Question

Litigation Surveys. In the article, "Non - probability Sampling Designs for Litigation Surveys (Trademark Reporter, Vol. 81, pp. 169-179), J. Jacoby and H. Handlin discussed the controversy about whether nonprobability samples are acceptable as evidence in litigation. The authors randomly selected 26 journals from a list of 1285 scholarly journals in the social and behavioral sciences. They examined all articles published during one year in each of the 26 journals selected with regard to sampling methods. What type of sampling design was used by these two authors in their investigation? Explain your answer.

Short answer

Cluster sampling is used in this study.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given information.

The given statement is:

In the article, "Non - probability Sampling Designs for Litigation Surveys, J. Jacoby and H. Handlin discussed the controversy about whether nonprobability samples are acceptable as evidence in litigation. The authors randomly selected 26 journals from a list of 1285 scholarly journals in the social and behavioral sciences. They examined all articles published during one year in each of the 26 journals selected with regard to sampling methods.

Step 2. Explanation.

It is given that the population consists of 1285 scholarly journals in the social and behavioral sciences that are grouped into clusters.

Then a random sample of 26 clusters was chosen, and all articles from the selected publications were evaluated.

As a result, we can say that the authors' sampling design for selecting a sample of journals is cluster sampling.