Survey alert letters improve response rates and assure potential respondents that the research is legitimate and of high quality. Pre-notification by mail increases response rates for web surveys because it represents a second mode of communication and contributes to increases in respondent trust and study legitimacy. Due to work-from-home orders in response to COVID-19, postal alert letters are unlikely to reach research participants at their place of employment. We conducted three experiments testing the effects of sending academic scientists a pre-notification email message on web survey response rates as compared to no alert email message and variation in the timing of the pre-notification. The data comes from three random national samples of university-based scientists that were conducted during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of three experiments suggest that email alert pre-notifications can have a minor effect on improving response rates to web surveys of academic scientists. The timing of those pre-notification messages, though, had no effect on survey response. These findings indicate pre-notification messages remain useful when studying academic scientists. Future research should compare the effects of electronic as compared to postal pre-notification on survey response among scientists, as postal pre-notification requires extensive resources.

调查警告信提高了回复率，并向潜在的受访者保证该研究是合法的和高质量的。邮件预先通知提高了网络调查的响应率，因为它代表了第二种交流方式，有助于提高受访者的信任度和研究的合法性。由于针对 COVID-19 的在家工作命令，邮政警报信不太可能在其工作地点送达研究参与者。我们进行了三个实验，测试了向学术科学家发送预先通知电子邮件对网络调查响应率的影响，与没有警报电子邮件和预先通知时间的变化相比。这些数据来自于在 COVID-19 大流行的最初几个月中进行的三个随机国家样本的大学科学家。三个实验中有两个表明，电子邮件警报预先通知可能对提高对学术科学家网络调查的响应率产生轻微影响。但是，这些预先通知消息的时间安排对调查响应没有影响。这些发现表明，在研究学术科学家时，预先通知消息仍然有用。未来的研究应比较电子与邮政预先通知对科学家调查响应的影响，因为邮政预先通知需要大量资源。这些发现表明，在研究学术科学家时，预先通知消息仍然有用。未来的研究应比较电子与邮政预先通知对科学家调查响应的影响，因为邮政预先通知需要大量资源。这些发现表明，在研究学术科学家时，预先通知消息仍然有用。未来的研究应比较电子与邮政预先通知对科学家调查响应的影响，因为邮政预先通知需要大量资源。