Altruistic donation to improve survey responses: a global randomized trial

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Research
• Survey Methodology
• Global Health

Background:

• Web-based platforms enable global survey research, but participation incentives have primarily targeted Western audiences.
• A growing proportion of biomedical research occurs in non-Western countries, necessitating effective global survey response strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of different incentive methods on survey response rates in a global cohort of biomedical researchers.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of gift card incentives and charitable donations compared to a control group.

Main Methods:

• A three-arm nested randomized control trial (RCT) was conducted within a prospective cohort study.
• Email invitations were sent to 2426 authors and editors from 111 countries involved in online publishing.
• Response rates were compared across a control group, a gift card incentive group, and a charitable donation group.

Main Results:

• The overall response rate was 13.0%, with no significant difference between the control (13.3%), gift card (14.4%), or charity (11.1%) groups (p=0.17).
• Neither publication year nor country of origin affected response rates.
• Editors had significantly lower response rates (6.5%) compared to authors (18.9%; p<0.01).

Conclusions:

• The tested incentive strategies did not demonstrably improve global survey response rates in this study.
• Incentives may not be a universally effective method for increasing participation in global biomedical research surveys.
• Future research should explore alternative or culturally tailored approaches to enhance global survey engagement.