Why is the POSHA-S Published Online?

Increasingly, survey and other instruments are published online. Nevertheless, the perception among many university-based researchers is that online published or self-published instruments are inferior to those that have been subjected to peer review. The Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) is published online for four important reasons:

• The primary value of the POSHA-S relates to its growing data archive. As more and more data are added, individual sample data can be interpreted with increasingly greater clarity and confidence. Commercial publishers for tests and scales typically do not update their normative information except in periodic revisions of the instrument. The author believes that users of the POSHA-S will want to know sample research results as soon as they are available.

• Aside from the User´s Manual, Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S): Measuring Public Attitudes Toward Stuttering, which is available in written form, most of products and services relating to the International Project on Attitudes Toward Human Attributes (IPATHA) must be individualized. Consultations may be sought for each individual project. Individual surveys may be customized by adding items. Translations may be checked for appropriateness to specific regions or dialects. New translations may be necessary. Comparisons of results will vary according to users´ unique circumstances and according to available samples for comparisons. Again, commercial publishers typically do not provide this sort of individualized service.
• The POSHA-S was developed carefully over more than a decade and results from pilot studies have been presented at scientific meetings after peer reviews by program committees and have also been published by peer reviewed journals for publications (e.g., St. Louis, Lubker, Yaruss, & Aliveto, 2009; St. Louis, Reichel, Yaruss, & Lubker, 2009; St. Louis & Roberts, 2010).
• Many of the potential users and stakeholders who are interested in the POSHA-S and other IPATHA projects are not academics but people who stutter or have other problems, self-help leaders, and policy makers. An online presence makes IPATHA information easily available to them.