Quality management in social sciences research. Quality management in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Abstract

Austria has been a member country of SHARE since its inception in 2004. In this paper, we address quality management in surveys and highlight three components – contract, sampling, and fieldwork management – that are fundamental for high data-quality. We provide an overview of a SHARE wave and discuss our approach to data-quality management based on the example of SHARE management in Austria. Results confirm that focusing on fieldwork quality management has the potential to improve overall data quality.