Using Central Management Strategies and Workflows in Large-Scale Surveys to Reduce Total Survey Error and Implement Methodological Changes |
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| Coordinator 1 | Mr Niccolo Ghirelli (ESS HQ (City St George's, University of London)) |
| Coordinator 2 | Ms Victoria Salinero-Bevins (ESS HQ (City St George's, University of London)) |
In large-scale and cross-national social surveys, minimizing total survey error (TSE) is crucial for ensuring high-quality, comparable data. This session will focus on the management, monitoring, and research support techniques that can reduce TSE, particularly in the context of methodological changes. As surveys evolve to adapt to new technologies, data collection modes, and shifting respondent behaviours, maintaining standardization across diverse national or regional settings becomes increasingly challenging.
The session aims to bring together insights from different survey contexts to highlight how survey teams have successfully faced methodological and operational challenges while maintaining data quality and comparability. A key focus will be on how effective implementation support, centralized monitoring systems and quality control can ensure that methodological updates – such as changes in the mode of data collection – are applied uniformly across countries or regions.
Efficient communication workflows between central coordinators and national or regional teams are essential in this process, ensuring that all stakeholders understand and adhere to the new standards. This includes clear protocols for feedback loops, active monitoring, and ongoing training and support to address country-specific issues while upholding a unified methodological framework.
By sharing case studies and experiences, presentations could outline how methodological and practical challenges in implementing survey projects have been addressed through management strategies, communication workflows, and quality control techniques.
By collating experiences from various survey contexts, the session aims to provide participants with actionable insights on how to successfully manage methodological and operational changes, minimizing TSE and biases.