Verification

Within survey research, one of the meanings of verification refers to efforts that are made to confirm that a telephone or in-person interview was actually completed with a particular respondent. Within this context, verification is one of the techniques used to guard against interviewer falsification. Such verification often is done via telephone even if the interview was done in person. In most cases a small number (e.g., less than five) of randomly selected completed interviews of all interviewers are verified by having a person in a supervisory position contact the respondents and verify that they were, in fact, interviewed by the interviewer. In other instances, interviewers who may be under observation for previous interviewing infractions may have a greater number of their interviews verified. Oftentimes, ...