Improving Central Monitoring of Fieldwork in Cross-national Surveys: The Case of the Fieldwork Management System in the European Social Survey

Cross-national surveys face the particular challenge of trying to balance optimal survey quality within a country with comparability across countries in terms of data quality. Addressing this challenge during fieldwork requires effective management of fieldwork data, a task made more difficult by the inherent differences between countries. This article argues that changes to the comprehensiveness, timeliness, consistency, and accessibility of fieldwork data facilitate monitoring and represent a necessary step forward towards achieving optimal data quality in cross-national surveys. It discusses the approach of the European Social Survey (ESS) for monitoring fieldwork cross-nationally, and specifically, the improvements made to central monitoring with the introduction of the Fieldwork Management System (FMS). Through real-life examples of the use of FMS by the central team, the article reflects and discusses the impact of the changes to fieldwork monitoring. The ESS experience demonstrates that there is more than one way to realise the benefits of improved fieldwork data management and provides insights about the process of improving central monitoring of fieldwork for other cross-national surveys.