Meeting the challenge of high quality data entry: a free double-entry system

Abstract

Data entry errors can be disastrous. In many industries, data entry errors are minimised by paying highly skilled data entry personnel or by using expensive optical scanning technologies. However, researchers, small businesses, and non-profit organisations cannot afford highly skilled data entry personnel or the alternative technologies, and instead rely upon minimally trained staff and volunteers for manual data entry. Obtaining accurate data entry is a challenge in these circumstances. Some supervisors do all data entry themselves because they know of no procedures for obtaining accurate data entry from assistants. Others use visual data checking or after-the-fact diagnostic procedures to try to identify unlikely values. None of these approaches are guaranteed to prevent or correct all errors. This paper describes a data entry system that is essentially free, that will take no longer to use than visual checking, and that will virtually eliminate data entry errors.