Survey reporting guide

Surveys are useful to describe “what is”. They are used in health and public health research to learn about current opinions, knowledge and practice, to estimate the prevalence of a condition, to assess self-reported health status, to document risk-seeking and health-seeking behaviours and to gather preliminary information for future studies^{Footnote 1}. Survey methods have changed from being paper-based to being largely electronic-mediated. Most surveys are now self-administered and completed online, by email, with apps or a combination of these (such as an email invitation with a link to an online questionnaire). A Cochrane review found that survey results from apps may have data equivalence to those obtained by more traditional methods when the setting, frequency and clinical application, in which the survey instrument was validated remain the same^{Footnote 2}.

Survey research is used for exploratory or descriptive research as it is relatively inexpensive, can cover a broad geographical area, includes thousands of people and allows for greater honesty when anonymity is assured. Surveys are not useful for causal research due to the risk of confounding bias (where an observed association between two variables is due to an association of both variables with an unmeasured third variable).

Usually surveys do not require a formal ethics review. Informed consent is still indicated, however, and can be met by identifying who is conducting the survey, the purpose, how long it will take to complete, any incentives and how personal information will be protected. For web-based surveys it is a best practice to calculate participation rate by measuring the number of unique visitors who filled out the first page of the survey, divided by the number of unique site visitors^{Footnote 3}. 

When reporting on survey research it is important to describe the objective, study population, development of the survey instrument and how the study was conducted, including the sampling strategy. The results need to include the response rate and the discussion needs to consider if and how the response rate, selection bias, positive response bias and threats to the reliability and validity of the survey questions may have influenced the results.

The Canada Communicable Disease Report (CCDR) has developed a 22-item checklist for reporting on surveys in the area of infectious diseases, which is based on the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES)^{Footnote 3}  a previous checklist^{Footnote 4} as well as best practices in scientific communications (Table 1). A survey report is generally 1,500 to 2,000 words in length. As with all submissions, check CCDR's Information for Authors for general manuscript preparation and submission requirements^{Footnote 5}.