Trusted Voice Research Infrastructure for NGOs, Governments & Global Development Partners
Research and collection

Research design

Studies, instruments and methodology completeness.

Who this is for

Research and M&E officers who own a study.

Creating a study

A study carries its type, paradigm, temporality, unit of analysis and research questions. A panel study that calls itself cross-sectional is rejected as a contradiction, because that mismatch changes what analysis is defensible later.

The research operations surface, showing analysis packages awaiting review, one approved package ready to cite, the evidence base counts, and an operations panel in which "Active enumerators" and "Offline devices" are both marked "not measured" with the reason stated.
DEMONSTRATION · SYNTHETIC DATA Route: /app/research-operations.htmlRole: M&E OfficerEnvironment: previewCaptured: 2026-08-31

Attaching data

Attaching a campaign to a study is what makes its responses analysable — it links the responses that carry no study yet, scoped to that campaign and your tenant. A response already belonging to another study is never silently reassigned.

Methodology completeness

A methodology statement reports NOT_PROVIDED for anything the study has not declared, rather than omitting the line. An omitted line reads as “not applicable”; a stated NOT_PROVIDED reads as “nobody recorded this”, which is the truth.

What this does not do

Stated here rather than discovered later

  • A study’s declared design constrains what you can claim later. Changing it after analysis has run does not retrospectively make an earlier claim defensible.
  • The platform does not choose a design for you and will not recommend one. It refuses combinations that contradict each other, which is a different thing.