In October 2004, the LHSC liaison to the SPH invited all UIC SPH faculty members to complete a UIC Institutional Review Board–approved online survey about their information-seeking behaviors. The faculty members were identified from the school's Website and from faculty lists obtained from each division's administrative office. The SPH liaison developed the survey instrument online using the SurveyMonkey.com Website. The final instrument consisted of fifteen questions, some of which were multipart (supplemental appendix online). The initial email survey invitation was sent by the liaison. Follow-up email messages were sent by the liaison and the SPH senior associate dean three and four weeks after the initial invitation, respectively. Approximately one-third of responses were received after the latter reminder. Data collection began in October 2004 and was completed by December 2004.

Of the 210 survey invitations distributed, 47 surveys were submitted, though 2 were substantially incomplete and were excluded from analysis. After considering undeliverable emails and refusals to participate, and assuming that unreturned email messages were successfully delivered, the approximate response rate—based on guidelines developed by the American Association for Public Opinion Research—was calculated to be 23.6% [8], a figure that is in line with online surveys [9]. This figure represents a complete response by 45 participants out of 190 potential contacts (Table 1).