ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network (GRBN) have published the Guideline for Online Sample Quality (GOSQ), which aims to provide best practice-style guidance to users and providers to understand how evolving approaches to online sampling can impact and potentially compromise data quality.

Online sampling accounts for more than a quarter (28 percent) of global market and social research revenues, at $9.7 billion, more than telephone and face-to-face surveying combined, as cited in the joint ESOMAR/GRBN press release on the Guideline. It is now the main research mode in the world’s top 10 research markets (except France and China).

The rapid growth of online research has been accompanied by concerns about the integrity of the resulting research data, arising from the impact of professional research participants who enter multiple surveys to secure incentives or money; inattentive or untruthful respondents; unrepresentative target groups and the potential for duplicated respondents as research providers broaden their sources to expand sample sizes.

The advent of the smartphone also poses challenges – as well as opportunities – for online researchers, most notably the potential to create bias. Between 20 and 30 percent of research respondents now respond using a smartphone or mobile device, according to ESOMAR and GRBN, and they are typically younger, male and more ethnically diverse than in conventional sampling. The limitations of mobile devices can also skew completion rates and the Guideline underlines the need for transparency when reporting data in this area.

Another area of concern relates to how online sampling has evolved over time, from online panels to routers to exchanges. Newer techniques such as river sampling can make it harder to validate respondent identities and their relevance to the target population.

In addition, the trend towards recruiting respondents from frequent-flyer or other particular sites opens up the potential for duplicate participants. Blending together samples from several panel sources to create greater balance can also lead to individuals answering surveys more than once.

The Guideline addresses the following issues impacting on data quality, including:

  • Research participant validation to ensure the respondent falls within the description of the research sample.
  • Survey fraud prevention to ensure that the same person cannot receive more incentives by completing a survey more than once.
  • Survey engagement to ensure that the respondent is paying sufficient attention to the questionnaire and under-stands the questions being asked.
  • Category exclusions to ensure that the sample does not include respondents who might bias the results.
  • Transparency of sampling to build confidence in the likely accuracy of data quality and representativeness of the target sample.

“The rapid growth in online research presents real challenges for brands and marketers to assess the quality of their samples,” said Finn Raben, director general of ESOMAR, in the joint press release. “This Guideline is de-signed to help data users to understand the issues affecting online sample quality so they can make judgments with full confidence. It underlines the need for a transparent sampling process, knowledge of how the sample was selected and ensuring that the same individual only answers a particular survey once.”

Added Andrew Cannon, executive director of the Global Research Business Network, “These joint guidelines are an important new step in providing global guidance on research issues which are becoming increasingly global in nature. GRBN and ESOMAR will be working with industry experts to publish further guidelines in rapidly evolving fields such as social media and mobile research for the benefit of researchers businesses and researchers across the globe.”

Copies of the Guideline are available at www.esomar.org or at www.grbn.org.