Preventing Data Fabrication in Telephone Survey Research (Research/Commentary‪)‬

Introduction A research team at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, discovered that the data collection company hired to conduct telephone interviews fabricated 23% of the data sets. To prevent a recurrence, the team developed a menu of options which research administrators and others concerned with research ethics can disseminate to program directors and researchers within their organizations for application pre, during, and post data collection. Menu items relate to (i) the organizational structure of data collection companies; (ii) strategies in developing contracts with companies; (iii) operational procedures; (iv) data/record review; (v) budget; and (vi) national or international standards.