Research Tips

Multiple Data Collectors

When multiple people are involved in data collection, whether conducting phone or personal interviews or moderating focus groups, it’s important to take special precautions to ensure consistency. Slight differences in the way questions are phrased, the way probes are used, or even in the tone or body language of the person collecting the data can influence responses. To prevent this, it’s important that all those involved in data collection are given a consistent set of procedures to follow, and to ensure that the procedures are followed consistently.

For example, interviewer and moderator guides can be used and the person overseeing the data collection can observe these being used to ensure that they are not being applied differently by different individuals. Checks can also be done on things such as the length of interviews or focus groups, the proportion of time the interviewer / moderator speaks relative to participants, the distribution of speaking time among focus group participants, the number of follow-up questions asked, etc.