Market research glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in research operations.
Codeframe — the structured list of themes used to categorise open-ended (free-text) responses so they can be counted.
Open-end (verbatim) — a free-text answer where respondents write in their own words, rather than picking from set options.
Incidence rate (IR) — the percentage of people who qualify for a study, used to estimate how much sample is needed.
LOI (Length of Interview) — how long a survey takes to complete, on average.
Screener — the set of qualifying questions at the start of a survey that decide whether a respondent is eligible.
Quota — a target number of completes for a particular group (e.g. 50% male, 50% female) to keep the sample balanced.
Completes — respondents who finished the survey and qualified — the deliverable count.
Terminate (screen-out) — a respondent removed mid-survey because they did not meet the criteria.
CATI / CAWI — data collection methods: CATI is telephone interviewing, CAWI is online (web) interviewing.
Panel — a managed community of pre-recruited respondents available to take surveys.
Fieldwork — the data-collection phase of a study, when the survey is live and responses come in.
Speeder — a respondent who completes far too quickly to have answered thoughtfully — a quality flag.
Straight-lining — selecting the same answer down a grid without reading — another quality flag.
Weighting — adjusting results so the sample better reflects the real population on key characteristics.
Cross-tabulation (cross-tab) — a table that breaks results down by subgroups (e.g. by age or region).
Sentiment — whether an open-ended response is positive, negative, or neutral in tone.
Tracking study — a survey repeated at regular intervals to measure change over time.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) — a loyalty metric based on how likely customers are to recommend a brand.
