nicolefindstar / high-frequency-checks

A Stata template for running high frequency checks of incoming research data at Innovations for Poverty Action

IPACHECK 4

Overview

ipacheck is Innovations for Poverty Action's Stata package for running high-frequency checks during data collection. This package includes the following programs:

Main programs

• ipacheckcorrections - make corrections to data.
• ipacheckspecifyrecode - recode other specify values.
• ipacheckversions- export statistics on survey form versions & flags outdated survey submissions.
• ipacheckids- export duplicates in survey ID.
• ipacheckdups- export duplicates in non-ID variables.
• ipacheckmissing- export statistics on missingness & distintness for each variable.
• ipacheckoutliers - export outliers in numeric variables.
• ipacheckoconstraints - export outliers in numeric variables.
• ipacheckspecify - export all values specified for variables with 'other speciy' category.
• ipacheckcomments - export field comments generated with SurveyCTO's comments field type.
• ipachecktextaudit - export statistics on duration per field using the SurveyCTO's text audit files.
• ipachecktimeuse - export statistics on hours of engagement using the SurveyCTO's text audit files.
• ipachecksurveydb - export general statistics about dataset.
• ipacheckenumdb - export general statistics about enumerator performance.
• ipatracksurvey - export dashboard for tracking survey progress.
• ipabcstats - compare survey and back check data.

Ancilliary programs

• ipacodebook - export codebook to excel. Includes an option to use notes as variable labels
• ipasctocollate - collate and export a dataset from SurveyCTO generated text audit or comments files.
• ipalabels - remove labels or values from variables.
• ipagettd - convert datetime variables to date.
• ipagetcal - create a date calendar dataset.
• ipaanycount - create a variable that returns the number of variables in varlist for which values are equal to any specified integer/string value.

Mata library

• addlines - add a lower boder line to a row in an excel file.
• addflags - add a background color to a cell in an excel file.
• colwidths - adjust column widths in excel file using length of values in current dataset.
• colformats - apply number format to a column in an excel file.
• setfont - set font size and type for a range of cells in an excel file.
• setheader - set the first row in an excel file as a header row.
• settotal - set the last row in an excel file as a total row.

ipacheck comes with a folder structure for your project including a master do-file, a globals do-file, prep do-file and Excel-based inputs sheets. Results of checks are exported as nicely formatted Excel spreadsheets for distribution among field teams.

Installation

* ipacheck may be installed directly from GitHub
net install ipacheck, all replace from("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PovertyAction/high-frequency-checks/master")
ipacheck update

* after initial installation ipacheck can be updated at any time via
ipacheck update

* to start a new project with folder structure and input files
ipacheck new, surveys("SURVEY_NAME_1") folder("path/to/project")

* when starting a new project with multiple surveys, you can choose to use the subfolders option to create subfolders for each survey
ipacheck new, surveys("SURVEY_NAME_1" "SURVEY_NAME_2") folder("path/to/project") subfolders

* to obtain fresh copies of the master do-file and Excel inputs without creating the folder structure
ipacheck new, filesonly

* to go through IPA's exercise with instructions, exercise data, and folder structure with input files
ipacheck new, exercise 

* to verify you have the latest versions of the commands
ipacheck version

Learn about the DMS

Check out the DMS wiki for more information about the DMS. You can also review the DMS exercise to learn how to setup the DMS for your project.

If you encounter a clear bug, please file a minimal reproducible example on github. For questions and other discussion, please email us at [email protected].

Current Author(s)

• Ishmail Azindoo Baako

Past Author(s)

• Rosemarie Sandino
• Christopher Boyer
• Isabel Onate
• Kelsey Larson
• Caton Brewster