At VoxNations, we combine time-tested methods with the highest opinion research industry standards to meet even the most complex research needs of our clients.
““methodology stands up to scrutiny.”
Referring to our poll conducted for the University of Maryland.”
our Standard Probability Sample Telephone (CATI) survey method
Due to a high coverage of mobile telephone in Afghanistan, single frame probability sample mobile telephone interviewing is considered to be a viable mode of data collection in Afghanistan.
Relying on prevailing industry standards, VoxNations utilizes Random Digit Dialing (RDD) to randomly draw its mobile telephone sample from all active mobile numbers in Afghanistan. Post-contact geographic stratification based on population size of each province is then applied to make the sample more closely match the existing population density of Afghanistan. In addition, while we do not generally stratify by the market share of each of Afghanistan’s mobile telecommunication service providers, such additional stratification is also possible if requested by the client.
While coverage of mobile telecommunication services in Afghanistan is more than sufficient for conducting high quality telephone surveys, mobile telephone subscription in not as high and a non-trivial segment of the population rely on the mobile devices of other members of their household for communication purposes. For this reason, VoxNations does not treats mobile phones as a personal device in Afghanistan and instead treats them as devices that can be used to reach all members of a household. Therefore, instead of selecting the person who answers the mobile phone as the respondent, VoxNations interviewers first asks the answering person about the number of qualifying individuals who live in his or her household and then a respondent is randomly selected from within the answering person’s household, often using either the Random Table technique or the Last-Birthday (LB) method. Both the criteria for who qualifies to participate in our surveys (which often has been all residents of Iran who are over the age of 18) and the procedure for randomly choosing a respondent within each reached household is determined by the client.
Unless otherwise requested by the client, generally an initial attempt and at least two callbacks are made in an effort to complete an interview with the randomly selected respondents. All interviews are conducted in a centralized call center and are continuously monitored for quality control purposes.
At the completion of each survey, VoxNations provides its clients with the response rate, cooperation rate, refusal rate, and contact rate of the survey based on the most recent Standard Definitions of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).
