Criteria for Usable Respondents

In the table on the 'DASHBOARD' - 'Advanced statuses' - 'Usable respondents' tab, other aggregated criteria regarding responses, non-responses and missing values in the questionnaires are also available:

• Non-substantive answers. The respondent answered the question but had chosen standard answers that are marked as invalid (e.g. -97) in the data. The respondent can also define additional categories of non-substantive answers.
• Valid answers. This answer type defines real substantive responses, where the respondent gives an answer that meets any potential conditions (e.g. validation), excluding non-substantive answers.
• Non-response. This category refers to item nonresponse, which serves as a basis for the calculation of the percentage of questions to which the respondent did not provide an answer, despite the fact that questions were displayed (e.i. it excludes conditions, subsequent questions, break-offs).
• Break-offs. The respondent stopped answering the questions and left the survey before completion. Thus, certain answers are missing. The corresponding percentage is expressed as a percentage of the questionnaire which was not filled out.
• Usable respondents. This includes fully or partially completed questionnaires. By default, it means that the respondent filled out at least 50 % of all questions that were displayed. Additionally, the percentage of questions that were not answered due to a breakoff are also taken into account. Usable responses include substantive, non-substantive and invalid answers ( e.g. - 96 'none of the above', -97 'invalid', etc.).

The above-described usability of respondents complements the analysis of the status of units, which is displayed in the 'DATA' - 'Browse' tab (when paradata is enabled). The technical statuses of the survey completion should also be taken into account:

• completed survey (status 6 – completed survey), which is not necessarily filled out in full;
• partially completed survey (status 5 – partially completed);
• initial break-off (status 3 – click on the introduction, status 4 – entered the first page);
• empty unit, i.e. questionnaire that does not have a single answer (status 5l – partially blank, status 6l – entirely blank).

The functionality is available for users of the 3KA package for individuals, and for users of the business packages for groups.