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The University of Wisconsin Survey Center

University of Wisconsin - Madison
1800 University Ave. Rm 102
Madison, WI 53726

Data Entry

Data entry can be provided in conjunction with a mail survey, or as a stand-alone project. Our staff is cross-trained, which allows us to shift priorities quickly to meet project needs. Our staff is capable of handling thousands of entries per week using many different data entry protocols. Single-pass entry, double-pass entry, and double-pass entry with editing, along with our supervisory quality control measures, offer a wide variety of data entry options to our clients. Returned questionnaires are rapidly entered using either SPSS Data Entry or the data entry capabilities of the CASES software package.

Overview of Quality Control in Data Entry

• All employees are required to go through special data entry training for each data entry project. In the training, project-specific protocols, the background and purpose of the survey, and project timelines are discussed.
• All data entry employees must enter at least three practice cases before entering actual cases.
• Studies often have additional quality control measures. Complicated questionnaires (such as the MIDUS 114-page, 1,325-item questionnaire) require special measures. Some of these measures have included:
  • 'Editing' cases before data entry is conducted: A data entry person reads through the questionnaire and notes specific items in the survey that need special attention in the data entry instrument. For example, when a respondent indicates more than one response at an item where only one response was required, a special note is made in the instrument, and the data entry person follows a specified protocol in order to determine which response to record as the respondent's answer.
  • Double Blind Entry: Each case is entered twice completely. The person who entered the case the first time is not allowed to complete the second entry of the case. The person completing the second pass is not able to see the responses entered on the first pass. The instrument may be programmed so that the person entering data is notified when there is a discrepancy between the first and second entries.
• Frequent quality checks are conducted on entered data. A supervisor or lead worker compares the responses indicated by the respondent in the hard-copy questionnaire to the data file created from the data entry procedure.
  • We have reported less than 0.05% error rate on our current data entry projects
• All problems or questions are reviewed by the Mail and Data Entry supervisor and may be communicated to the client for further review.