A New Genus for a Rare African Vespertilionid Bat: Insights from South Sudan

A new genus is proposed for the strikingly patterned African vespertilionid "Glauconycteris" superba Hayman, 1939 on the basis of cranial and external morphological comparisons. A review of the attributes of a newly collected specimen from South Sudan (a new country record) and other museum specimens of "G." superba suggests that "G." superba is markedly distinct ecomorphologically from other species classified in Glauconycteris and is likely the sister taxon to Glauconycteris sensu stricto. The recent capture of this rarely collected but widespread bat highlights the need for continued research in tropical sub-Saharan Africa and in particular, for more work in western South Sudan, which has received very little scientific attention. New country records for G. cf. poensis (South Sudan) and G. curryae (Gabon) are also reported.

Item Sum: A New Technique for Asking Quantitative Sensitive Questions

This article contributes to an ongoing debate about how to measure sensitive topics in population surveys. We propose a novel technique that can be applied to the measurement of quantitative sensitive variables: the item sum technique (IST). This method is closely related to the item count technique, which was developed for the measurement of dichotomous sensitive items. First, we provide a description of our new technique and discuss how data collected by the IST can be analyzed. Second, we present the results of a CATI survey on undeclared work in Germany, in which the IST has been applied. Using an experimental design, we compare the IST to direct questioning. Our empirical results indicate that the IST is a promising data-collection technique for sensitive questions. We conclude by discussing the limitations of the new technique and outlining possible improvements for future studies.

Asking sensitive questions: Possibilities and limits of randomized response and other techniques in different survey modes

In our project within the DFG Priority Programme on Survey Methodology (SPP 1292) we conducted various methodological studies on survey techniques for asking sensitive questions. For example, we compared results from the randomized response technique (RRT) to true known data in a validation study, developed and evaluated implementations of the RRT for CATI and online mode, and compared the performance of the RRT to competing approaches. In our talk, we will give an overview of the studies conducted in this project and will present our key findings. Furthermore, we will identify open research questions and give guidelines for future research on asking sensitive questions.