What comes to your mind when you think of forest science? Maybe scientists monitoring biodiversity in the forest? Or researchers projecting future scenarios? But what about social science research around forests? In our Martelkom project, we are exploring societal perceptions of forest management and the interactions between foresters and the public. To do this, we decided to conduct a nationwide survey in Germany. This cannot be too complex – right? Or can it?
You might think that creating a survey is quick and easy: just draft some questions on the topics you want to study. Yet, in our studies, we have been told to never underestimate surveys and their complexity as a data collection tool. So, when we were tasked to develop a survey on societal perceptions of forest management, we were eager to dive in. Now that the survey is sent out, we’re still surprised by how much time it took – from crafting the right questions to identifying our target group, refining wording, and selecting the best response types. But let’s break it down step by step.
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