Research Tips

Choosing Scales to Use in Surveys

When using a questionnaire to collect data, there are a number of different types of scales that can be used, for example: “please tick the box that best represents your level of agreement with each statement”, “please rank the following items in order of preference”, or “please rate your satisfaction with each of the following aspects of our service”. Before deciding which scale(s) to use, it is important to determine the specific data analysis methods you will be using. Many data analysis techniques such as factor analysis or conjoint analysis require specific types of data, while the use of statistics such as the mode, median, and mean also depend on having the appropriate type of data.