Aim

Promoting accurate data entry

Description

The methods for quality monitoring during data entry will have to be discussed. These agreements are confirmed in writing.

The data entry clerks need to receive support and be monitored. A logbook should also be kept, recording who imported which data; the entered data need to be monitored.

The questionnaires need to be reviewed as soon as possible for completeness prior to the questionnaire is entered. Where possible missing data should be retrieved.

Supporting & monitoring data entry clerks
If data inputting is being carried out by (numerous) different people, a protocol can be created stipulating how certain questions should be entered.

Assess and discuss the first questionnaires entered with the data inputter in order to discuss any issues that are not clear, differences in interpretation, etc.

Data entry cleks need to record what the most important problems are during data input and discuss these problems regularly with researchers. Clerks should also be frequently asked whether they have come across any problems while entering the data.

A so-called fake questionnaire may also be used for the data entry clerks to practice on:
Once the first questionnaires have been collected, the researcher will be able to identify the most frequently occurring responses to questions with room for interpretation. Examples of this include:
a)        There is a question which includes a single response option, but the respondent has selected two answers.
b)         Illegibility of the respondent’s handwriting.
c)        The respondent is asked to indicate in minutes how long he or she has taken on a particular activity. The respondent has provided ‘1’ as a response – it appears that the respondent means “one hour” (i.e. 60 minutes).

This can be used as a basis for the researcher to create a “fake questionnaire”, where he/she can process all the frequently occurring errors.
Data entry clerks will receive standard information about how to process questionnaires. The “fake questionnaire” produced by the researcher can be used as a practice questionnaire. Once the “fake questionnaire” has been entered, the process can be discussed jointly.

Monitoring data input
During the data collection period small datasets can repeatedly be analysed at variable level in order to monitor the data inputted (“continuous monitoring”). Examples of this include producing frequency distributions or random double data entry. This exclusively concerns descriptive statistics to search for data entry errors, and does not involve the analysis of the research question. Please also refer to guideline 1.3-03 Data Entry Accuracy.

This support and monitoring of inputted data may lead to the re-inputting data, supplementary training or revision training.

V1.3: 1 Jan 2010: English translation.
V1.2: 8 Jul 2008: Small addition.
V1.1: 23 Nov 2006: Addition of use of fake list, example input protocol.

-           Has the quality monitoring of the data input been confirmed in writing?
-           Have the data entry clerks been trained, and if so, what does their training include? Has a protocol or a fake list been used?
-           Have problems arisen during the data input? (If so, have these problems been recorded and solved?)
-           Have data been monitored at variable level during the data collection process?