About this Release
The ABS is currently developing a standard set of quality indicators relevant to household surveys run by the ABS. They will provide a consolidated framework of indicators only be used internally within the ABS, some of them may be useful to external clients from which users can assess the quality of survey data and ABS can monitor quality issues. Data quality encompasses many aspects, especially accuracy, timeliness, relevance and cost of production.
The quality indicators will be implemented in three phases, based on the importance of the indicator and the extent of work required to implement it. Phase 1 indicators (which this paper focuses on) involves those indicators that are relatively easy to implement in terms of data availability and cost. Phases 2 and 3 indicators require greater effort in terms of developing methodology, setting up procedures and resolving cost implications.
Many facets of the survey cycle are covered in the core set of quality indicators, from aspects such as frame quality and sample design, through to the questionnaire and timeliness. However, accurately measuring the quality of some aspects, especially the questionnaire, is difficult to do quantitatively and hence these quality indicators should be used with caution.
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