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Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
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Questionnaire
Questionnaire on the need for hard data and other
information in the field of International Relations and Security 
Instructions
It will take less than 10 minutes to fill in the questionnaire.
The questions should be answered by entering text, clicking the appropriate radio button,
checking option boxes and/or ranking choices on a scale of 1-5 where indicated. Please
CHECK the boxes for all the alternatives you would like to have included in your reply, but
only RANK the five most important ones (on the scale of 1-5 the highest rank is 1 and the
lowest is 5).
What is the area of your professional activities?
Research
Teaching
Studying
Politics
Book author
Analysis
TV journalism
Radio journalism
Newspaper/Magazine journalism
Business
other:

Could you please specify your activities: 
 

  • Internet connection and experience

 How fast is your Internet connection?
 Locally
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  
very slow   very fast
 Intercontinental
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  
very slow   very fast

 

Do you use the World Wide Web as a resource for collecting information in your daily work?
 Yes  No

 

How much of the information you collect in your daily work is gleaned from the Internet? 
as a rough percentage of all the information you retrieve each day
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

 

How do you find the information you retrieve from the Internet? 
Please rank		  
I use one of the big search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, Yahoo, etc
I use the International Relations and Security Network (ISN)
I visit regular sites in my list of bookmarks
I receive suggestions from friends/colleagues
Other
Specify other:

 

Which of the following statements best describes your own assessment of your different search approaches? Multiple choices
  Big search engines ISN Your bookmarks
Easy and fast information retrieval
New and updated information
Highly relevant information
Good-quality information
It's not the best, but generally acceptable for me
Reasonably relevant information with reasonable quality
Well organized information
Mostly irrelevant information
Results are not presented in acceptable order 
Requires too much jumping from one site to another
No quality control
Too many dead links
Too many hits to search through
Other
Specify other:       

 

What Internet information do you use most? 
Please check all expected items AND rank the first five
News/Wire services
Official full-text documents
Reports
Journal articles
Maps and graphics
Statistics
Bibliographic references
Facts and figures
Other
Specify other:  

 

What do you use this information for 
Please rank
Writing a report
Writing a book/journal article
Writing a news story
Making an analysis
Preparing a decision
Making a decision
Scientific research
Other
Specify other: 

 

How would you classify the material you collect from the Internet for your purposes?
As primary source material
As secondary source material
As background material
Other
Specify other:

 

How often do you quote Internet documents in your reports?
 Never  Seldom  Regularly All the time
       

 

Are you satisfied with the quality and reliability of the material you find?
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  
Not at all   Very much so

 

Let us assume that in a cooperative effort we are able to collect all the relevant International Security Internet sites under one 'roof', in an interconnected and searchable system. If you were offered a comprehensive information system in International Relations and Security for finding all the information you need for your work, how would you evaluate this opportunity? 
Unnecessary Minor help  Couldn't say Helpful Very helpful
         

 

What would you expect to find in such a system?  
Please check all expected items AND rank the first five
Data and facts
Full-text official documents
Government reports
Scientific reports
Articles
Statistics
Maps and graphics
News
Bibliographic references
Hyperlink references
Experts
Institutes
Other
Specify other:  

 

What structured hard data and which statistics in the area of International Relations and Security are relevant for your work? 
Please check all expected items AND rank the first five
Military related     General government-related    
Arms transfers data General government data
Armed conflicts data Government finances data
Armed forces data Social expenditure data
Arms procurement data Foreign loans and investment data
Arms production data International aid/Development aid data
Peacekeeping operations data Economics resources data
Military expenditure data International trade data
Military aid data Natural resources data
Military manoeuvre data Population data
Defence postures documents Migration data
Multilateral agreements data Minorities/ethnicity data
International treaties/documents Other demographic data
Biological weapons data/documents Extremist/Terrorism data
Chemical weapons data/documents Human rights data
Nuclear weapons data/documents National legislation documents
Military research and development data Historical data
Dual-use technology data Environmental issues data
Conventional weapons data/documents Defence policy/Security policy data/documents

 

What other data do you need in your work?

 

Do you know of any on-line databases in the field of International Relations and Security which are useful for your work?
Yes No
If yes, which ones:

 

Name or URL Provider

 

Which printed statistical reference works do you use in your daily work?
Author, title and publisher

 

Would you find it useful to have these works available on-line? 
Yes No

 

Would information in the form of country profiles be of interest for you?
Uninteresting  Somewhat interesting Very interesting
     

 

If you indicated above that you are interested, what information should be presented in such a country profile?
Please check all expected items AND rank the first five
Arms transfers Economic data
Military expenditure International aid/Development aid data
Armed forces National legislation documents
Arms production Historical data
Conflicts Arms control efforts
Peacekeeping operations International organizations membership
Confidence- and security-building measures documents Research/researcher/institutes/NGOs
Nuclear/chemial/biological weapons Environmental issues data
General government information Multilateral agreements