Create and Apply a Weight
This article is part of The Definitive Guide to Importing and Preparing Data.
Weighting data can be done for several different reasons, but often it is needed to account for sampling bias. Weighting can vary from the simple to the complex. Simple weights can be constructed in the web app, but combining weights will require scripting.
You should make sure to carefully check weights if you are:
- weighting sub-samples differently from each other
- recomputing weights each time period/wave
- changing weighting definitions over time
Note: pay attention to whether the weights are being derived automatically or if they are being hard-coded ('materialized') in the data. Weighting can be a tricky part of tracking studies, as it often relies on data collection to be complete before it is implemented.
In the web app
- See: How to create/calculate a weight in the web app
- See: Selecting, Creating, or Assigning a Weight