An international standard, ISO 20252:2019, outlines the vocabulary and service guidelines for market, opinion, and social research.
Standardizing Research
The desire to find answers fuels research. Regardless of the industry, discipline, or subject area, research allows for an objective look into the metrics that drive interest.
Keeping this in mind, the concept of standardizing market, opinion, and social research (which ISO 20252:2019 simply refers to as research) is a sizeable endeavor, ultimately striving to make global and consistent industry standards applicable to a multitude of national and regional markets. Because of this, ISO 20252:2019 is meant to lead the continual improvement of research and harmonize with other industry standards.
Of course, the abundance of sources and the vast emergence of online data has drastically changed the ways in which research is conducted, and the newest edition of this international standard reflects that. In fact, ISO 20252:2019 revises two documents.
Changes to ISO 20252:2019
ISO 26362:2009 was withdrawn and incorporated into this standard, meaning that ISO 20252:2019 revises and supersedes both ISO 20252:2012 and ISO 26362:2009. Therefore, ISO 20252:2019 now covers access panels, both online and offline.
Overall, ISO 20252:2019 is a substantial revision. In fact, the document has been completely restructured and contains a core clause (Clause 4) that is applicable to all service providers, regardless of the methodologies provided. It also features six separate normative annexes, each covering one of the globally-recognized research methodologies.
In addition, Clause 3, “Terms and definitions,” was changed, and new content was added to Annex A and Annex D.
Framework and Research Methodologies
With these changes, ISO 20252:2019 establishes terms, definitions, and service guidelines for service providers conducting market, opinion, and social research, including insights and data analytics. The standard establishes and documents the research business core framework, with specific framework for globally-recognized research methodologies that service providers can make use of outlined in the following annexes:
- Annex A: Sampling including access panels
- Annex B: Fieldwork
- Annex C: Physical Observation
- Annex D: Digital observation
- Annex E: Self completion
- Annex F: Data management and processing
ISO 20252:2019 – Market, Opinion And Social Research, Including Insights And Data Analytics – Vocabulary And Service Requirements is available on the ANSI Webstore.
Kindly let me know who should consider adopting ISO 20252:2019. Whether the research company, or the client of the research company who has commissioned the research?