Interviewing for the Innovation Panel (IP) commences in the spring of the year before the corresponding wave of the main Understanding Society survey. The IP shares the same basic interview structure as the main survey which includes:
- Household roster and household questionnaire
- Individual questionnaire, with a brief proxy interview for any respondents who cannot be interviewed in person
- Adult self-completion questionnaire
- Youth self-completion questionnaire
Interview modes: web, CAPI and telephone
The primary mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews using computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). However, IP Wave 2 experimented with a mixed-mode design in which a portion of the sample was interviewed via telephone using computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). In IP Wave 5, another mixed-mode experiment began: using an online web survey along with the CAPI-only design. This mixed-mode design has been used since, with some variations described in the fieldwork section.
In the CAPI questionnaire, the questionnaire is a computer program in which the computer shows the questions on the screen and the interviewer reads them to the respondent and records the respondent’s answers. CATI is the same but with the interview taking place over the telephone. For web instruments, the questionnaires are similar to the CAPI version, though designed to be completed online by the sample member themselves without an interviewer present.
The self-completion questionnaires for adults and youth in IP1 and IP3 were paper-based. There is no adult self-completion interview in IP Wave 2. In IP2, the youth self-completion was available in two formats: a web questionnaire and a paper self completion. The web address and individual log-on passwords were printed on the advance letter/card of the responsible adult. Interviewers also had paper copies of the self-completion for those that had not done it online. This was not experimental. In IP4 and from IP6 onwards, the youth self completion questionnaire was paper based. At Wave 5, the youth self-completion was again available online as well as paper copies. Alongside paper self-completion youth surveys, web youth surveys were again available at Waves 16 and 17 of the IP (see 7.26 Youth online survey and 10.15 Youth online survey.
From Waves 4 to 6 adults in half of the households completed a paper self-completion, while adults in the other half of the sample were asked to complete their questionnaire using the interviewer’s laptop (CASI: computer-assisted self-interviewing). Beginning at IP7, the self-completion part of the adult interview was moved entirely to computer, either as CASI as part of the face-to-face interview or as part of the web survey.
Other fieldwork documents include advance letters for communication with participants, other correspondence with participants, information leaflets, interview instructions, consent forms, and showcards. The fieldwork documents are organised by wave.
