Non-response is commonly a problem with short research projects. If you are planning to conduct a survey, it would therefore be time well spent to consult a research guide on optimizing response rates in the first instance, such as Increasing Response Rates.
A most instructive and more comprehensive list of effective procedures for improving response rates can be obtained by consulting Chapter 6 of the paper Design and use of questionnaires: a review of best practice applicable to surveys of health service staff and patients.
A systematic review has been carried out to assess the effectiveness of different techniques in improving response rates. The findings of this review are summarized briefly at Methods to increase response to postal and electronic questionnaires
The above resource can be used as a helfpul check-list for techniques that you may wish to consider before launching your own questionnaire. It is good to know what appears to have worked for others!
Optimizing Response Rates by Margaret MacDougall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
