MRS is coordinating efforts with The Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), ESOMAR, Insights Association, The Research Society (TRS), SampleCon, and The Association of Market Research Austria (VMÖ) to address ongoing and emerging risks to data quality in the market and social research, consumer insights and analytics industry. With the goal of increasing information and building trust, each organization will lead a workstream that delivers to the global quality resources to improve the conversation and outcomes around:
You can find links to all the organisations and their work via the Global Data Quality website.
ASC: Do Not Pass Go! conference - keynote
The keynote for the ASC's Do Not Pass Go! conference on 25 May will be delivered by by Melanie Courtright , Chief Executive Officer, The Insights Association and Debrah Harding , Managing Director, MRS. The title is 'Joining forces to fight fraud and boost data quality'.
Why is this initiative needed?
These issues are global and persistent and must be addressed in a concerted industry-wide manner. We can more effectively and efficiently combat data quality threats by coordinating our efforts.
The threat of fraud in research isn’t new. However, fraudulent activity is becoming increasingly sophisticated, particularly in online research. It poses a significant risk to our sector’s future and this international partnership is an important means to confront it.
Data is at the heart of what we do. It’s important we remember that not all data is created equal. Poor research can have a catastrophic impact on decision making and, as businesses and organizations across the world face economic, political, and social challenges, now more than ever our sector needs to prioritize the delivery of quality data and insight.
This partnership helps foster a collaborative, honest, and transparent discussion of data quality issues, which is essential to the evolution and wellbeing of our sector. We must fortify trust in data insights.
This is a truly collaborative industry effort, working with skilled research professionals to provide the insight and tools to support research users and sustain trust in the collective knowledge that our industry generates.
Current and planned work
Each organisation is leading an effort to create content, standards, and training around key functional areas of quality including language, measurement, activation, participant experience, and sampling technology.
The organisations are committed to facilitating forums to raise awareness and encourage presentations by and discussions with experts and thought leaders. Meetings are already underway in which experts are working collectively to formulate best practice guidelines and buildout, refine, and coordinate universal terms and definitions. Research, including fielding a survey about fraud detection, is being discussed.
MRS is focused on fraud and bot technology
The MRS workstream comprises three main topics:
Fraud and bot technology is a complex and fast moving area. MRS is addressing the issue with a multifaceted approach addressing the current causes, identifying tools and methods to address the issue and developing new tools to enable the sector to keep pace with technological developments including the challenges posed by generative AI.
The project is structured around eight projects:
A multi-disciplinary working group has been created by MRS to address data fraud and bot technology:
Mobile optimisation
For over five years MRS has been conducting research into mobile optimisation exploring the impact that poor mobile design and lack of mobile optimisation has on participation, completion and response rates. Dynata, Kantar, Cint (Lucid) and Toluna – have been working with MRS giving access to their response rate data since 2016 to identify trends in participation and response rates.
Drawing from the research and the experiences of the four companies, MRS has produced some best practice recommendations to help practitioners to produce better mobile design, increase optimisation and to improve completion and response rates.
This guidance has been updated in 2023 incorporating some of the key findings from the 2022 wave of the research. This guidance is supported by the US Insights Association and The Research Society of Australia.
The topline research results from 2022, the webinars presenting the results for each wave of the research plus the MRS best practice recommendations are available here.
MRS is also investigating whether a standardised set of panel/supplier data analytics can be developed to track and monitor participant satisfaction.
You can find links to all the organisations and their work via the Global Data Quality website.
Online course
Research can play a powerful role in giving lesser-heard groups a platform to represent themselves. Representative research also has significant benefits for research buyers, enabling commercial and public organisations to better serve minority groups. This on-demand course will enable you to address biases and blind spots, along with offering guidance on research design to achieve valid and effective results.
Online course
The MRS Certificate in Market Research (MRS Certificate) is designed to recognise a range of knowledge and understanding.
Understand visual storytelling and create tailor-made data infographics
Monday 04 December
Virtual training course
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