CSDI - Ongoing Research

Ongoing Research Activities

CSDI Work Groups

Participants at the first CSDI meeting formed "taskforces" or work groups. Each work group focuses on a methodological topic or area of key importance for comparative survey quality. CSDI work groups are organised on a voluntary, self-funding basis. Work forces have been set up on:

A Research Agenda for Comparative Survey Quality
Questionnaire Design for comparative projects
Multi-lingual implementation
- Using Interpreters in Surveys
- Survey translation quality and procedures
Pretesting
Data Collection
Survey Documentation
Harmonization
Data Analysis
Guidelines

Details of progress are included in reports from workshop meetings.

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Research Agenda for Comparative Survey Quality

A key objective of the CSDI group is to provide guidelines and standards for the design and implementation of cross-cultural surveys. However, there is currently insufficient evidence regarding the ways in which many aspects of design and implementation affect comparability. The aim of this work group is to help steer the research agenda on cross-national comparative surveys in order to provide the needed evidence. To achieve this, the work group will set out a framework of the relevant conceptual issues, will relate these to survey processes, and will review the research evidence regarding the impact of design and implementation features on the concepts deemed to constitute comparability. This work will also include an inventory of major comparative surveys and the methods used by them to ensure comparability. The review process should lead to identification of where there are important gaps in existing research knowledge. It is hoped that the CSDI group will then be able to address much of this agenda, but the work group will also seek to identify opportunities to encourage other bodies, organisations and researchers to undertake relevant research.
Contact person Peter Lynn, University of Essex

Questionnaire Design for Comparative Projects

Research on questionnaire design in the assumed mono-cultural context is extensive and many faceted. Research on questionnaire design for cross-cultural purposes is considerably more limited. While the literature describes several general models of procedure, detailed examinations of implementations following specific models or contrastive research evaluating one approach against others are rare.

Cognitive research continues to unravel the roles various contextual factors play in how questions are processed and perceived. In cross-cultural research many of these factors change from context to context and a systematic discussion of question meaning across cultures is long overdue. Little design-oriented research is available on comparative surveys at the level of individual question content, formulation, and measurement properties.

The work group aims first to provide clear descriptions of existing procedural models, outlining their potential and requirements and providing examples at study and item level. In terms of basic research, the work groups wants to outline the fundamental issues to be considered in designing questions for cross-cultural projects. Since questions are often taken from existing projects and used in new contexts, design in the comparative context will also need to cover issues of selection, testing and adapting questions for new contexts. Co-operation with groups working on translation and testing issues will be necessary.
Contact person Sue Ellen Hansen, ISR, Michigan.

Multi-lingual Implementation

Using Interpreters in Surveys

The goal of this task force is to describe how interpreters are currently used in surveys, to encourage research on the effects interpreters may have on survey quality, and to identify and promote best practices in using interpreters. Most contemporary surveys do not document the use of interpreters or report nonresponse due to language problems. Many survey organizations discourage or prohibit the use of interpreters, but these policies are seldom based on evidence that interpreters have a negative effect on data quality. When interpreters are used, their interpretation skills are often not verified, they are seldom given training in the data collection process or the survey protocol, and little is known about their background. The interpreter work group seeks to make interpretation a more visible part of the survey process.
Contact person Brad Edwards, Westat

Translation Procedures and Quality

The work group is collecting data on the impact on quality of following different procedures for translation and assessment. In intends to describe procedures, document evidence of performance, and outline the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of procedures currently used.
Contact person Janet Harkness, ZUMA

Pretesting

Description coming soon.

Contact person Rachel Caspar, RTI International

Data Collection

Very little concrete information is available in compact form about how data is collected across countries. Data collection modes and their potential in different contexts are only one set of issues. Systematic information on, for example, differences in interviewing techniques, in so-called "refusal conversion" and on contact requirements and contact protocolling are lacking for cross-national research. The work group will begin with a basic list of data collection issues and collect information on how these can be implemented in different socio-cultural contexts. Contact person Achim Koch, ZUMA

Survey Documentation

The goal of the documentation group is to provide minimum guidelines for process and study documentation in cross-national survey research projects. Such documentation must be sufficiently detailed to allow replicability. Preparing this level of documentation can be a labor intensive endeavor. Therefore, a secondary goal of the group is to provide templates and programs that facilitate the documentation process throughout the survey design, implementation and data processing steps.
Contact person Beth-Ellen Pennell, ISR, Michigan.