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Anonymous pre and post data collection with experimental and comparison groups

  • 13 December 2018
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Lindy
Hi There
I am conducting a research study with an 'intervention' and comparison group. Each group will complete two surveys, approximately six weeks apart. I need data collection to be anonymous, and so will ask each respondent to create a 6-digit personal identifying code. Or is there a better way of doing this? And is there an automatic function on Qualtrics to send the second survey to all participants who completed the first survey at a predetermined date/time-interval? In a way that maintains anonymity?
Many thanks for assistance.
Lindy
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Best answer by bstrahin 13 December 2018, 15:13

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bstrahin
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I would be concerned about people forgetting their code in that time. Is it necessary for you to connect individual responses from one survey to the next or can you compare the groups as aggregate? I think you will find the Survey Option to Anonymize Responses helpful (https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/edit-survey/survey-options/survey-termination/) - check our the last section at the bottom of the page.

If using the anonymize response feature, you can use the distribution history to figure out which respondents to send the second survey to. But I don't know of a way to automatically schedule this for 6 weeks from the initial complete date. I think you would have to put it in its own project and then use the email scheduling feature to pick a date and time to send the link to everyone - not customized by the date they actually filled out the first part). Information on email distributions is here: https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/distributions-module/email-distribution/email-distribution-management/
Lindy
Thank-you so much for your help Betsy! I'm going to have to carefully consider the options - I foresee much hairpulling in my future:) I'm beginning to see the impossibility of having true anonymity when collecting pre/post-intervention data.
I was planning on giving respondents a suggestion for creating a code eg 6 digits with day and month of birth and first two letters of mother's first name (although that would be optional). Then when the second survey goes out I would remind them that that had been the suggestion...
Great question - I had assumed that individual responses would be needed, but I'll look into the group comparison.
Many thanks for your assistance!
Lindy

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