Our mission

MRS is coordinating efforts with Association for Qualitative Research (AQR), The Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), ESOMAR, Insights Association, the QRCA, 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:

  • The language of quality - how we refer to the different aspects of fraud, duplicates, and survey cleaning in ways that inform with accuracy and transparency
  • Fraud detection – tracking the prevalence of fraudulent survey completions by humans or bots and outlining best fraud detection and mitigation practices
  • Identification and mitigation of bias from sample frame and representativeness
  • Data quality in research surveys, and the resulting impact on overall quality of the data
  • Improvement in the research participant experience

Current and planned work

Each organisation will lead 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.

Partners

AQR

The AQR was founded in 1980; it promotes qualitative research as a career and encourages the highest professional standards via education and training programs, seminars, and networking.

ESOMAR

ESOMAR champions the research, insights, and analytics sector worldwide. Founded in 1947, the global membership association is a network reaching over 50,000 professionals and 750+ companies in 130+ countries.

Canadian Research Insights Council

CRIC is Canada’s voice of the research, analytics, and insights profession both domestically and globally. CRIC represents the highest standards and best practices; provides effective promotion and advocacy of the industry; and is a forum for collective industry action.

Insights Association

The Insights Association protects and creates demand for the evolving Insights and Analytics industry by promoting the indisputable role of insights in driving business impact. All revenue is invested in quality standards, legal and business advocacy, education, certification, and direct support to enable our members to thrive.

MRS

MRS suports a diverse membership of individuals in more than 60 countries who are regulated by the MRS Code of Conduct. A global leader in research qualifications and training, MRS launched in 2013 the Fair Data trust mark that demonstrates which organisations handle their customers’ personal data fairly.

QRCA

QRCA’s mission is dedicated to advancing the impact of qualitative research and all who practice it, elevating the respect for the power of qualitative research. QRCA is a global network of qualitative research professionals that includes market researchers, UX practitioners, ethnographers, linguists, and social media listening and analysis among others.

Samplecon

Launched in 2013, SampleCon was formed with the goal of creating an open forum for discussion of the global topics facing the sample industry. SampleCon has maintained a unique ability to connect global influencers for inclusive, transparent, passionate discussions that shape a strong, thriving insights community for the future.

The Research Society

The Research Society is the professional association for the market research and insights industry in Australia. The Society is committed to connecting, supporting and developing research and insights professionals throughout their career, in an environment that celebrates diversity, integrity, innovation and the power of thinking.

VMÖ

VMÖ is a powerful and independent representation of interests for the Austrian market research sector with 300 members. In this function, it preserves the scientific nature of market, opinion and social research institutes as well as to promote the trust in and reputation of market research in the public.