I am identifying a focus group of local health professionals who would be prepared to provide more detailed qualitative information through a survey, in order to gain extended responses about my topic.

I always use Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk) but it is limited in terms of number of questions, and I feel it lacks the credibility for doctoral level work somewhat....

What are your thoughts?

I used it for my PhD, for a survey that was supplementary to my in depth interviews. It's basic but it does the job. I would say credibility was more about the questions and the researcher than the tools used.

Does your institution have access to any paid software, e.g. Snap or Qualtrics?

Survey Monkey is fine, as CR1980 suggests the questions and your analysis of the data will be more critical and impactful on success. I find with survey monkey my students have to pay to ask sufficient questions or include a large enough sample. After enquiries with the library and the IT people I discovered my institution has a licence (staff and PGR students) for Bristol Online Surveys which is an academic resource similar to survey monkey without the constraints on sample size and question numbers. So that might be offered at your institution it will remove the barriers survey monkey put on you and saves you paying them circa £40 each month to get enough data collected.

I agree - the point is it will get you the data you need. Also I think the fact that it is a well known name could even increase its perceived credibility. I don't know about you, but when I am clicking on a link to potentially share some information about myself, buy something, etc, I feel happier if I recognize the name.

Not to put down survey monkey as a tool.

However, if you are considering different tools or other options, you might look at Qualtrics. This tool is a professional surveying and data producing instrument used by my faculty and university. I think it has free trial options as well if this helps. It really was excellent and very professional-had many different functions and options.

You might also see whether your faculty or university have an institutional membership to a specific tool or instrument that you could use.

Thanks v much for your responses.