IHSN Question Bank
Why the Question Bank?
Censuses, sample surveys and administrative data collection systems often aim to measure and monitor the same variable or statistic. However, differences in the formulation of questions, interviewer instructions or concept definitions can result in non-comparability of data across sources and time. The IHSN Question Bank, maintained by a network of international agencies, aims to address this by providing a central repository of international questionnaires, interviewer instructions, classifications, concepts and indicators. The Question Bank application provides comprehensive and readily usable metadata that can be easily exported for the design of data collection instruments.
The Question Bank does not contain any data, and is not a repository of actual survey questionnaires (if you are interested in actual country questionnaires, see our central catalog of survey questionnaires). It provides generic guidelines, obtained from various sources. In some cases, the Question Bank may provide guidelines from different sources for a same topic. In such cases, the Question Bank contributes to exposes differences or divergences in international recommendations, but lets the user decide on what guidelines are most suitable for his needs. A discussion forum allows exchange of experiences and expertise.
The Question Bank was developed by the IHSN as a Flex application and requires that the free Flash Reader be installed on your computer. A "portable" version of the application was also developed, allowing users with slow or no internet connection to take adbvantage of it.
The content of the Question Bank is stored as an XML file. A specific XML schema and a specialized XML editor were developed to allow easy maintenance of the Question Bank content.
Who provides content to the Question Bank?
The content of the Question Bank is generated by specialized international agencies, by experts commissioned by the IHSN, and by other survey experts. The IHSN Secretariat coordinates the maintenance of the system, and decides on the inclusion of new materials. Interested contributors are invited to contact us.
The content of the Question Bank is regularly updated. Users are invited to regularly visit our website.
About the software application
The Question Bank takes full advantage of the XML technology. All content is maintained as an XML file. This XML file conforms to a specifix XML schema developed by the IHSN. To develop and maintain this XML file, the IHSN developed a user-friendly specialized XML editor (developed in dot.NET - C#).
The web user interface was developed in Adobe Flex. To make the Question Bank available to users with slow or no internet connection, a portable version was also developed in Adobe AIR.
These software applications are available free of charge to all interested users in developing countries, and to IHSN member agencies and other partners contributing to the Question Bank.