Why is Kieskompas (Election Compass) sending me survey invitations?

You have probably filled an Election Compass in the past, indicating that you may be contacted for scientific research. It is also possible that you have previously participated in our research and left your contact details there.

How do I know if the mail and link are safe?

Good question! All our surveys are sent out from a.krouwel@qualtrics-research.com or research@kieskompas.nl. The research link always starts with "https://vuass.eu.qualtrics.com/" or "https://kieskompas.eu.qualtrics.com/". If that is the case,  the link is secure and the questionnaire is indeed sent by Kieskompas (Election Compass).

The survey does not work. What now?

That’s annoying! You can try to open the link or paste it into another browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge). It is also possible that the software we use for the research (Qualtrics) is temporarily offline. You could simply try again later.

Are my answers stored?

If you receive a reminder, but you have already completed the questionnaire then you do not have to take action. Sometimes this happens if you did not submit your answers on the last page of the survey.

Even if you have filled in everything,  but missed answering  few questions, your answers have already been stored. Thank you very much for participating in this survey.

The survey takes too long, do I have to fill it in completely?

We always try to keep the surveys as short as possible. Since we want to understand what you think about various issues, we sometimes ask a lot of questions. It is best for our research if you answer all of them, but you are not obliged to. You can stop the answering at any time, and skip any question you don't feel like answering. We will occasionally send you a reminder email, and then you can continue where you left off. Of course, you can skip any survey or question that you don't like.

Sometimes I don’t understand a question.

We work with numerous scholars in more than 60 countries and often do international research, with many scientists and universities involved. If you don't understand a question or find it nonsensical you can just skip it!

Where can I find the results of the research?

When the results of the research are available, they can be disseminated in different ways, such as academic publications, the media, reports, or the Kieskompas  (Election Compass) website. Sometimes it can take a while before results are available or published.

Results from most scientific research we conduct can be found in the publication list of Dr. André Krouwel, the founder of Kieskompas (Election Compass):
https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/andré-krouwel/publications/.

Some questions are so sensitive that I am left with the impression that you are profiling me

This may appear like 'profiling' to you but are certainly not doing it. We don't trace any responses/data back to individual respondents.

I have received the invitations twice. Now what?

Oops! Of course, that should not have happened. We may have your email address twice, since  respondents can subscribe to our panels with two different email addresses. Could you please check which addresses you received the invitation to? Let us know by emailing research@kieskompas.nl and we will unsubscribe one of your email addresses from our panel.

It is also possible that we have reminded you to complete a survey. This happens if you have still not taken the survey. You may have closed the survey on the last page, before submitting your answers. These reminder emails are sent automatically to all unfinished responses.

How does Kieskompas (Election Compass) process and store my data?

The data analyses we run can never be traced back to individuals. We always make use of anonymised and aggregated data. We have developed a very extensive protocol for this. Of course, we comply with the strict European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The most important guarantees and procedures can be found here: https://policies.kieskompas.nl.

Is our data colection secure?

To conduct our surveys, we use Qualtrics. Qualtrics is GDPR compliant, has ISO 27001 certification and several other digital security certificates. Qualtrics is used by many (Dutch) universities and large companies for data collection. You can read more about data security and privacy of Qualtrics here: https://www.qualtrics.com/security-statement/

How can I change the answers I provided in a survey or my email address?

You can send an email to research@kieskompas.nl, and we will take care of it.

How can I unsubscribe?

In every survey invitation email we send out, you will always find a link at the bottom, on which you can click to unsubscribe. In addition, you can send an email to research@kieskompas.nl. Please note that it may take some time before your unsubscription is processed.

How can I get in touch regarding a survey?

If your questions are not answered on this page and you would like to let the Kieskompas team know, please send an email to research@kieskompas.nl. We will be happy to help you!