4. Gathering and preparing the documentation¶

All information related to the survey may be useful and should be archived (even if not all will be disseminated to the public). This includes not only technical documents such as the questionnaires or list of codes (obviously needed by data users), but also administrative reports (potentially useful for implementation of future surveys), and other documents such as a compilation of the comments provided by stakeholders at the time the questionnaire was designed, etc. Resources to be included if available include:

  • The survey questionnaire(s); make sure that the cover page and all sections are included. If the questionnaire exists in multiple languages, provide all versions.
  • All technical, analytical and administrative documents
    • Sampling information
    • Interviewers and supervisor’s manuals
    • List of codes
    • Instructions for data editing
    • Survey report (tabulation and analysis)
    • Analytical papers and policy briefs that made use of the data
    • Survey budget and other key planning documents
    • PowerPoint presentations and other related material
  • Computer programs (used for data entry, editing, tabulation and analysis)
  • Photos
  • Tables
  • Maps
  • Survey promotional/informational materials (flyers, videos, posters, songs, etc.)

Documents available in electronic format (MS-Word, Excel, and others) must be preserved in their original format and in PDF format.

All documents available only on hard copy must be scanned. Use low resolution graphics, and black & white option (unless it is crucial to preserve colours) to avoid large file sizes. A scanning resolution of 300 dpi is recommended. Save the scanned documents in PDF format. OCR is useful, although not required.

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