By Melanie Courtright and Cindy Neumann
Data quality is not a new topic in marketing research and much work is underway to improve data quality in the industry, including improvements in the way we detect and eliminate fraud. Until recently, many organizations worked either independently or alongside a small number of other close partners to develop methods for detecting fraud and improving data quality. In March of 2023, the efforts to combat data fraud and preserve data quality expanded to a global initiative led by seven collaborating global marketing research associations: The Insights Association, MRS, SampleCon, ESOMAR, The Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), The Research Society (TRS), and The Association of Market Research Austria (VMÖ).
This formidable group of industry associations will combine efforts to address the following data quality areas:
• Defining and Measuring Quality – creating tools that will improve the discussions that buyers of research have with their partners
• Fraud detection – tracking the prevalence of fraudulent survey completions by humans or bots and outlining best fraud detection and mitigation practices
• Identification and mitigation of bias throughout the research process
• Improvement of the research participant experience across all participant touchpoints
Each organization will leverage their unique strengths to develop toolkits, guides, standards, and benchmarks for the following topics:
1. CRIC: Sample Frame Consistency &, Transparency; Buyer’s Quality Snapshot
2. ESOMAR: Participant Experience, Role of Survey Design; ESOMAR 37
3. Insights Association: Language of Quality; Quality Measurement; Data Integrity Toolkit
4. MRS: Fraud & Bots Tech, Mobile Optimization, Panel/Suppler Data Analytics
5. SampleCon: Sampling Technology Codes, Benchmarks & Standards
6. The Research Society: Use, Language and Definitions of Incentives; Incentives Guidelines
7. VMO: Data Fraud and Bot Technology (in partnership with MRS)
Watch For What’s Coming
The GDQ is quickly working to deliver industry information and resources related to fraud and data quality.
- Global Glossary OF Terms: One of the first challenges in combating data fraud in the marketing research industry is ensuring all users, suppliers, and agencies involved in research projects are aware of the potential types of data fraud and the processes available to detect and remove fraudulent data. In the spirit of building awareness, the GDQ will release a Global Fraud and Data Quality Glossary, that will help build knowledge of common fraud and data quality terms and uses. Watch for the Global Fraud and Data Quality Glossary to be released in August, 2023.
- GDQ Webinar: Join the members of the GDQ for a live Q&A about Data Quality on August, 30th at 8am CST. Also, please watch for a pre-recorded conversation about the GDQ, fraud in our industry, and the work to be done by us all to be released in August, 2023.
Stay Informed: Please visit https://www.globaldataquality.org/ to lean more about the GDQ initiative and upcoming events.