Title: Survey management systems
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Beyond data collection and analysis

Survey management systems

Traditionally, the data entry and editing was carried out manually and was one of the most time consuming and laborious tasks of the survey process. Thanks to technological advances however, there are a number of tools which can assist us with this task.  Automated methods of capturing data negate the need for manual entry and are of great assistance during the survey process. Automatic data entry systems include Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), Computer-Assisted Self Interviewing (CASI), internet surveys and scanned surveys. These tools allow responses to be automatically entered into a database management system or statistical software programme.

In terms of managing the survey process, automatic data entry tools have considerable benefits. Firstly, they eliminate the time consuming task of manual data entry and the associated costs. Secondly, they can help achieve greater levels of accuracy in data processing. For example, automatic systems can be programmed to accept only data with valid codes, thereby reducing levels of error in data entry. Where electronic questionnaires are completed directly by the respondent, potential errors or problematic responses can be checked and potentially corrected at time of entry. Furthermore, automatic systems can also be programmed to check entries ensuring consistency with previous entries again improving levels of accuracy. Automatic systems can also be programmed to ensure skip patterns are acknowledged and coded as skips and not as missing data, again contributing to greater levels of accuracy.

The creation of automatic systems does require considerable knowledge and skill together with a significant investment of time and effort. However, if this investment is made, the use of automatic systems can greatly improve levels of accuracy and reduce the efforts required in data processing.