Monitoring Data Quality

Read First

• Data quality checks should be done before and during the survey, as there is little that we can do after a survey if the data contains errors.
• Lots of preparation should be made before the survey and steps should be followed during the survey so any error that is caught can be changed quickly before it is too late.

Steps important in the quality checks

It is very important to do quality checks on data during the survey as it is difficult to fix the problem/recollect the data if the error is found after the completion of the survey.

• Testing for Duplicates - Since SurveyCTO/ODK data has a number of duplicates, the first thing you need to do is check for duplicates and remove the duplicates.
• Test that all data from the field is on the server.

To see how to remove duplicates and check that all the field data is on servers, please see the main article at verifying all the data is on the server.

• High frequency tests of data quality
  • IPA Template only (Template assumes SurvyCTO)
    • if not written in SurveyCTO -possible to adapt data to template, or template to data, but might be easier to write your own tests in Stata
  • IPA Template + additional tests in Stata
  • Test written in Stata only
    • Option if data is not collected with SurveyCTO
• Follow up using the Data Explorer in SurveyCTO
• Back Checks

--Something about being close to the survey location and redoing the survey if absolutely necessary.

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