How to Conduct Behavioral Research over the Internet: A Beginner's Guide to HTML and CGI/Perl (Methodology in the Social Sciences)

Requiring no prior knowledge of programming or web site design, this easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide helps professionals as well as students create interactive behavioral research instruments online. With this volume, anyone can learn to write programs in HTML and CGI/Perl that will enable them to take full advantage of all the benefits of Internet-based data collection: the ability to effortlessly manipulate visual and narrative content, randomize the presentation order of stimuli, and provide customized assessments and feedback for research participants. Including extensive examples throughout, the book explains everything from how to obtain access to a web server to mastering HTML coding, processing data with CGI/Perl, and importing data files into popular statistical packages. While the examples are from psychology, the technical skills the book provides can be adapted to other fields that make use of behavioral research.