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I was thinking about asking for academic references relative to conducting a survey on the human population that frequents a transit neighborhood (transit neighborhood may be particularly challenging to study, if I believe what my fellow researchers tell me), i.e. what kind of specific design survey method and design to use to reduce bias and non-response rate, etc. (e.g. should we avoid face-to-face interviews, should we go through intermediaries/gatekeepers, etc.).

To me, at first glance, it would be a social science question and not (entirely) a statistics question—so off-topic—, but I guess that other disciplines than social sciences (ecology, medicine, etc.) may have also survey methods specifically designed for some challenging contexts they may encounter. So I'm unsure if this kind of question would be really off-topic or not.

I don't want to waste my time writing a precise question for it to be eventually closed, and I certainly don't want to waste other people's time.

Any thoughts relatively to that? Would it be off-topic?

Thanks,

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    $\begingroup$ I would welcome questions about sampling methodologies. In this specific case I would be more worried that the question can become too broad. See for instance the topic How can requests for references be "too broad"?. But asside from the references, the 'design of methods' question may also lead to many variations in answers that focus on different aspects of the question or use different standards and opinions about 'good design'. And how specific should the request for sampling methodology be answered, the level of detailed protocols? $\endgroup$ Jan 27 at 10:14
  • $\begingroup$ @SextusEmpiricus Thanks. "And how specific should the request for sampling methodology be answered, the level of detailed protocols?" Originally that was one of my concerns, and why my hypothetical question would be about references, to avoid too detailed answers. But the link you give is really useful, as I didn't consider that a request for references could be also too broad! So what I take of it is that I should ask a very precise, to-the-point question. Thanks again. $\endgroup$
    – J-J-J
    Jan 27 at 10:44
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    $\begingroup$ stats.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1693/17230 $\endgroup$ Jan 30 at 23:53
  • $\begingroup$ @Scortchi-ReinstateMonica Thanks. I didn't find it when I searched for this specific question. I don't mind if someone finds it better to close my question as a duplicate. $\endgroup$
    – J-J-J
    Jan 31 at 11:03

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