Guidance
We offer you a rich library of guidance to boost the quality of your activities. From our standard-setting ICC/ESOMAR Code and guidelines or practical documents to help you get the most out of your data-driven projects.
Members benefit from additional custom support via our helpdesk and community hub.
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Working on international projects that use data or analytics to generate important insights can be quite challenging. Whether you're executing these projects, supervising them, or are the person using the outcomes, our Code and our guidelines can come in handy.
Drafted by international project teams and renowned experts, our guidance was crafted for you by your peers and is freely shared to raise standards and public trust and confidence. As a member, you can contribute to the drafting and shaping of these guidance documents.
Identify your key responsibilities.
Our guidelines, developed in collaboration with our network of partners, including the ICC and Global Business Research Network (GRBN), set the international standards for ethical and professional conduct when carrying data-driven projects to help you meet key expectations.
Your Duty of Care
Your responsibilities towards participants in your projects. Issued with GRBN.Research participants provide their data to support insights projects, it's the duty of insights professionals to ensure that data is safely and responsibly collected, analysed, and stored.
Primary Data Collection
Your responsibilities when directly collecting data for your projects. Issued with GRBN.The Primary Data Collection guideline guides you in circumstances where you collect data directly from or about a data subject for your insights project.
Re-Use of Secondary Data
Your responsibilities when re-using pre-existing data in your projects. Issued with GRBN.The Re-use of Secondary Data guideline aims to assist you to stay ahead of the curve whilst keeping you on the right side of ethical and legal requirements.
Join us in shaping the future global norms and practices to reuse data in analytics and insights. Help craft fit-for-purpose guidance that flags the issues you need to plan for and recommendations you can apply globally.
Children, Young People, other Vulnerable Individuals
Your key requirements when working with these groups. Issued with GRBN.Our guidance to ensure the success of your international projects which involve the participation of these categories of our populations
Mutual Rights and Responsibilities
Outlining the rights and responsibilities of end-users and providersComing soon!
Get the best start
This collection of practical guidance aims to ensure you are asking the right questions at the start, during and after your data-driven projects so that you and your organisation can make use of the best insights.
For Buyers and Users of Online Sample
Briefing questions for buyers and users sourcing samples onlineGet the most out of your online samples and your partnership with sample providers.
Tools and Services for Unstructured Data
Briefing questions for users subscribing such toolsHelping users and buyers of tools and services for unstructured data to ask the right questions to their suppliers and increase the success of your projects right from the start.
Data Protection Checklist
Translating complex data protection laws into your key requirementsThis checklist translates complex data protection laws into key requirements for data collectors and users. Use it to build a comprehensive compliance programme with greater confidence.
Hot Topics
Responsive to your needs, the community and its experts frequently update our core guidance documents with emerging practices and issue guidance on specific, emerging hot topics.
Artificial Intelligence
Exploring the potential for groundbreaking technologyInvestigating the applications and implications for technology that promises to change the world, and ensuring the ethical development and deployment of AI solutions.
Diversity and Inclusion
Contributing to efforts to make research inclusiveBringing together and co-creating guidance with your peers reflects the growing interest in capturing data to measure the organisation's inclusiveness and the need to respect all participants.
COVID-19
Guidance and support for the research communitySharing insights and guidance to help our sector and the wider world navigate these unprecedented times and emerge stronger and wiser for the future.
Opinion Polls and Published Surveys
ESOMAR has guidelines for professionals to maintain trust and confidence in opinion polls. These guidelines are drafted with the World Association of Public Opinion Research (WAPOR). Use our guide to ensure your opinion polling project meets international norms:
Our Guideline and Key Requirements
Issued with the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR)Helping professionals to conduct opinion polling and published surveys in an ethical and professional way, and to boost trust and confidence with members of the public.
Can you trust polls?
Our expert tells you everything you need to know about pollsYour questions about opinion polls answered by the world's leading experts on polls and tips to help you judge their quality
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
If you are responsible for collecting and analysing personal data, the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation by the European Union encourages you to review your practices to ensure you remain compliant continually.
Allow us to help you on top of these requirements. Our guidance translates the complex legislation in the context faced by insights and analytics professionals and organisations: