PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

of the legal ranges were checked both automatically when data was
entered or changed, and on specific instruetions from the office staff
(see reference to use of "cleaning passes" below).
Cleaning Rules
As indicated above, cleaning data also implied checking if combinations
ofvalues for several variables were credible and consistent. For
this purpose FAFO developed a data entry programrne containing
more than 500 logical rules about acceptable relations between two or
more variable values in each interview.
Some rules were logical in the strict sense, i.e. always to be
observed (like "a son must be younger than his father" ). Other rules
were of a kind that would hold true in 95% of the cases, based on
evaluation of behavioural pattems in Palestinian society (e.g. a
husband who encourages his wife to appear in public without a head
scarf is also likely to accept that women are allowed to vote).
In contrast to checking legal ranges of variable values, cleaning
rules could not be controlled continuously. (Rules involving two or
more variables in different parts of the questionnaire could not be
checked until values for all involved variables had been entered).
Instead, cleaning specifications were checked by the office staff
through so-called "cleaning passes". By using a cleaning pass, all
entries in a file would be checked against all ranges and rules
conceming the variables in that file. The results could be reproduced
by the fieid office staff in several ways, by exposing either the ranges
and rules that had been violated in each case or the cases that had
violated ranges and rules. By using the possibility of consistency
checks between entries offered by the data entry programme, compu­
terized data quality checks, equalling hours of manual control, could
be performed in a few seconds.
Correction of Wrong
or Questionable Entries
While SPSS-DE offered comprehensive and effective procedures for
identifying entries transgressing legal ranges or logical rules, itdid not
provide detailed instruetions about what to do with improbable or
problematic entries. The task of the computer programme was thus
confined to facilitating the task of identifying problematie entries,
leavingthe office staff time and energy to concentrate on fm ding a fair
and honest solution.
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