For those who want to read further we offer below some suggestions. We have not attempted to be comprehensive, but to put forward a few texts that we feel may be of use to the reader in search of further insight.

Many textbooks on the survey research process cover the mechanics of a range of different sampling methods, even though they may gloss over the consequences. Of the more specialised books, overall perhaps the most approachable but wide-ranging coverage of sampling issues is in Cochran Sampling Techniques [9]. Kish's Survey Sampling [35], in spite of its age, remains the sampler's ‘Bible’. Both take a very ‘correct’ approach to the subject so do not expect to find too many concessions to expediency in either. The readable and not too mathematical Survey Methods in Social Investigation by Moser and Kalton [44] looks at sampling in the broader context of survey planning and design. To appreciate the practicalities of the interviewer's task in carrying out the sampling plan an understanding of the conduct of fieldwork on the ground is helpful and a good introduction to this is Macfarlane Smith's [41] Interviewing in Market and Social Research. A range of useful views on the question of non-response can be found in Survey Nonresponse by Groves et al. [25], a collection of papers from a major conference on the subject.