3. Results

The response rate to questionnaires has been limited, but not disappointingly so. We have received over 200 completed questionnaires. Of these almost 70 per cent were completed using the on-line form, many in response to messages posted to e-mail discussion groups. The number of replies to the questionnaires sent by post has been disappointing. Only 76 questionnaires were returned through the post, a response rate of less than 10 per cent bearing in mind the number sent out. It is worth pointing out that, despite personal letters, very few members of related projects, funded under this initiative, have themselves completed questionnaires! Whilst we welcome the response to the on-line questionnaire, the result is that we have a rather greater proportion of questionnaires from academics from outside the UK and from outside the social sciences - although only social scientists were asked to participate.

The limited response rate may be the result of a number of factors.

• Relevant literature suggests that a response rate to questionnaire surveys of around 20 to 25 per cent is good. The response rate here is just over 25 per cent. However, a small number of these come from academics from outside the social sciences. Further, the response rate here is based on the number of academic units contacted by letter. More were contacted through e-mail discussion groups and, of course, units contain more than one member of staff.
• Some respondents simply advised us that they did not consider themselves, or their units, to fall within the Social Sciences. We were aware of this problem but did not wish to pre-judge, on the basis of limited information, those units that were within the social sciences.
• We did not request replies from units or academics that were not using visualisation tools in their work. With hindsight we should have encouraged responses in these cases. Bearing in mind the penetration of visualisation techniques in the social sciences referred to later, to a great extent the relatively low response rate may be due to the fact that so little work involving data visualisation is taking place.
• A number of respondents commented that the questionnaire was fairly long, particularly as we asked for completion of a separate questionnaire (with the exception of the Cover Sheet) to be completed for each software product. We reduced the length of the questionnaire to a minimum compatible with receiving useful information.

Graphics     Multimedia      Virtual Environments      Visualisation      Contents