Quality control

Finding someone who appears to fit a specification is only the starting point. 

We assess each participant against the agreed screening criteria, check their answers for consistency and plausibility, and identify potential duplicate participation or other signs of misrepresentation. 

We verify relevant aspects of a participant’s professional background against reliable sources, checking that their role, experience, seniority and responsibilities genuinely match the research requirements. 

Where something does not add up, we investigate it immediately, before the participant can progress. 

Much of our work involves senior and specialist professionals being offered comparatively high rewards. Naturally, this type of research is particularly attractive to people attempting to misrepresent their identity, professional background or eligibility. 

We use a combination of technology and human expertise to identify suspicious activity, including attempts to use AI and automated tools to circumvent conventional screening controls. 

We deliberately do not publish the full detail of these safeguards. Effective fraud prevention depends partly on making the controls themselves difficult to anticipate. 

Once fieldwork begins, our project managers monitor recruitment, quotas, participation and incoming responses. 

We look at completion times, behavioural patterns and open-ended responses for signs of speeding, poor engagement, inconsistency or potentially AI-generated content. 

Where something looks unusual, our team reviews it and makes the final decision on whether action is needed, including removing or replacing participants who do not meet the required standard. 

Before final delivery, we confirm that the completed sample meets the agreed requirements and resolve any outstanding quality concerns. 

Where a participant does not meet our quality standards, we exclude or replace them rather than allowing questionable data to remain in the dataset. 

Our aim is not simply to deliver the requested number of interviews or completes. It is to give our clients confidence in who took part and in the information their research is built on. 

Our quality-control procedures sit within a wider framework of professional, ethical and data-protection standards. 

We conduct our work in line with recognised market-research and data-protection requirements, including MRS and ESOMAR standards and UK GDPR. Serrula is an MRS Company Partner and an AQR RAS-accredited company. These standards guide how we recruit and treat participants, protect personal information and conduct research responsibly.