A few months ago, I published an exceptionally short paper presenting experimental evidence on a particular issue of survey methodology. This experience has taught me valuable lessons about conveying the necessary information under extreme restrictions on the word count. In its original version, my paper was 2,300 words long and it was formatted in accordance with the convention of the field: an introduction highlighting the relevance of the research question and the gaps in the existing literature, an empirical section describing the methods and presenting the results, and a conclusion discussing implications, limitations, and offering directions for future research. Since the study relied on experimental methods and was already short, I decided to submit this contribution to the Journal of …

How can we improve the quality of post-election survey data on electoral turnout? That is the core question of our recent paper. We present a novel way to question citizens about their voting behaviour that increases the truthfulness of responses. Our research finds that the inclusion of “face-saving” response items can drastically improve the accuracy of reported turnout. Usually, the turnout reported in post-election surveys is much higher than in reality, and this is partly due to actual abstainers pretending that they have voted. Why do they lie? In many countries, voting is a social norm widely shared by the population. In established democracies voting is considered a duty, and is part and parcel of being a “good citizen”. Public …