The Insights Association’s Council for Data Integrity has released the Sample Supply Transparency Questions, a practical framework designed to bring greater visibility and accountability to the sourcing and management of research participants.
As sample supply chains increasingly involve owned panels, exchanges, aggregators, routers, programmatic marketplaces, web traffic sources, and custom recruitment, understanding how participants reach a study has become both more important and more difficult. The new resource gives organizations a common set of questions for examining participant sourcing, routing, validation, incentives, privacy protections, quality controls, and supplier oversight.
“Reliable insights begin with a clear understanding of where research participants come from and how they are managed throughout the process,” said Anita Watkins, CEO of the Insights Association. “This framework gives every party in the research ecosystem a practical way to ask better questions, clarify responsibilities, and identify potential risks before they compromise the quality of the work. Greater transparency strengthens accountability and ultimately increases confidence in the insights our profession delivers.”
The framework contains 95 questions organized according to the role each party plays in the sample supply chain:
- 27 universal questions for all sample suppliers
- 14 questions for suppliers operating owned, first-party panels
- Seven questions for aggregators, routers, exchanges, and other non-panel suppliers
- 30 questions for market research firms and research agencies
- 17 questions for brands and other end clients commissioning research
Topics include capacity and feasibility, participant pathways, source-level disclosure, duplication prevention, identity verification, behavioral fraud detection, automated threats, AI-assisted responding, field management, participant experience, privacy, data retention, incentive practices, subcontractor oversight, and post-field quality reporting.
The framework also helps users distinguish between the different sourcing models operating within the research ecosystem. These include proprietary and specialist panels, publisher and platform-embedded panels, panel exchanges, programmatic marketplaces, river and intercept traffic, custom recruitment, customer lists, and offline or mixed-mode sources.
Rather than applying identical expectations to fundamentally different supply models, the resource aligns questions with each party’s operational control, visibility, and responsibilities. It calls for disclosure sufficient to assess quality and accountability without requiring suppliers to reveal proprietary algorithms or confidential commercial arrangements.
The document also includes specialized guidance for healthcare and B2B research, where professional credential verification, regulatory requirements, targeted invitation language, data sovereignty, incentive restrictions, and AI-assisted interviewing can create additional considerations.
The framework emphasizes that transparency alone does not guarantee research quality. However, limited transparency makes it significantly harder to evaluate quality, identify risks, attribute problems, and maintain accountability across the supply chain. Its purpose is to encourage meaningful disclosure—not performative compliance—and to support better study design, more accurate feasibility assessments, and clearer expectations among all parties.
The Sample Supply Transparency Questions were developed by volunteers from the Insights Association’s Council for Data Integrity, including Jerry Arbittier, AOPS; Alexandrine de Montera, Full Circle Research; Brad Franz, Burke; Dawn Hoskins, MarketVision Research; Brian Lamar, ROI Rocket; Jamie Lussier, Travelers; and Terry Sweeney, MR Framework.
Download the Sample Supply Transparency Questions