Market research glossary
New to the market research world? Keen researcher looking to brush up on your terminology? The FieldworkHub glossary is here to help you understand common methods and concepts used across the industry, so you can gain better understanding of the tools we use that drive smarter business decisions.
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Field and tab
Field and tab refers to the process of data collection (fielding) and tabulating quantitative results in market research. It dates back to at least the mid 20th century when these were two very distinct processes: data was usually collected face to face and recorded on paper forms, while tabulation occurred in a central location and involved going through the forms to count responses by hand, or later, transferring the data from the forms to punch cards that could be read by a computer. Nowadays data is typically entered straight into a computer at the time of collection and tabulation is automatic.