title: Should we trust survey data? Assessing response simplification and data fabrication.
abstract: While many factors, such as unit- and item nonresponse, threaten data quality, we focus on data contamination that arises primarily from task simplification processes. We argue that such processes can occur at two levels. First, respondents themselves may engage in various response strategies that minimize their time and effort in completing the survey. Second, interviewers and other employees of the research institute might take various shortcuts to reduce their time and/or to fulfill the requirements of their contracts; in the simplest form this can be done via copy-and-paste procedures. This paper examines the cross-national quality of the reports from principals of schools participating in the 2009 PISA. We introduce two measures of data quality to document that extreme response simplification characterizes the behavior of substantial numbers of school principals in numerous countries. Additionally, we discovered strong evidence of data fabrication in several countries.
authors.affiliation: University of Bonn, Institute of Political Science and Sociology, 53113 Bonn, Lennéstr. 27, Germany. Electronic address: jblasius@uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blasius
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 1P9, Canada. Electronic address: victor.thiessen@dal.ca.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thiessen
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D015982:Bias; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D008192:Deception; D000071195:Educational Personnel; D006801:Humans; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D035502:Trust
keywords: Data fabrication; Data quality; Identical response pattern; Undifferentiated responses