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Using Data Quality Indicators: Examples

By Data Management

The quality of individual measurement or observation data should not be hidden in metadata or documentation associated with the data. Rather, indicators of quality or usability can and should be stored with the data themselves in separate fields or columns.

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  • A comment field added to any table can be used to explain the quality and validity of unusual values ("high winds were measured during a hurricane", or "this value appears to be an outlier, but was validated as matching an extremely high discharge at the stream location")
  • Value qualifier codes to indicate censored values (< and >) and estimated or interpolated values, stored in a separate field adjacent to the numeric value field they qualify
  • Revision of terminology for Data-Quality Indicator Codes in NWIS 5.2: indicating the review and approval status of numeric values (PDF)
  • Geocode Quality Code Details: Mapquest API Quality Codes
  • Claim Adjustment Reason Codes: Health Industry Standard
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