mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to participate in web surveys. Even though we do not doubt this general observation, we argue that the claim is lacking a solid empirical basis. Most research on increasing mobile device use in web surveys covers limited periods of time and/or analyzes data from only one study or panel. There is a surprising lack of comprehensive overviews on the magnitude of mobile device use in web surveys. In the present study, we explored this research gap by analyzing data from 128 web surveys collected in four different academic studies in Germany between 2012 and 2020. Overall, we found strong empirical evidence for an increase in smartphone use, a stagnation in tablet use, and a decrease in desktop PC use. There was no evidence that the increase in smartphone use will slow down any time soon. Thus, we recommend that survey researchers prepare for a device change in web surveys that may enable new applications in web surveys.

AB - Recent advances in web survey methodology were motivated by the observation that respondents increasingly use mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to participate in web surveys. Even though we do not doubt this general observation, we argue that the claim is lacking a solid empirical basis. Most research on increasing mobile device use in web surveys covers limited periods of time and/or analyzes data from only one study or panel. There is a surprising lack of comprehensive overviews on the magnitude of mobile device use in web surveys. In the present study, we explored this research gap by analyzing data from 128 web surveys collected in four different academic studies in Germany between 2012 and 2020. Overall, we found strong empirical evidence for an increase in smartphone use, a stagnation in tablet use, and a decrease in desktop PC use. There was no evidence that the increase in smartphone use will slow down any time soon. Thus, we recommend that survey researchers prepare for a device change in web surveys that may enable new applications in web surveys.

KW - Mobile devices

KW - Online panels

KW - Smartphone

KW - Survey participation

KW - Web surveys

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145893304&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11135-022-01601-8

DO - 10.1007/s11135-022-01601-8

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85145893304

VL - 57

SP - 5333

EP - 5353

JO - Quality and Quantity

JF - Quality and Quantity

SN - 0033-5177

IS - 6

ER -