2017•The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research MethodsRequires access
Sampling, Random
Magdalena Saldaña
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Abstract
Random sampling is the procedure in which all members of a population have a known, nonzero chance of being selected. When samples are randomly chosen, researchers can use sample data to make educated guesses about the population. Likewise, random samples allow the calculation of sampling errors with a certain level of confidence. Simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified random sampling, and cluster sampling are the most common random sampling designs.