Combating fraud

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Declining data quality in online research is the industry’s worst-kept secret. Most researchers are aware that it is increasingly difficult to ensure data quality, with the central question being: “When you recruit somebody, how do you know who they really are, whether they have answered honestly, or that they are even human at all?”

This goes beyond problems that are easy to fix, such as removing speeders and flatliners – people rushing through surveys without really considering the answers. More complex and insidious issues include automated bots set up to answer surveys at scale and professional respondents – people who understand how surveys work and want to game the system.

Simon Glanville, managing director at Ronin, says: “We are getting hit with individuals trying to access a study multiple times, break encrypted links, or set up an automated response. We have had instances of all of these and been able to identify them, but we can’t be complacent.”

Don’t ask, don’t tell

From the perspective of ...