Technical Instructions, Fees, Terms and Conditions for ENT UK online survey distribution

by Jim Fairley, ENT UK Survey Guardian. Updated 4 January 2012

How to format your survey for distribution by ENT UK

Technical Instructions

ENT UK use SurveyMonkey software for distributing surveys to the membership. We will require your survey to be in SurveyMonkey format.

What you need before you start

You will need

1. An internet connection
2. A valid email address
3. The email addresses of some friends / colleagues, to develop and test your survey.

Step by step

1. Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com
2. Register yourself with a username and password - set up a free Basic Account. Note: A free account will only allow ten questions - though each question may have sub-sections. If you need more, you can create more than one survey, or you can pay for a Professional Account.
3. Follow the on-line instructions to design your survey. Follow the principles on Smart Survey Design at http://s3.amazonaws.com/SurveyMonkeyFiles/SmartSurvey.pdf and follow the ENT UK guidelines at http://www.entuk.org/publications/survey_guidelines , and you should write a good survey.
4. Note - at the pilot stage, you should ALWAYS have a large free text box at the end, in which you ask your respondents to write down anything they think could be improved about your survey.
5. Unless your questionnaire is very short (less than five questions) Please DO NOT make every question require a mandatory answer. Experience shows this will annoy respondents, and cause them to exit your survey early.
6. If there is one over-riding question which you really would like all respondents to answer, make it mandatory, but:
   1. Put it first in the list
   2. Change the " This question requires an answer" field to a more polite form, such as " This is the most important question in our survey. We would be grateful if you could please answer it before proceeding to the remaining (optional, more detailed) questions. Thank you."
7. Pilot the survey with a small group. Note: A Basic Account will allow you to survey up to 100 respondents. This should be more than enough for a pilot.
8. Take feedback from your respondents and refine your survey
9. Once you are happy with your survey, transfer your survey to our Professional Account, username ENT-UK.

To transfer your survey, from within your SurveyMonkey Basic Account:

1. Click on the [My Account] tab in the header bar. This opens the Account Summary page.
2. Select the [Transfer Survey] button on the left side of the page:
3. Enter the username of the account into which you are transferring the survey - our username is ENT-UK
4. Select the survey title from the dropdown menu and choose either the [Copy] or [Move] button. This places the survey into our account, for approval and distribution.
5. Important: NOTE: Transfer Functions: Copying a survey does not copy the collectors or responses. It only copies the design. You must use the [Move] button if you want the collectors and responses to stay intact. Custom Themes do not transfer: All surveys will have the ENT UK default theme applied when transferred.

To request distribution of your survey

Email the ENT UK Survey Guardian, Mr Jim Fairley jwfairley@entkent.com and let him know the name of the survey that you have transferred. The Survey Guardian will probably require some changes before agreeing to distribute your survey. The likelihood of major changes being required, or outright rejection, is much reduced if you have stuck to the guidelines in developing your survey.

Distribution schedule

ENT UK distribute Survey Invitations via email to our Expert Panel approximately four times per year, in small batches, as this was the preferred option of our membership when we surveyed them in 2008. The distribution schedule is subject to change without notice, but we aim to distribute surveys in the third weeks of January, April, July and October. Survey Authors must submit their work at least one month before the distribution date.

Collecting your results

The SurveyMonkey software automatically collects your results. After the agreed collection period (normally 2 to 4 weeks), we will download your results into a spreadsheet and email you a link to this for your analysis. You are responsible for your own analysis of the results.

Fees, Terms and Conditions for distribution of online Surveys by ENT UK

ENT UK will charge a fee for distributing your survey to our Expert Panel. The current fee for this service is GBP 200 for Members and GBP 500 for non-Members.

Timescale for payment of fees

Fees become payable on submission of your survey to our Survey Guardian for approval. No surveys will be distributed until payment has been received.

ENT UK Membership

The ENT UK membership is currently over 1,000 doctors practicing in ENT in the UK. Not all doctors currently in practice in Otolaryngology / Head & Neck Surgery in the UK are members of ENT UK, therefore surveys distributed by ENT UK cannot be regarded as covering all practitioners in the specialty. Furthermore, ENT UK will only distribute surveys to a subset of our membership, namely our Expert Panel.

ENT UK Expert Panel

Our Expert Panel is made up of current members of ENT UK who have agreed in advance to respond to survey questionnaires that have been edited and approved by the Survey Guardian. The Expert Panel are an opted-in list. At present, we have over 300 members on our Expert Panel. Expert Panel members receive Continuous Professional Development (CPD) credits for each approved questionnaire they complete. The CPD is based on Reflective Practice. The respondent must, by definition, reflect on his / her practice in order to answer the questions. The Survey Guardian will append our standard Quality Assurance and Reflective Practice questions to each approved survey. Survey Authors will receive feedback on how the quality of their questionnaire was perceived by our Expert Panel.

Response rate

ENT UK is not responsible for the response rate to surveys. Using an opted-in list (our Expert Panel) increases your likelihood of a good response rate, but does not guarantee it. A high response rate is more likely if the survey is relevant, of interest to our Panel Members, and well written. No refunds of fees can be given for poor response rates.

Prohibition against subsequent use, redistribution or forwarding of our email distribution list.

In the event that, as a result of data transferred to you for analysis of your survey, you should come into possession of part or all of our membership email distribution list, you are SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED from using any part of this list for further surveys, or transferring such lists to other parties. ENT UK Expert Panel members have agreed to participate in our surveys on the strict understanding that all surveys will be approved by ENT UK, will conform to our guidelines, and will be distributed by ENT UK.

Acknowledgement declaration in subsequent publications

The following acknowledgement and declaration should appear in any publication based on the results of surveys distributed to the ENT UK Expert Panel:

" This survey was edited and approved by the ENT UK Survey Guardian prior to distribution. It was circulated via email invitation to the Expert Panel of ENT UK, the British Association of Otolaryngologists Head and Neck Surgeons between [insert start and end date your survey was live]. The Survey Authors acknowledge the voluntary contribution of ENT UK Expert Panel Members who help develop knowledge within our speciality, by sharing their Reflections on Practice. "

(This declaration may be split into appropriate sections eg Methods, Acknowledgements, according to Journal style)