6 Concluding remarks
In this short guide, we have discussed many basic concepts in finite population sampling: considering the defining issues of inference for finite populations, the distinctive fundamental sampling schemes and many of the practical results for taking samples and inferring properties of the population. More detailed study would take us into a range of other considerations of which the following are examples.
- Practical aspects of carrying out a survey: sources of error, pilot studies, interviews and questionnaires, handling non-response.
- Rare and sensitive events: how to access information in such cases, snowball sampling, randomized response, composite sampling, ranked set sampling etc.
- Environmental and wild-life sampling: problems of sampling plants and animals, transect sampling, mark- and capture- recapture methods
Broader access to finite population sampling methods (survey sampling, opinion polls etc) is provided by the following brief bibliography.