Guidelines for clean data: Detection of common mistakes

Abstract

Compilation of a large data bank for the Job Description Index by the 1st author and colleagues (1969, 1975) has shown that researchers have frequently, if inadvertently, introduced errors while collecting, analyzing, and storing data. Such errors may lead to serious misinterpretations by both the original researcher and subsequent investigators. A summary of 13 rules is presented for efficiently avoiding, or detecting and correcting, data sets. (7 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)