Reference Surveys

About Reference Surveys

Often, you will need to use the same sets of questions in multiple surveys. Rather than re-creating these questions, you can copy them with a few clicks. The Reference Survey element allows you to take surveys stored in your Qualtrics library and reference them inside your other surveys. Any changes made to the survey questions in your library will also change the questions within any survey they’re referenced in.

Setting Up a Reference Survey

1. Create a new survey that includes the questions you would like to reference in multiple surveys.
2. Go to the Projects page by clicking Projects in the global navigation menu.
   
3. Click on the project actions menu to the right of the survey.
   
4. Choose Copy project.
5. Choose to copy to a Library.
   
6. Give the copy a name.
7. Select the library to save the copy in.
8. Select the folder to save the copy in.
9. Click Copy project.

Using a Reference Survey

1. Create a new survey or open an existing survey in which you want to reference a survey.
2. While editing the survey, open the Survey flow.
   
3. Click Add Below or Add a New Element Here.
4. Choose Reference survey.
   
5. Select the library that contains the reference survey.
   
6. Choose the survey you want to reference.
   Qtip: If needed, you can move the reference survey to a different place in your survey flow.
7. Click Apply.

After you’ve added your reference survey element, you will see the reference survey blocks in your survey editor (though they will not be editable).

Editing a Reference Survey

Once a survey is referenced in the survey flow, any changes made to that referenced survey will be automatically applied to all surveys using that reference survey element.

1. Navigate to your Library.
   
2. Find the survey you want to edit. To edit a survey in a group library, navigate to this library first by selecting the correct library from the left-hand panel.
   
3. Click on the 3 horizontal dots to the right of the survey.
4. Choose Edit Survey.
5. Edit the survey questions as desired (only question options and logic settings are editable; a referenced survey takes on the theme of whatever survey it is referenced into). Any changes will be automatically applied to all reference survey elements referencing the survey.
   
   Qtip: Click the Linked Survey button to see a list of all surveys that use this reference survey.
6. When finished, use the navigation menu to return to the library or go elsewhere.

Translating a Reference Survey

While regular surveys are translated using the Tools menu, reference surveys need to be translated in the library before those translations are available when referencing the survey.

1. Navigate to your Library.
   
2. Find the survey you want to edit. To edit a survey in a group library, navigate to this library first by selecting the correct library from the left-hand panel.
   
3. Click on the 3 horizontal dots to the right of the survey.
4. Select Translate survey.
5. Click Add Language to add your survey languages. This translation editor works the same as the one in the Tools menu. See this page on Translating Surveys for more information on using the survey translator tool.
   
6. When finished, use the navigation menu to return to your library or go elsewhere.

Types of Projects this Feature Is Available In

The survey flow can be customized in many different types of projects. However, not all survey flow features are available in all types of projects.

Reference surveys can only be used in the following projects:

• Survey projects
• XM Solutions
• Conjoints
• MaxDiff