Access Restrictions

For each questionnaire in the survey project, you can specify individually who gets access to it. There are five options for this (see below for details).

• Anyone who knows the link may fill out the questionnaire (default setting).
• Only persons from a certain IP range can participate (e.g., university or corporate network).
• A password is required to fill out the questionnaire.
• The questionnaire can only be filled out with an individual participation link (mailing).
• Respondents need an individual code to participate (access code).

The access to a questionnaire is specified under Compose Questionnaire → tab Access.

Select one of the possible options in the settings and click the button Save.

You as the project manager can view the questionnaire at any time, even if access is restricted. To do so, click the green () or yellow arrow () under Compose Questionnaire or directly in the questionnaire. If you use this button, the questionnaire recognizes you as the project administrator and overrides the access restrictions.

This option will deactivate any access restrictions. The questionnaire will be visible on the internet within the chosen survey period. (choose: project → project settings)

Anyone who knows the Internet address (URL) of your questionnaire or finds it (e.g. via search engine) can fill in your questionnaire.

• Use the access mode Mailing if you send your invitations by email by means of SoSci Survey (see Send Mailings) and thereby use the placeholder %link% for individualized participation links.
• Also use the access mode Mailing if you create participation URLs with the function Invitation Mailings → Access URLs.

The personalized links contain a unique code as a unique access code to the questionnaire. Each participant will receive a new subscription code with each invitation or reminder - so participation can be identified for each participant and invitation (serial mail). When sending a reminder mail, the same code is sent as in the original invitation.

Regardless (!) of the access code, SoSci Survey assigns a participant identification (serial number) to each addressee, if invitations are sent via SoSci Survey and the privacy mode is less strict than „anonymous“. This is always being recorded in the data set (variable SERIAL) and allows for multiple serial mails being assinged to responses of various questionnaires.

Important: The participation status of the addressees is only being recorded (and will be shown under List of Contacts) when the access mode of serial mail is set and the privacy mode is less than „anonymous“.

Using access codes is particularly useful if …

• individual participation IDs are needed – but the invitations are not sent by means of SoSci Survey,
• a pseudonymization of the data is sufficient or a personal reference is desired (see below), and/or
• the respondents shall type in the code manually, e.g., because it is sent by post.

An access code is a one-time password. It entitles the holder to fill out a questionnaire exactly once (completely). For this, the respondents must be known prior to the survey. For details, see Access Codes.

Participants can log in with their e-mail address (as it appears in the List of Contacts) and a password of their choice.

To set a password, you need a serial mail. Set in this serial mail as function: „Set/change password for address entry“. Send this serial mail to participants who should receive a password.

Important: Create another serial mail with the Function „Reset password for address entry“ so that participants are offered a function for resetting forgotten passwords.

To link from one questionnaire to another questionnaire after login (e.g. selection of different questionnaires), set the access mode „internal/locked“ for the other questionnaire and use the functions described under Multi-Level Structure.

If you restrict access to the questionnaire on specific IP addresses, then only those persons have access, working on a computer that is connected to the Internet by the specified IP address.

This works the same way access is granted to a chargeable database from a university network. If you want to ensure that only employees and / or students of a university may participate in a survey, then the IP whitelist can be the right solution.

This access restriction mode is useful in case that the IP addresses of the participants are known exactly. Many universities or larger companies have their own IP address or use a specific range of IP addresses. Computers that are installed in companies or that are connected through a VPN to the intranet, use for „outward“ communication also these IP addresses.

You can add valid IP addresses as follows. Multiple items can be separated by commas.

• Individual IP address, e.g.: 192.168.0.1
• IP address range, e.g.: 192.168.0.20-192.168.0.42
• wildcard, e.g.: 192.168.0.*

A classic but less secure solution: You only have access to the questionnaire with one central password.

Since the password is the same for each respondent, this solution is not very secure. The passord can easily be passed around. A lot more secure is the usage of individual access keys (serial mail or serial numbers).

BTW: You can also send the password directly within the link to the questionnaire. That way the respondent does not have to type in the password manually. (see also: URL to the questionnaire).

Important: When choosing this option you need to specify a passord. Else the questionnaire cannot be filled out by your participants.

If you lock the questionnaire, only you as administrator can access the questionnaire directly. To do so, you have to start the questionnaire directly in the project management (under Compose Questionnaire).

Access for participants is only possible if they are directed to the questionnaire via goToQuestionnaire() or multiLevelDown()