Abstract:

The JICMARS survey - launched in 1978 - is a continuous survey amongst UK General Medical Practitioners jointly financed by publishers, advertising agents and the pharmaceutical industry. The objective is to provide media planning data concerning readership of the UK General Medical Practitioners press - most of which is supplied unsolicited and at no charge to the doctor, through the post. 2,4 GP's - selected by stratified random sampling - are interviewed per annum. Attempts are made to spread interviews evenly over the five days (Monday-Friday) of each week for 44 weeks of the year. Extensive recruitment procedures, together with a very flexible appointment making facility has resulted in a 60% response rate (with a universe notorious for refusing to give market research interviews). The basic questionnaire is designed primarily to obtain information on: - Claimed Frequency of Reading (used to produce probabilities of reading); - Readership Within Publication Intervals (used to derive "Average Issue Readership" data)