Issues with Data Storage and Emails Going to Spam

Question

Hello,

I am currently conducting a 14-day diary study using SoSci Survey for my Master thesis, and I have encountered two issues.

1. Missing questionnaire responses

A few participants have reported completing their questionnaires, but their responses do not appear in my dataset.

Is there a way to check why these responses were not saved? Could this happen if participants did not reach the final page, or could there be another technical reason?

2. Confirmation emails and daily reminders going to spam

Some participants have reported that the confirmation emails and daily questionnaire reminders automatically sent by SoSci Survey end up in their spam folders.

Since participants need to confirm their email addresses and receive daily reminders throughout the 14-day study, I am concerned that this might affect participation and data collection.

Is there anything I can change in the SoSci Survey settings to reduce the likelihood of these emails being classified as spam?

I would really appreciate any advice or suggestions on how to resolve these issues.

Thank you very much for your help!

Best regards

Comments

Answers in SoSci are saved page by page, not only when a partcipant reaches the last page. So that should not be a problem. You might want to check filter option if by any chance you are excluding some cases/observations. Did you check the data in SoSci or only after downloading the data?

Answer 1

A few participants have reported completing their questionnaires, but their responses do not appear in my dataset.

Whenever this issue occured in the past, either the existing interview was re-opened (for example because an outdated link from a prior mailing was clicked, the cookie function had been enabled in the privacy settings or the mailing was configures as reminder) or the respondents did not tell the truth.

You would see the restart-existing-interview issue if you compare the STARTED and LASTDATA variables.

Confirmation emails and daily reminders going to spam

You send little text and a personalized link ... that looks a lot like spam or phishing, doesn't it? It may help to add some formal text, such as a few lines on why the people get this email and that privacy information is available from the project administration.

It will also help to send the email throught the university mailserver instead through the SoSci Survey mailserver (see SMTP), because some email provider consider our mailserver suspicious as a lot of mailings are sent through it.