In recent years the use of paradata (‘field process data') has received increasing attention in survey research. Typical examples of paradata are key-stroke files, which capture navigation through the questionnaire, and time stamps, which provide information such as date and time of each call attempt or the length of a question-answer sequence. Other examples are interviewer observations about a sampled household or neighbourhood, recordings of vocal properties of the interviewer and respondent, and information about interviewer calls and interviewing strategies. It is hoped to use paradata for the improvement of survey designs, survey quality and analysis. It also offers opportunities for efficiency gains and cost savings in surveys.  This course introduces participants to the practices and cutting-edge research in the up-and-coming field of paradata. It is aimed at both producers and users of paradata, both at senior and junior levels.
This course is part of a 3.5 year ESRC research project conducted by 4 of the presenters (Gabriele Durrant, Frauke Kreuter, Peter Smith and Olga Maslovskaya) (grant number: RES-062-23-2997). The event is also organised jointly with the Social Statistics Section of the Royal Statistical Society.

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