Field Period

The field period of a survey is the time frame during which the survey instrument is " n the field," as opposed to the time when the survey instrument is under development or review in the office. It is the period during which interviews are conducted and data are collected for a particular survey. Originally, it referred to the period of time when personal face-to-face interviews are being conducted by "field interviewers." Over the course of years, the field period has come to be regarded as the period of days or months over which data for a survey were gathered from respondents, regardless of the mode of data collection that was used.

The purpose of the survey is directly related to the field period that is ...