Affiliations: [a] The MassINC Polling Group, Boston, MA, USA | [b] Integrity Management Services, LLC, 5911 Kingstowne Village Parkway, VA, USA | [c] The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, USA | [d] Datafugue, LLC, Arlington, VA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Steve Koczela, The MassINC Polling Group, 11 Beacon St Ste 500, Boston, MA 02108, USA. E-mail:skoczela@massincpolling.com
Abstract: The literature on survey data fabrication is fairly thin,
given the serious threat it poses to data quality. Recent contributions have
focused on detecting interviewer fabrication, with an emphasis on
statistical detection methods as a way to efficiently target reinterviews.
We believe this focus to be too narrow. The paper looks at the problem of
fabrication in a different way, exploring new data that shows the problem
goes beyond interviewer curbstoning. A surprising amount of apparent
fabrication is easily detected through comparatively rudimentary methods
such as analysis of duplicate data. We then examine the motivations behind
survey data fabrication and explore the utility of fraud investigation
frameworks in detecting survey data fabrication. We finish with a brief
discussion of the importance of additional research in this area and suggest
questions worth exploring further. This paper is a synthesis of
presentations given by the authors at an event sponsored by the Washington
Statistical Society.
Keywords: Fabrication, falsification, data quality, survey research, face to face research, international polling
