Criteria for student questionnaires
Any questionnaires intended for distribution amongst ISACA members should adhere to the following principles and guidelines.
These principles aim to help you achieve the best survey response outcome from our members.
Please download the survey template from the below link.
Submission to ISACA
• Submissions to ISACA should be made with the knowledge and approval of your academic supervisor.
• The ISACA London chapter will consider Msc or PhD survey requests from:
o ISACA student members of the London Chapter
o ISACA Academic Advocates whose membership is up to date, who can sponsor research requests on behalf of their students (who need not necessarily be ISACA members)
• For details on ISACA membership, use the following links:
o Student membership: More Info!
o Academic Advocate membership: More Info!
• A survey intended to poll or reach a wider audience than the London chapter members should be directed to the ISACA international website, via the following link.
o Note - ISACA international only consider requests from Academic Advocates and only for PhD research
• The accompanying survey request form should be completed
o For student members, this should be reviewed and approved by your supervisor
o Ideally supervisors should submit an accompanying checklist to verify that a series of prior checks have been conducted on the questionnaire quality , ethics and content.
• Email the completed form to the following email address:
o
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o ISACA will endeavour to respond to your request within 2 weeks of submission
• If your request is successful we will post a link to your survey on our website and promote your survey in our following month’s member newsletter
• ISACA reserves the right to limit the number of surveys we promote to members at any one time, please submit your request well ahead of any university deadlines to allow for ISACA to process it and to ensure a good response
Questionnaire design and content
• Link your research to ISACA/ ITGI ‘pillars’ – Audit, Security or Governance. Where applicable, explain how your research might support existing ISACA research or projects underway.See the following links for current research/projects underway:
o Academic Advocate
o ISACA® Research
• Clearly identify the target respondent group(s), so that potential participants know if it is relevant for them to complete the questionnaire.
• Please consider the length of the questionnaire in light of a busy audience. A good control in this context is to consider what each question contributes and whether it really needs to be asked. Participants should be given a clear indication of how long it is expected to take.
• Follow established good practice in questionnaire design (e.g. clear and unambiguous wording; use of appropriate scales for responses; avoidance of ‘leading’ questions). Avoid grammatical and typographic errors.
• Your university is likely to provide specific training or course modules on questionnaire/research design, as well as recommended texts/guidance you will find useful. In the absence of any guidance, here are some references you may find useful:
o Designing and conducting survey research – A comprehensive Guide by Louis M Rae & Richard A Parker, 3rd Edition, published by Jossey-Bass (Wiley imprint)
• Most surveys we receive are prepared using Surveymonkey software. An HTML link is then provided to ISACA to upload onto our website. This or an equivalent represents the easiest format for ISACA and our members to process and respond to
• An appropriate briefing / cover sheet should be included in order to explain the aims and objectives to the participants, indicating why their responses are being collected and how they will be used (e.g. will the findings be attributed or reported anonymously). They should also be told how they can withdraw from the study, and informed about the confidentiality of responses.
• All questionnaires should include contact details for both the student conducting the study and the responsible academic supervisor(s).
Quality and ethical assurance
• Review your questionnaire with your academic supervisor before submission to ISACA for research validity and questionnaire design
• Refer to your university ethics policy and obtain approval from your university ethics committee (or equivalent) where required before submission. These typically address the following issues:
o Openness and honesty
o Participant right to withdraw
o Protection from harm
o Debriefing and access to study outcomes
o Confidentiality
o Ensure your questionnaire is not in conflict with any ISACA ethical policies or standards.
• These can be found using the following link.
On completion of the survey research
• ISACA London chapter requires a copy of the survey report/thesis for any surveys we promote to be made available to our members, ideally in pdf or electronic version so that it can be loaded on our website.
o When you submit your research you can also select to submit your research into our periodic Thesis competition
o Details of the any current competitions will be published on the London chapter website under the Academic Relations section
• Students are also required to provide the ISACA London chapter with a short, member/business focused article for possible publication in our local or international ISACA publications
• Both of these should be submitted to the following email address:
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♦ Criteria for Student Questionnaire
