An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Yes, you can plan ahead for high-quality data! A Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) is used to define the criteria and processes that will ensure and verify that data meet specific data-quality objectives throughout the Data Lifecycle.
With a focus on quality goals, criteria, assessment, and validation methods, a QAP covers the full data lifecycle, from Acquisition through Publication, and can:
Identify data quality objectives for your data or project
Identify requirements for
Staff skills and training
Field and lab methods and equipment that meet data-collection standards
Software and file types to use for data handling and analysis that support data quality goals
Data standards, structure, and domains consistent with community conventions for other data in the same subject area
Periodic data-quality assessment using defined quality metrics
Describe a structure for data storage that can also facilitate checking for errors and help to document data quality
Describe approved data entry tools and procedures, when applicable
Establish data-quality criteria and data-screening processes for all of the data you will collect
Include quality metrics that can determine current data-quality status
Establish a plan for 'data quality assessments' as part of the data flow
Contain a process for handling data corrections
Contain a process for data users to dispute and correct data