Data collection methods series: part 3: developing protocols for collecting data.

摘要

This is the third in a 6-part series of how-to articles on collecting primary research data using methods such as questionnaires or interviews. In this installment, we discuss the importance of carefully developing and documenting well-defined protocols for ensuring data quality. High-quality data improve the credibility of research findings, so we are compelled to deliberately attend to tasks before data collection that ensure quality data and tasks carried out during data collection that control data quality. We present here 4 steps for developing and formalizing, through documentation, protocols for collecting study data-a process that is considered a precollection, quality assurance task.