For this article, Steve Jones, Fiona Murphy, Mark Edwards and Jane James draw on experiences of delivering a questionnaire to a group of nursing students using the web. Although they encountered problems, this approach to data collection appears to have potential

The use of questionnaires as a method of data collection in research is well established, with the benefits and drawbacks of using such a method extensively debated (Oppenheim 1992, McDowell and Newell 1996, Giuffre 1997, McKenna et al 2006). What is less evident in the literature is a consideration of the process of delivering questionnaires to large groups. The standard approach has been through the use of paper questionnaires, which are then delivered to the target population. However, the increased use of personal computers (PCs) means there is a newer alternative: the delivery of questionnaires using the internet.