Research Survey Requests

ASPO recognizes the value of well-designed survey research. To provide useful information for the pediatric & general otolaryngology community as well as our pediatric colleagues, a survey should address a novel clinical question. However, the rights of members to be protected from “spam” or frivolous surveys is also recognized. The Information Technology Committee has implemented an opt-out feature for ASPO members to indicate whether they would like to receive surveys.  

The survey should address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field.  The findings should potentially contribute to at least one of the following: safety, clinical decision, and health care policy.  The survey will provide a voice so that opinions and practice patterns of pediatric otolaryngologists will be part of the medical literature and contribute to the development of new clinical practice guidelines within otolaryngology and the pediatric community.

ASPO's Research Committee reviews survey applications in the order they are received. Through the review process, we hope to improve the quality and also, eventually, the response rate of surveys. The most meritorious surveys will be further considered, and naturally, a subset of less qualified surveys will be turned down. On average, 6 surveys will be distributed annually. ASPO will endorse the survey and provide access to its internet site and social media to promote the survey and also track the response rate.

Overview:

Surveys should be as brief and to the point as possible. This will improve the response rate and completion rate. Historically, the response rates of surveys have been 20-30%. Advice from an experienced survey researcher is recommended.

The potential surveyor is responsible for reviewing the literature to ensure that similar surveys have not already been performed. In addition, the surveyor is responsible for being aware of and complying with their institution's Human Subject research requirements. ASPO review of surveys does not substitute for or constitute IRB approval.

The survey’s academic purpose should be clearly articulated and defined. Surveys with a clear objective (e.g., gathering data for an article on this topic to be published in a journal or providing preliminary data for a grant application to an organization) are more likely to be approved. For informal surveys where academic rigor is not necessary to obtain information of clinical interest, the Pedi-Oto listserv is suggested.

Guidelines for surveys:

To address concerns about the quantity and quality of research surveys distributed to ASPO members, the Research Committee has developed survey criteria and an application process. The goal of the survey criteria is to provide authors guidelines to generate well-designed surveys and improve the overall quality of the research and the survey experience for the participating ASPO members.

The survey criteria to be reviewed are summarized below:

•  The survey should address an important and relevant topic to pediatric otolaryngology which will add to the field/literature.
•  The survey should have clearly stated objective(s).
•  The survey questions should focus on answering/addressing the survey objective(s) and be designed to generate meaningful statistical analyses; questions should be limited to only those used in analyzing the responses or describing the respondents.
•  The survey should not take more than 5 minutes and should have no more than 15-20 questions (without sub-questions or multiple parts).
•  The invitation to complete the survey must state (a) the number of total questions and (b) the anticipated completion time. Assuming the survey is administered online, feedback should be provided to the respondents after each page regarding the percentage of the total survey completed.
•  The survey should include a question/function for respondents to decline participation if they do not feel qualified to respond. Some basic descriptive data should be requested from respondents so that those who decline participation can be compared to those who complete the survey, thereby helping assess the ability to generalize the results.
•  A letter of support for statistical analyses must be submitted with the request to review the survey.
•  If applicable, a letter of support from the ASPO member acting as the survey sponsor should be included with the request to review the survey.
•  Upon the ASPO Research Committee's approval of the survey, a letter of approval/exemption from the IRB must be sent to the ASPO Research Committee Chair before the survey can be posted/distributed.
•  A full copy of the planned survey, including the cover letter/invitation to complete it, should be submitted with the request to review the survey.

Approved Standardized Demographic Questions
1. How many years have you been in practice?
<5 years
5-10 years
>10 years

2. Did you complete a pediatric otolaryngology fellowship?
Yes
No

3. What is the type of practice?
Academic Practice – Tertiary Referral Center
Academic Practice – Freestanding Children’s Hospital
Private Practice – Freestanding Children’s Hospital
Private Practice – General Hospital
Hospital Employed
Non-University Teaching Hospital
Government Hospital
Other

4. What is your geographical location of practice?
New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI)
Mid-Atlantic (DC, MD, DE, NJ, PA, NY, VA, WV)
Southeast (FL, GA, SC, NC)
South (AR, LA, MS, AL, KY, TN)
Plains (ND, MN, SD, IA, NE, KS, OK, MO)
Great Lakes (WI, IL, IN, OH, MI)
Rocky Mountain (MT, ID, WY, UT, CO)
Southwest (AZ, NM, TX)
Far West (WA, OR, CA, NV)
Pacific (AK, HI)
Canada
Other

*These questions will not count towards your total number of questions.

*All submissions will be notified of the committee's decision by 1 month from the deadline of the submission.

Upload the following documents with your application:

• ASPO Member support letter (required for non-members)
• Letter of Support for Statistical Analyses
• Invitation letter to be sent to ASPO Members to take the survey
• IRB Approval/Exemption letter - not required at time of application, but required prior to distribution
• An electronic link to your survey or a Word document containing all questions and any logic/branching
• The Research Committee will review applications in the order they are received. The Research Committee and/or ASPO staff may provide review comments or survey changes to the author in advance of final approval/rejection.  If approved, a $500 fee must be paid to ASPO before any survey can be sent to the membership. All surveys must be online, and the authors must provide a link to the survey web page before distribution.  To minimize survey fatigue, the distribution will be set up so that only those individuals who did not respond to the initial survey request will get a subsequent email. Each survey can be distributed a maximum of 2 times.
  

  
  Expectations after the survey process:

• We encourage the investigators of the survey to present their results at our annual ASPO meeting.
• By 12 months after the survey has been distributed, the investigators are expected to submit a report on the outcome of the study (e.g., what is the response rate, has the study been submitted for presentation or prepared as a manuscript).

Questions? Please contact ASPO Administration at [email protected] or by phone 312-202-5005