Take part in developing new Guidelines for Consultations with the Market Research Society (MRS)

MRS and LARIA would like to hear your views on the MRS Guidelines on Consultation. The current guidelines, developed with LARIA in 2005, are available here. These supplement the MRS Code of Conduct by providing interpretation of the Code and additional best practice advice. The guidelines do not create any new mandatory requirements for MRS members, but do explain how the Code should be applied in a particular context. The guidelines would be drafted and subject to wider consultation before being approved by the Market Research Standards Board.

Consultations are an important and complex part of how public policy is developed. While they do not fall within traditional definitions of market research, they do rely upon the application of research techniques, such as questionnaires and groups discussion. Researchers, including MRS members, are often required to apply their expertise and professional judgement in these projects. The guidelines are likely to focus on:

• The design of the consultation project, with particular attention to choices of methods and risks of leading participants to a particular view
• The reporting of results/findings/conclusions, particularly where this is done by the client, and the responsibilities of MRS members in this regard.

We would love to hear your views on the guidelines either by email or in person. An open meeting to discuss the development of guidelines will be held at the MRS offices on at 2pm on 23 August 2012. If you would like to attend please contact Barry Ryan at barry.ryan@mrs.org.uk. You can also send him any comments you have on guidelines and what they should cover.