Category Archives: Surveys and Opinion Polls

Following the completion of the translation verification of the national versions of the TIMSS 2027 Field Trial instruments, cApStAn welcomed colleagues from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to our Brussels office for a full-day debriefing meeting. The meeting offered an opportunity to look back at a demanding and productive phase …

“IEA and cApStAn: A Debriefing Meeting on TIMSS 2027 Translation Verification”

03 June 2026: For the 10th consecutive time, cApStAn will guide the translation and adaptation teams of all PISA participants in translating assessment instruments so that they remain comparable internationally. In this cycle, we shall introduce secure automated translations as part of a sophisticated double translation design. cApStAn will provide training and support to 90+ …

“cApStAn and ACER to implement PISA 2029”

CSDI once again demonstrated—over an intensive three‑day programme—the importance and complexity of translation, adaptation, and linguistic nuance in producing comparable data for multinational studies. The 2026 Comparative Survey Design and Implementation (CSDI) Workshop, held in beautiful Vienna from March 23rd to 25th, brought together leading specialists in comparative methodology, with a strong emphasis on questionnaire …

“Update from CSDI Conference in Vienna”

‘CSDI Workshop (Comparative Survey Design and Implementation) will be held in Vienna on March 23-25, 2026! Our colleague, Musab, will be attending, and will be co‑chairing the session “Questionnaire Translation for Cultural Contexts” together with Dr. Brita Dorer from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. The session brings together recent research and practical …

“cApStAn at the CSDI Workshop 2026”

We are thrilled to announce that funding has officially been secured for the Multilingual Answer Scale Repository to the Cross-cultural Research Community  (ScaleRep), a groundbreaking initiative born from a collaborative effort between GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Germany and cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control. This achievement is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Deutsche …

“ScaleRep – Multilingual Answer Scale Repository to the Cross-cultural Research Community: A Milestone for Multilingual Survey Research”

We’re thrilled to share that cApStAn’s founder Steve Dept was invited to speak at Google’s internal Survey Conference last week, where he shared insights on the latest trends and best practices in survey translations. Abstract from the session: The blueprint for high-quality questionnaire translations using sophisticated workflows was developed at a time when data collection …

“Survey Translation in 2025: is expertise still needed with today’s toolkit?”

Translation and localisation has traditionally been a cost centre, and the work performed by professional translators was mostly paid by word, by line, by page. Today, this model has become meaningless: translating half a million words or generating 100 pages directly in a foreign language can be done faster and cheaper than crafting two or three …

“Leveraging Translation Technology with Discernment | The Keys to Smart Localisation unveils on August 27, 2025”

Andrea Ferrari, cApStAn co-founder You are going to administer a test or questionnaire in multiple countries, cultures, and languages. We don’t need to convince you that the reliable validation of translated data collection instruments requires­ a robust Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA) design. A design that focuses on equivalence, comparability as well as appropriateness in each …

“Setting up a robust Linguistic Quality Assurance process for your tests and assessments on a low budget”

Advances in survey methodology research have brought advantages to data reliability and validity, especially in the 3MC (Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts) surveys. The “Total Survey Error” (TSE) is the example of a paradigm that provided the conceptual framework for optimizing surveys by maximizing data quality within budgetary constraints. This framework links the different steps …

“Referring to the Total Survey Error (TSE) framework when designing and monitoring translation workflows for questionnaires”

There is no shortage of C-Suite executives and founders who prompt generative AI to provide an optimistic outlook of the coming year. This exercise is typically associated with humble bragging (a frequent oxymoron) about achievements. So, is it anachronic to use a plain rearview mirror for hindsight, an old-fashioned sonar to sound depth, and a …

“Putting into perspective the rearview mirrow, the sonar and the periscope | Steve Dept, Founding Partner”

At cApStAn we strongly believe in the need to perform more “upstream” quality assurance work to reduce the need for “downstream” corrective action. In cApStAn’s modular approach, the creation of glossaries comes under module B, related to the preparation of a translation project. A glossary consists of a collection of terms that need to be …

“The role of glossaries in ensuring the validity and equivalence of tests/surveys across multiple languages“

cApStAn organises its linguistic services in 20 modules grouped into 4 moments of a localisation project. Depending on your requirements, we combine different modules, like building blocks, to form the most suitable design for your project. Fill out the form to receive the document now