The process of data collection is based on a strict protocol. Each GEM country is required to source a minimum of 36 national experts to complete the survey although some countries interview more. Different methods are used to identify and select these experts: personal and professional contacts, trade and business magazines, Internet, newspapers, university and college lists to name just a few.
The first step in starting the NES is to select the experts’ sample and to complete the initial Request for Proposal and send this to the NES Coordinator for approval.
The initial and final Request for Proposal (RFP) is structured in the same way. Names in the initial and final RPF can differ if some of the initial experts who were substituted are replaced due to difficulties in obtaining final interviews during the survey period. Both RFPs are subjected to rigorous quality control that ensures proper distribution of the sample in the strata discussed above. The main fields required are:
- Expert number
- Framework condition (EFC) to which the expert belongs
- What justifies the inclusion of this person as expert in this EFC?
- Years of participation of each expert
- Expert name or code
- Expert’s e-mail
- Expert’s phone
- Expert’s postal address
- Source of information of where the expert’s name came from (professional contacts, directories, Internet, other social networks, journals, etc.)
- Request for permission? Teams must indicate the date for this request
- Type of interview expected to do: face to face, e-mail, phone, fax, on-line, postal
- Control, to mark the interviews done
- Interview date
- Final code assigned to expert
- Number of proposed experts
- Correct distribution with regards to the 9 framework conditions
- Adequacy of the experts’ background to the assigned strata
- Request for permission to conduct the interview
- Dates of the interviews
- Balance between ‘new’ and ‘re-interviewed’ experts
- Remaining completion of required fields in the data template
- The number of experts
- The correct distribution among the 9 EFCs
- The variables’ coding
- Whether the number of missing responses is acceptable for each item
- The file’s structure to meet the conditions for harmonization
- All other variables and details
If the quality of the data does not meet the GEM requirements, the Data Team informs the National Team and requests that the incomplete sections or incorrect sections are corrected. Sometimes they are asked to conduct more interviews in specific EFCs if the sample is not balanced.
Once the information is accepted, it is stored with those from other National Teams before beginning the harmonization process.