TS ISO 20252

TS ISO 20252 is a standard for the vocabulary used in market, opinion and social research, together with service requirements for those research activities. It is intended to give research organisations a common technical language for the way surveys, fieldwork, sampling and reporting are described and managed.

Why vocabulary and service requirements belong together

In this subject area, vocabulary defines what the core research terms mean, while service requirements provide the broader framework for how the service is identified and delivered. Terms such as sample, target population, data collection mode, interviewing unit, fieldwork and quality control are central to research practice because they affect how results are understood and compared. The title shows that this standard addresses both the word set and the service framework, but the detailed clause-by-clause requirements are not provided here.

Practical relevance in research services

In general technical context, this type of standard supports consistency in research methods, outputs and communication across teams and markets. Shared terminology helps reduce ambiguity when studies are designed, carried out and reported, which in turn supports the interpretability and comparability of findings. This edition of TS ISO 20252 has been withdrawn, so this record should be treated as a historical technical reference.