Survey methods textbooks

[Page last updated 25 Oct 2011]

[NB: Where authors are marked in red the links for titles are to other pages on this site containing my reviews and/or detailed comments and (where available) links to author profiles.  Some links are to  publishers' sites or Google Books and allow you to view  extracts of the text.   Some books have their own associated websites.  See also Survey methods guides and tutorials on this site]

Survey methods books abound, (some in earlier editions)  but I found the most useful for my students

David Phillips
Do-It-Yourself Social Surveys: a handbook for beginners
(Survey Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London, 1981)
[Specially commissioned for students and community groups.  Out of print, but I'll try to scan it and upload it to this site]

Hoinville G,  Jowell R and associates
Survey Research Practice
 (Heinemann 1977, but a new edition is in the pipeline)
Roger Jowell, Roger Thomas and Peter Peter Lynn  [Eds]
Survey Research in Practice
(Sage, ????)

Sunny Crouch
Marketing Research for Managers
(Heinemann 1984, Pan 1985, but there's a new edition, with foreword by Professor Robert Worcester)
Sunny Crouch and Matthew Housden
Marketing Research for Managers 
(Butterworth-Heinemann Limited, 2003)

D.A de Vaus
Surveys in Social Research
(5th edition, Allen & Unwin, 2002, but look out for 6th edition due soon) 

Catherine Marsh
The survey method : the contribution of surveys to sociological explanation 
(Allen and Unwin, 1982)

Claus Moser and Graham Kalton
Survey Methods in Social Investigation
(Ashgate Dartmouth 1985 [1958, 1971])

More recent highly recommended books

SPSS in 60 pages
This handy little booklet covers the whole process of designing and running a survey.  Although it's a plug for SPSS products, it's a useful prelude to the more detailed approaches in textbooks, and is clearly derived from intensive and prolonged experience of conducting and analysing surveys.

Peter V Marsden & James D Wright [Eds]
Handbook of Survey Research 
 (2nd edition, Emerald, 2010, £67.95)
 ISBN: 978-1-84855-224-1 Hardback
This huge (886 pages) and invaluable tome should be in the library of every social science department, every university and every serious research organisation.
   
Alan Buckingham and Peter Saunders
The survey methods workbook: from design to analysis
(Polity Press, 2004) 

Judith Bell
Doing your research project: a guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science
( Open University Press, 2005, but there is now an extended 4th edition,)

Erik Mooi and Marko Sarstedt
A Concise Guide to Market Research: The process, data and methods using IBM SPSS Statisitics
(Springer-Verlag, 2011)
. . is a new book I've only just received, but it's very practice- and skill-oriented.

A N Oppenheim
Questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement
Continuum, 2000 [1992]

Worth a look

Know your Audience - A  Practical Guide to Media Research 
(Audience Dialogue, 2007)
  provides a  comprehensive and usable guide to all  aspects  of audience research.  This book  is available as a 384 page PDF  document.  An extract How to write a  survey report  is a short guide for (nearly) beginners, based on audience research, but applicable to other areas.  The site is worth exploring for its many knowledgable, useful and easy to understand explanations of the practical side of survey research, including software for survey analysis.