Creating Intuitive Editing Interfaces for the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)

• Activity Number: 444
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Richard Windle*+
• Companies: Federal Reserve Board
• Keywords: Data Quality ; Editing ; Survey ; Automation ; Programming ; System

Abstract

One of the more time-consuming steps in the SCF production cycle is editing the survey data. Given the complexity of the SCF, editors must review the entire case and only make edits after careful and deliberate consideration to avoid introducing further errors. Performing such an exhaustive investigation for over six thousands cases requires a considerable number of work hours, but fortunately there are many methods of increasing the efficiency of editing, as well as gather information from the process to aid in continuously evaluating data quality.

Starting with the 2010 survey, the SCF group implemented a collection of dynamic web pages and forms designed to make the editing process more seamless and efficient. These webpages automatically generate statistics and summaries for each case, allow for the easy input of edits, run separate programs to evaluate the results of edits, and enable editors to critique and comment on the data collection methods case-by-case. This "survey" of the editors themselves is of particular importance, and allows members of the SCF group to rectify possible problems in data collection before that stage of the process is complete.