ESOMAR 28 Questions and Responses - Strategic Research Associates

The ESOMAR 28 Questions are designed to guide and help buyers of online research samples.

ESOMAR, the World Association for Social, Opinion and Market Research, is focused on encouraging, advancing, and elevating market research. ESOMAR strives to enable better quality in the research of markets, consumers, and societies. These 28 Questions aim to increase transparency and raise awareness of the key issues for researchers to consider when deciding whether an online sampling approach fits their purpose.

If you have found your way to this page, you are a research buyer or someone who wishes to learn more about our approach to panel management, recruiting, and data collection. Strategic Research is a boutique market research company, typically offering curated online panel survey and recruiting projects, as well as RDD telephone data collection and recruiting.

As a low volume market research producer, we find ourselves completing 20-50 projects against our panel each year, which significantly reduces our risk of panel validity issues that may be seen with other panel providers driven by large order volumes. The over-use and abuse by respondents through survey-as-income practices and of panel respondents by repeat study qualification fatigue that these questions are meant to address are seen less often in smaller providers than you may see with larger sample providers.

The ESOMAR questions and responses that follow pertain to our approaches to general data management using our CATI data collection systems and our panel management systems for our research participants.

Company Profile

1. What experience does your company have in providing online samples for market research?

Since 1996 Strategic Research Associates has provided recruiting, data collection, and survey samples for market research purposes. Much of our work involves leveraging samples we curate and manage for our data collection purposes, as our panel is never leased or sold to any third-party clients for their personal use.

Our team of research strategists combines real-work research, business, marketing, communications, and design experience into in-depth research insights that inspire and provide our clients with the details they need to know to take action.

We have a proven track record of delivering excellent research services, qualitative and quantitative, to our clients across the US. With specific experience in the non-profit and public sectors, we are a go-to resource for public entities looking to better understand their constituents as well as private entities searching for new opportunities in their customer base with their products and services.

Approximately 30% of our work in support of the not for profit sector helping us meet our goal of positively impacting the communities we live and work within.

Sample Sources and Recruitment

2. Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Actively managed research panels? Direct marketing lists? Social networks? Web intercept (also known as river) samples?

Panelists and samples sourced for data collection are all sourced either through our Strategic Research Associates actively managed research panel, or through RDD, Social Network referrals, advertising, and other lead generation methods.

All individuals sourced for sample must first be part of the Strategic Research panel and participant database. All persons on this panel are opted in, and their opt-in is collected either via telephone conversation or via two-step online authentication through our web portal at www.strategicresearch.net.

Participants can be solicited to be added to our panel via:

Online recruitment using SEO and Google advertising
Online recruit using Social Media pages, organic search, and advertising (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other emerging networks)
Email recruitment through our own internal panel newsletters
Specific invitations sent to our database
Email recruitment by sending invitations to a permission-based database provided by our clients
Active recruitment via telephone
Active recruitment through face-to-face (F2F) interactions

3. If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources?

At times our telephone recruiting and data collection efforts may involve the use of RDD cellphone and landline targets as well respondents from our internal panel.

In cases such as this, the RDD samples are used to supplement panel data and called at random from the lists provided to us by our sample providers to fill in responses as needed using a first-in, first-out approach.

Online data collection efforts always use a single sample source for simplicity and to ensure no blending is required to eliminate bias. If multiple online sample sources are needed, each sample is treated separately, and data is collected and tagged to the sample source for analysis and appropriate treatment in the final dataset.

4. Are your sample source(s) used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for?

Our sample sources are solely used for market research purposes only, never for any other use.

5. How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the internet?

Sources that are hard to reach via the internet (older populations, low income, those without internet access) are reached via telephone and on occasion intercept recruiting.

Many projects that are looking for representative general population studies involve a mixed-mode approach (data collected both by online and telephone, respondents are first invited via email then non-respondents are called to complete via telephone) to ensure that online-only respondent bias does not affect our final results.

6. If, on a particular project, you need to supplement your sample(s) with sample(s) from other providers, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third-party provider?

We only use a handful of secondary sample providers, and select partners who we have successfully worked with in past and have a longstanding relationship with. Partners must have strict data security and accuracy controls to earn our business as a third-party provider.

Clients are notified in advance if the need arises to use a third-party provider to enhance sample depth for fielding studies.

Sampling and Project Management

7. What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population?

Representativeness in sampling is achieved through quota controls in both our sample selection and our data collection.

When a project is launched, internal quotas are set in place based on known data in panelist profile data. Those profiles with “null” data in key profile fields are always assumed to be among the sample population until additional panelist information is collected to verify they are not part of the target population.

A full sample is pulled from our database, and if that sample is larger than needed for the specific project, we will use stratification techniques to pare our sample down to the final selection needed for data collection and fielding in online and telephone studies.

8. Do you employ a survey router?

No, we do not employ a survey router when collecting data for online studies from our panel.

9. If you use a router: Please describe the allocation process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respondent? On what priority basis are respondents allocated to surveys?

We do not use a survey router.

10. If you use a router: What measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias?

We do not use a survey router.

11. If you use a router: Who in your company sets the parameters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or individual project managers?

We do not use a survey router.

12. What profile data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up to date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with?

Panelist profile data is all held within a panelist CRM system. This system is scalable, secure, GDPR compliant, and managed through a third-party solution.

Profile data held on each respondent contains all or some of the following fields:

Profile information is either collected by Strategic Research team members through telephone interviewing and entered directly into our panelist database, or entered by the panelist through a web portal.

Panelists are emailed on at least an annual basis, asking them to view and update their profile information to ensure that this information is up to date.

13. Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of emails.

Unless the study warrants it, all survey invitations are concise and blind to ensure we do not bias responses during data collection.

Participants are sent an email, called via telephone, or receive an SMS invitation to complete a study or qualify for a recruiting project.

Invitations only contain the following key pieces of information:

Length of the survey or expected participant effort required
Incentive or drawing amount, if applicable
The project sponsor, if applicable
A reminder that all responses are reported in aggregate to our clients with anonymized datasets
That their feedback is invaluable to the process

14. Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics?

Incentives vary based on the length of the study and the level of participant effort.

Some studies offer no incentive.

Some studies offer an incentive in the form of a random drawing, where the odds are never worse than 1 in 400 to win a cash prize.

Some studies offer a direct small value ($5, $10, $20) incentive for participation, the respondent chooses during data collection their preferred reimbursement source, which is an option of Amazon Gift Card, Paypal, Venmo, or donate to a pre-selected Non-Profit.

Some studies, those with participant engagement of 20 minutes or more offer larger direct payment incentives of $100 or more. These are typically directly interview projects, and participants choose through the invitation and recruiting process how they wish to be paid, either via Amazon Gift Card, Cash App, Check, Paypal, Venmo, or Zelle.

15. What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources?

Your contact at Strategic Research will work with you to collect the information needed for accurate feasibility estimates. Typically we request the planned length of the interview, number of required responses, screening qualifications, and any pre-determined quota constraints.

16. Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients?

Panelist and respondent satisfaction is not measured through any formal metrics at this time. Panelist churn is monitored by our database administration team and used to inform leadership on general sentiment and panel health.

17. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?

Most projects are custom designed, and turnkey. Clients are provided with raw datasets and crosstabulated reports for all studies for independent data validation and further analysis.

Additional reports can always be run on demand, and are done on a as requested basis or as designed basis depending on the project itself.

Project files, programming, data sets, samples sourced, etc. are kept on our in-facility servers for no less than 7 years post project.

Data Quality and Validation

18. Who is responsible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place procedures to reduce or eliminate undesired within survey behaviors, such as (a) random responding, (b) illogical or inconsistent responding, (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g. "Don't Know") or (d) speeding (too rapid survey completion)? Please describe these procedures.

IP addresses are tracked for all responses; duplicate IP address responses are evaluated and removed if duplicates.

Responses are also manually checked for no-value, non-response, open-end non-sensical responses, and other red flags and removed if found to be not useful in our final dataset.

Time spent in the survey is also monitored. Fast responders are also evaluated during the data check process.

Questionnaire and screener design are also a critical step in data quality; by including terminates for non-response questions and requiring character limits on open-end responses, we greatly reduce the number of “fake respondents” completing the study.

19. How often can the same individual be contacted to take part in a survey within a specified period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources?

Our invitation process limits invitations to panelists until they complete the study. Once they either respond, terminate out, or opt-out of the panel, they are removed from the sample base for that specific project.

In most projects, panelists are only contacted twice to encourage participation. We find multiple and repetitive responses beyond an invitation, and a reminder increases the rate of false responses.

20. How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods?

Our time-out, or between project quarantine period, is based on the type of study the panelist is being considered for as part of an online sample.

Each panelist’s participation in studies is tracked. Suppose the panelist is being invited to an online survey with a small honoraria or a random drawing honoraria. In that case, they are limited to being included in the invitation process for only one study at a time, and if they complete the study, they are placed in a 14-day quarantine pool.

Panelists who complete a study with an honorarium of $50 or more are placed into a 6-month quarantine pool.

The quarantine pool we hold for participation is panel wide. The length of any time-out that each panelist has earned remains on their profile and removes them from the selection pool throughout the time-out automation period.

21. Do you maintain individual-level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your survey respondents? Are you able to supply your client with a project analysis of such individual-level data?

Yes, we track individual-level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, sample source, and other details on survey respondents to ensure panel health and quality.

This information is provided to clients on a case by case basis, as it applies to our privacy policy when it has value to the study methodology.

22. Do you have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey or router. If you offer B2B samples what are the procedures there, if any?

Respondent identities are confirmed using a positive match to email, as well as a multiple-step profile development process.

When an individual joins our sample and online study panel, they are first added to a temporary pool of potential respondents. They are then asked to complete a 3-step profile creation process that asks them on different instances to add to and complete their profile.

The entire process takes between 14 and 45 days for most respondents. Once their profile has been updated, then they are added to our pool for potential surveys.

By adding this delay and putting the onus on the panelists to participate before live studies, we eliminate any bot created panelists and non-value respondents from our sample.

As we do not use survey routers, participants do not enter through this method.

Samples generated from 3rd party sources may have different identity processes. We will rely on those sample providers to identify confirmation processes if those samples are used in a study.

Policies and Compliance

23. Please describe the 'opt-in for market research' process for all your online sample sources.

At the time of panel recruitment, panelists are made aware of the panel’s purpose and asked to join (i.e. to participate in market research).

When a panelist is invited to a study, they are informed about the confidential nature of their responses and given the opportunity to ‘opt-out’.

As part of the registration process, panelists are asked to complete key profiling questions, including a confirmation of their consent to join the panel.

24. Please provide a link to your Privacy Policy. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents?

Our privacy policy can be found here https://strategicresearch.net/about/privacy-policy

This policy is always available for review on our website; and a link to this policy is included with every email communication with our panelists in the footer of our emails. This includes communication about study projects, profile updates, and general newsletters.

25. Please describe the measures you take to ensure data protection and data security.

We comply with all applicable data protection laws and regulations and implement all information security best practices.

Additional security includes:

Users are automatically logged off after a given period of non-activity
Secure survey links are deployed
Respondents are given access to their surveys by unique identifiers only
Users are automatically logged off after a given period of non-activity
All servers, networks, and services are monitored 24/7
Deployment of Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) for all sampling, panel management, and panelist information.

26. What practices do you follow to decide whether online research should be used to present commercially sensitive client data or materials to survey respondents?

Online research is certainly not the best approach for every project. With their decades of market research experience, our project managers work closely with our clients to review the objectives, information to be presented, and sampling methodology to determine if the chosen study method is the best approach.

If the survey contains any sensitive material or content, it is clearly cited in the survey invitation and, where appropriate within the survey, giving panelists the opportunity to opt-out. Our approach of using invitation-only survey tools ensures that sensitive information is strictly controlled and not available for public consumption.

Panelist obligations with respect to sensitive material or content are included in our panelist Terms and Conditions agreements that every panelist agrees to through their participation. All violations are promptly addressed.

27. Are you certified by any specific quality system? If so, which one(s)?

No, we are not certified by any specific quality system.

28. Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, do you adhere to the standards that ESOMAR providers? What other rules or standards, for example COPPA in the United States, do you comply with?

We comply with all applicable laws and regulations with respect to conducting studies with children and minors. Studies are only performed with minors after we have received the needed consent for their parent or guardian to participate, as well as assent from the minor of their intention to participate.

This consent, assent process is managed through digital signature. The signatures are collected for each study instance to ensure continued compliance with regulations such as COPPA for minors under the age of 13 and other rules for teenage minors.

View the full ESOMAR 28 Question File