Reasons for low response
| Reason | Example |
| Comprehension issues with survey questions | Questions may not be well understood.50 In particular, for studies where participants from non-English speaking countries only have access to the English survey form.51 |
| Lack of incentives | Not providing incentives (eg, honorarium, monetary payments) for participation.35 52 53 |
| Lack of management support or resources | Insufficient support and buy-in from key managerial stakeholders.26 |
| Organisational trust | Potential participants concerned that their answers may be traced back to them, stemming from organisational trust issues and fear of punitive consequences.40 54–56 |
| Questionnaire length | High no of items or the use of multiple questionnaires may defer potential participants.37 57 |
| Review board issues | Issues obtaining approval from reviewing boards,26 such as ethical or governance approval. This may lead to roadblocks or delay in data collection. |
| Survey fatigue | Numerous questionnaires circling the organisation at once.38 |
| Third party participant recruitment | Using an external company for recruitment, rather than the researchers distributing the questionnaire themselves.35 |
| Time constraints | Staff may be too busy with their workload to respond.36 37 57 |
| Timing of questionnaire distribution | Response rates may vary depending on what else is happening at the time of distribution.39 This was raised as a particular issue for studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.38–40 |