sampling frame
the specific source used in drawing a subset of cases or individuals from larger population. In many cases, the sampling frame will be a complete list of all of the elements in a population (e.g., the electoral register). In other cases, this will be impossible or the issue may be less straightforward than it appears. The key point is that any sampling frame should be representative of the target population as a whole. In a study of college students’ aspirations for life after graduation, for example, the researchers might decide to use a listing of students obtained from the institution’s office of evaluation and assessment as their sampling frame and randomly select from this list every fifth student.