A Typical Survey With StatPac

The next step is to develop a series of questions that address those goals. These, of course, will become the variables in your study. They can be alpha, numeric, ranked, Likert scale, multiple response, and open-ended. Again, the manual provides a wealth of information on questionnaire design and question wording.

The questions themselves are entered with the StatPac survey design program. For each variable, you can enter a name, label, value labels, valid codes, skip patterns, and a variety of other parameters to control data entry. Special features (like duplicating value labels from one variable to another) speed up the design process. You can also extract questions from other studies you've completed.

After the variables have been entered, StatPac can automatically (or you can manually) design the questionnaire itself. If you already have a word-processed questionnaire, you can load it right into StatPac. This will become the form used for data entry, CRT and telephone interviewing.

The next step in the research process is to determine the required sample size. StatPac will calculate the required sample size for any desired confidence interval and margin of error.

When the population is large, researchers usually elect to survey only a sample of the population. StatPac will help you select a sample. You can generate a random number table with or without replacement. Or for telephone surveys, you can create a random list of phone numbers from selected area codes and local exchanges.

Data can be manually entered or imported from a variety of database formats (e.g., Access, Excel, Paradox, tab and comma delimited files, etc.). You can also import data from CGI and plain-text e-mail surveys.

Manually entering and editing data in StatPac is fast and easy because it uses a data entry form. This means that the data entry person will see the form that you designed. The data entry form usually looks just like the questionnaire, but it can also include messages or special instructions for the data entry operator. This is especially important for telephone interviewing. Data entry errors are minimized through validity or range checking. Skip patterns automatically control branching while data is being entered. Other features allow you to control whether the computer will accept missing data, automatically advance the cursor to the next field or page, control the caps lock, etc.

Data can also be collected using online surveys. StatPac will automatically generate the web pages for an internet survey that you can host on your own web site.

Click here to learn more about StatPac online surveys.

E-mail surveys are also supported by StatPac. They don't look fancy but they do get the job done

. Click here to learn more about StatPac e-mail surveys

The final step in the project is to run the analyses. When it comes to creating reports, StatPac puts you in the driver's seat. Choose the statistics and table layouts that communicate your message most effectively because StatPac offers multiple options for every analysis. You can run a single analysis interactively or create a batch file to run hundreds of analyses at one time.

Use the results editor to review and edit the results before printing them. This is like a customized desk-top publisher that gives you total control over the appearance of the report. The result is camera-ready tables ready to bind into your report. You can also cut and paste tables from StatPac to any other Windows application.

From start to finish, StatPac helps you do your job better and faster. It's the right tool for survey and marketing researchers.

Designing Analyses

StatPac performs a wide variety of basic and advanced statistical procedures. Each analysis program is packed with powerful statistical features.

StatPac makes it easy to design analyses because of its high-powered editor and extensive on-line help. Screen windows let you display a variety of information at the same time. The programming language is friendly and versatile because it uses plain English commands. Most analyses can be run with a single command.

Options can be selected for each analysis to control the statistical process and the layout of the report. You can specify page headings, titles, footnotes, labeling, decimal formatting, and a variety of other features to control the appearance of the printouts. StatPac gives you total control over the format of the output, and there's simply no limit to the diversity of your printouts.

Sophisticated transformations and data manipulation can be easily performed using standard algebraic notation. You can select, recode, compute, average, sort, and weight data. Missing data can be handled in a variety of ways.

StatPac also supports IF-THEN logic so you'll have the power you need to perform conditional transformations and selections. Logical AND and OR commands may be used to form complex transformations.

StatPac equation processor accommodates any level of parentheses. Complex formulas can use addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, exponentiation, natural logarithm and trigonometric functions.

StatPac is fast and accurate. While it is faster than most other statistical software, the real time savings comes in having the convenience of one package to handle your entire research project.