In Australia in 2014-15, 86 per cent of households had the internet connected (ABS Cat.8146.0). In line with this growth in internet connectivity, there has been an increase in the volume of survey research undertaken via the worldwide web. Since 2010, online research has been the dominant mode of data collection in the Australian market and social research industry, supplanting Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). In Australia in 2013 online research accounted for 34 per cent of the revenue generated by the industry up from 29 per cent two years earlier (ESOMAR, 2014). Worldwide the increase in internet penetration has seen a plethora of non-probability internet panels established. These panels provide researchers with access to panel members prepared to undertake surveys for ‘rewards’. In United States and parts of Europe the increased use of the web for data collection also resulted in establishment of probability based online research panels to enable the scientific sampling of the population. The same is not true in Australia where there are no commercially available national probability based online panels.
The authors of this paper are concerned that the rapid increase in the use of non-probability online panels in Australia has not been accompanied by an informed debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of probability and non-probability surveys.
The 2015-2016 Australian Online Panels Benchmarking Study was undertaking to inform this debate and reports on the findings from a single national survey administered across three different probability samples and five different non-probability online panels.
This study enables us to determine, whether or not in an Australian context, that surveys using probability-sampling methods produce more accurate results, relative to independent population benchmarks, than surveys relying upon nonprobability sampling methods. In doing so we hope to build on similar international research in this area (E.g. Yeager et al. 2011, Chang & Krosnick 2009, Walker, Pettit & Rubinson, 2009).