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MR Standards Launch in Australia
As reported in Research News, the monthly newsletter of the Market Research Society of Australia, this month sees the launch of the new AS4752 in Sydney on 17 June by Standards Australia. The country joins the UK, Spain and France as the fourth nation to introduce an official quality standard for its market and social research industry.
The new standard is more consistent with ISO requirements and AS4752 will roll into the international market research standard, which is currently being developed and will be launched in 2005.
The new standard also gives smaller agencies the opportunity to embrace audited quality assurance, when once only qualitative recruiters (in additional to fieldwork agencies, which tend to be larger companies) could get involved in IQCA.
Like the UK standards, which are certified by the British Standards Institute (BSI) and the European Federation of Market Research Organisations (EFAMRO), the new Australian standard comprises four modules: - Systems structure and management (general quality assurance).
- Project management and reporting (the researcher's module) - responding to a brief, quotes and proposals, subcontracting and reporting.
- Data collection - which is the existing Interviewer Quality Control Assurance (IQCA) scheme.
- Data processing and coding.
Although the standard is now officially 'owned' by Standards Australia, MRQA will continue to have responsibility for its future development. MRQA will be publishing a CD containing support materials and resources to help agencies implement the standard and it will also train the auditors employed by the selected certification companies, SAI Global and NCS International.
For more information, visit www.mrsa.com.au
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