When using primary data, what steps must be taken to ensure that the data quality is high, both during data entry and during data cleaning stages? What technologies facilitate both?

What will be an ideal response?

Data cleaning--the process of checking data for errors after the data have been entered into a computer file; the first step in data cleaning is to check responses before they are entered into a database to make sure that one and only one valid answer code has been clearly circled or checked for each question; written answers can be assigned their own numerical codes; the next step in data cleaning is to make sure that no invalid codes have been entered; if data are typed into a text file or entered directly through the data sheet of a statistics program, a computer program must be written to “define the data.” A data definition program identifies the variables that are coded in each column or range of columns, attaches meaningful labels to the codes, and distinguishes values representing missing data; social scientists use programs such as SPSS.