SURVEY UNIT

Primary data collection is a systematic process of obtaining and measuring data. This data should provide answers to research questions, hypothesis testing, outcome assessments, and trend forecasting. If you need to make conclusions, decisions and recommendations, the services of the Survey Unit can provide you with accurate and valid data for these purposes.

Survey Unit provide high-quality solutions for collecting, measuring, and analysing data. This Unit was established by CREDI with the support of more experienced partners such as Impaq International (USA) and UDA Consulting (Turkey) and currently has a network of 15 regional coordinators and more than 200 enumerators from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The researchers and research coordinators employed in the Survey Unit are constantly innovating and jointly finding solutions tailored to clients’ specific needs. Click here to apply for the enumerator position.

By applying modern and innovative technologies and a combination of different techniques for collecting qualitative and quantitative data, our services help clients reach their goals in a simple, high quality and efficient way.

We offer our clients primary data collection services all over Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, and we use the following techniques and tools for data collection:

Data collection techniques

SURVEYS

If you need a large amount of data based on which you will make conclusions, then survey technique is the right choice. We offer to our client’s following survey techniques:

Field survey – CAPI (Computer-assisted personal interviewing)

It is a computer-assisted face-to-face surveying technique.
Trained enumerators contact each respondent and come to the necessary answers through the face to face surveys.
Enumerators use tablets to examine and record responses.
This survey technique, in addition to the household, company or public place, can be conducted online with the adequate equipment for work and the respondents’ consent for such a form of survey.
The advantage of this type of survey is the possibility of examining persons who are not available for interviewing by other techniques and adapting to each respondent, resulting in more collected data.

Computer-assisted telephone interviewing – CATI (Computer-assisted telephone interviewing)

CATI is a computer-assisted telephone interviewing where various telephone numbers are called and displayed automatically on the screen.
The persons selected for the sample are interviewed by telephone, and trained enumerators record their answers.
The key advantages are speed and quality in the data collection process.
Surveys are recommended when the client needs to quickly get answers from respondents who are not from the same geographical area.

Computer-aided web interviewing – CAWI (Computer-aided web interviewing)

This type of survey is conducted by computers and the Internet, and respondents answering the questions themselves.
Respondents choose the time and place for answering the survey – The survey is not spatially and temporally limited.
The absence of enumerators gives more accurate results on socially sensitive questions.
The biggest advantage is reflected in more cost-effective and faster data collection and usage of the image, audio, and video attachments.

Youth Panel

Representativeness of the sample for a group of young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Profiling panel members, real-time monitoring.
Checking the authenticity and consistency of the answers.

INTERVIEWING

Suppose the topic you want to examine is very sensitive, or you need to come up with exclusive opinions or information that certain people have or to gather very specific knowledge. In that case, you need to collect such data by interviewing selected people.

Through expertise and experience to date, researchers employed in the Survey Unit have acquired skills of understanding the different reactions of respondents, which facilitates data analysis.

For clients’ needs, we can conduct structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews (with more or less precise schemes and protocol of questions). Also, at the request of clients, we can conduct interviews face to face, by phone or online (e.g. via Skype)

Our practice is to record interviews with the respondents’ approval, and if the respondents do not allow it, we make detailed notes.

After the interview, we do the transcripts and code them before the analysis.

OBSERVATIONS

This data collection technique is a good choice if you need to observe the conditions at a particular place or event.

If you need to understand a specific area and get a more neutral point of view on research, then this data collection technique is the right solution for you.

This is an excellent way to get preliminary information

One of the offers to our clients who need to examine specific conditions is the so-called Mystery shopping. This type of observation refers to collecting objective information by trained “mystery shoppers” who visit a particular place and collect the necessary data using a list (protocol).

FOCUS GROUPS

The data collection technique that we use and that we can offer to our clients are focus groups.

They are a good solution for understanding the needs and motivations of participants.

This data collection technique is recommended if you need an in-depth analysis of a specific topic. They bring together participants with different life experiences to comment and discuss specific issues.

Our researchers can moderate focus groups because they have gained many years of experience managing interaction between focus group participants, avoiding the dominance of individuals in the discussion and encouraging different views and attitudes among participants.

Our team of focus group moderators and the team of researchers can help you select focus group participants.

DELPHI TECHNIQUE

This technique is a form of interview where a group of experts is asked precise questions about the research problem.

It serves as a tool for predicting and assessing future development and conditions and requires a high level of knowledge, information and creativity of people who answer questions.

The goal of this technique is to combine expert opinions on the probability and expectations of the development of a phenomenon over time.

In the implementation of delphi technique, the questions for experts are interdisciplinary. Beacuse of that, it is necessary that group is composed of experts of different profiles. There is no single expert with comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the problem, and one correct answer is not sought as a result. Experts of different profiles do not have equal knowledge on all aspects of the problem and do not know who the other participants in the study are, so a group consensus is reached based on pre-determined criteria.

Processing of data collected by the Delphi technique is based on qualitative analysis of opinions and expert assessments for certain areas and is one of the most effective techniques to encourage creativity.

Forecasts and predictions obtained by the Delphi technique, enable the creation of scenarios for future action. Delphi is used when it is necessary to identify potential challenges and threats and adapt to them, which requires flexibility, creativity and dynamism.

The Delphi technique bears the name of the Greek sanctuary in which the prophetess Pythias invented ambiguous prophecies.

Quality of data collection

Our mission is that all the data that we collect are accurate and reliable as we strive to ensure the highest quality.

We respect all research standards and ethical principles of data collection.

All employees of the Survey Unit have been trained to be ready for efficient data collection and respecting quality standards.

Field coordinators work on systematic and continuous monitoring of the work of enumerators and the data collection process.

Some of the procedures that we try to ensure the quality of data are the process of sampling, tracking the location of the device that collects data, monitoring the duration of the survey, tracking through the so-called cookies, logical comparison of answers, verification of suspicious answers, etc.

To ensure the quality of the data, after completing the data collection process, our usual practice is to check the accuracy of the data by contacting a certain number of randomly selected respondents (10% of the sample).

All engaged enumerators got through training that includes familiarisation with our work, research goals and ethical conduct in the field. We train enumerators to use data collection equipment and tools independently and in a proper way. At the training, they can get acquainted practically, through simulation, with the concept of the survey and the types of questions to make the survey process as simple as possible and the data they collected as high quality as possible.

Field coordinators provide timely information to clients on all phases and situations during the data collection process.

Equipment and tools

We have high-quality equipment needed to collect various data (phones, tablets, computers)

We have programs like Zoiper, which makes top-quality calls and has many other benefits for telephone surveys.

We use various data collection tools such as SurveyMonkey, Kobotoolbox, QuestionPro.

We use multiple tools for qualitative and quantitative data processing: Excel, STATA, QDA Miner, etc.

For data collection, interviewers use the ODK application through which it is possible to collect data directly in the field (online and offline).

We strongly encourage you to check of you can use secondary data for your research before deciding to spend money on primary data collection. For the list of data sets already available, please check our catalogue.

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