Why don’t we do survey-based research?
One of the biggest challenges authors face when conducting a Survey or Cross-sectional study is that you have to collect the data yourself in order to be considered an author. That means you need to personally send the questionnaire to the target population, follow up, ask people to participate, and often resend it multiple times.
I’m sure many of you have noticed this happening in group chats!
Those who’ve gone through it know how mentally exhausting and time-consuming it is (sometimes even emotionally draining). You constantly check responses, monitor the number of participants, and try every possible way to reach the required sample size.
And on top of that, many people simply don’t respond or ignore it altogether.
Add to that the fact that you must have ethical approval from a university to proceed.
In our experience, data collection can really drain your energy ,and in some cases, researchers are tempted to collect responses from people outside the actual target population, just to meet the required number that qualifies them to be listed as an author.
What makes things even more difficult is that some journals don’t consider survey-based studies to be strong or impactful enough, especially when the topic is repetitive.
In fact, some journals clearly state in their author instructions:
“We do not accept survey studies conducted on medical students, as they are overly common and offer limited scientific value.”
That said, there are still topics with a real gap in the literature that genuinely require a well-designed survey.
May Allah grant you sincerity in your intentions and success in your work