RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY AT ALL STAGES Design and methodology; Sampling; Instrumentation; Timing; Data collection; Data analysis; Data reporting.
IMPROVING RELIABILITY Minimise external sources of variation; Standardise conditions under which measurement occurs; Improve researcher consistency; Broaden the sample of measurement questions by: adding similar questions to the instrument; increasing the number of researchers (triangulation); increasing the number of occasions in an observational study. Exclude extreme responses (outliers).