ISO Standard to Accommodate US Concerns

Research leaders from six continents have accepted a number of amendments from US association CASRO at a meeting to discuss the ISO draft international standard for market, opinion and social research. Amended areas include information sharing and the primacy of national laws.

CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations) proposed the amendments at a July meeting in Berlin, where delegates from 14 countries worked on a final draft of a quality standard to apply to research organisations worldwide. The 14 are all participants on the ISO Technical Committee.

Canadian, Mexican and US delegations all backed the amendments, which were presented by CASRO President, Diane Bowers, and former CASRO Board Chair, Harry Heller (Research Consulting Agency). The key concern revolved around the US and Canadian industry practice of allowing researchers, with respondent consent, to share information with clients for non-research AND non-marketing purposes - for example passing customer complaints or problems to the client when authorised. A clause which would have prohibited this practice was deleted from the draft.

Four other amendments / criticisms were accepted. It was agreed that both national laws and (in many but not all cases) client requirements and standards should supersede requirements of an ISO standard. The meeting also recognised criticisms that the draft document did not adequately reflect the body of terminology, standards and practices presently used in North America; and that it required 'excessive' documentation and reporting to clients.

The meeting agreed the moving the amended document to the final stage in the ISO process, in which each country's standards organisation will post the document for a 2-month period of public review and editorial comment and then submit a final 'Yes' or 'No' vote. CASRO, which worked with AAPOR (American Association for Public Opinion Research) and the ASA (American Statistical Association) to develop the US position on the draft, says it is 'highly likely that the document amended in Berlin will become the official ISO Quality Standard for Market, Opinion and Social Research and will be available for ISO certification in late 2005'.

The US research industry is the largest in the world with about $6.7 billion of annual research revenues, with the UK second (nearly $2 billion).

CASRO is a trade association for survey research businesses, representing over 260 companies - these are mostly based in the US but some are in Canada and Mexico. Its web site is at www.casro.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.