- According to Connelly (2008), extant literature suggests that a pilot study sample should be 10% of the sample projected for the larger parent study.
文献来源：Connelly, L. M. (2008). Pilot studies. Medsurg Nursing, 17(6), 411-2.
- Treece and Treece (1982) suggested 10% of the project sample size.
文献来源：Treece, E. W., & Treece, J. W. (1982). Elements of research in nursing (3rd ed.). St. Louis, MO:Mosby.
- Julious (2005) in the medical field, and van Belle (2002) suggested 12;
文献来源：van Belle, G. (2002). Statistical rules of thumb. New York: John Wiley
文献来源：Julious, S. A. (2005). Sample size of 12 per group rule of thumb for a pilot study. Pharmaceutical Statistics, 4, 287-291.
- Hill (1998) suggested 10 to 30 participants for pilots in survey research，Isaac and Michael (1995) suggested 10 – 30 participants;
文献来源：Hill, R. (1998). What sample size is “enough” in internet survey research? Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century, 6(3-4).
文献来源：Isaac, S., & Michael, W. B. (1995). Handbook in research and evaluation. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Services.
- Johanson and Brooks (2010) suggest that 30 representative participants from the population of interest is a reasonable minimum recommendation for a pilot study where the purpose is preliminary survey or scale development.
文献来源：Johanson, G., & Brooks, G. (2010). Initial Scale Development: Sample Size for Pilot Studies. Educational and Psychological Measurement - EDUC PSYCHOL MEAS, 70, 394-400. doi:10.1177/0013164409355692