Independence and Transparency

The Center undertakes research for public, civil-society, academic, international, and commercial organizations while retaining full professional and methodological independence. The commissioning organization defines its needs and research questions; findings and analysis remain governed by the data, methodology, and professional standards.

• Practical purpose and questions requiring answers.
• Relevant population, market, or program.
• Priorities, timeline, and budget.
• Deliverables, languages, and intended audience.
• Legitimate legal or contractual constraints.

• Appropriateness of design, sample, and instrument.
• Nonmisleading wording.
• Exclusion, cleaning, and weighting rules.
• Analysis and presentation of uncertainty and limitations.
• Whether evidence supports a claim.
• Need for correction, withdrawal, or delay for quality or protection reasons.

• Removing a valid result because it is inconvenient.
• Adding language implying more than the data support.
• Selecting categories or dates after seeing results to produce a preferred claim.
• Concealing material funding or conflicts.
• Using the Center’s name to endorse a candidate, policy, or product.
• Pressuring researchers or participants.

A commissioner may review drafts for institutional facts, confidentiality, scope compliance, and clarity. Review does not grant control of findings. Material changes are documented, and the Center may reject amendments that harm accuracy, independence, or participants.

• Identify commissioners or funders where publication and agreement permit.
• Explain material roles in design, access, review, or publication.
• State contractual restrictions on publication or data.
• Do not describe commissioned work as independently funded.
• Funding does not prove or disprove findings; it is disclosed and assessed alongside methodology.

Staff, consultants, and reviewers disclose financial, political, professional, or family relationships that may influence—or appear to influence—judgment. Management may involve disclosure, role separation, additional review, recusal, or declining the assignment.

Agreements define publication and confidentiality rights. A third-party-edited version may not be presented as Center-issued without approval. Where a commissioned report cannot be published, the Center does not breach confidentiality, but it also does not issue a misleading public description of findings.

• The Center does not operate as a campaign or undisclosed political-targeting tool.
• Research is separated from campaign and electoral consultancy.
• Fieldwork dates, population, questions, and methods are disclosed.
• Participant databases are not used for political or commercial outreach.
• Estimates are not presented as guaranteed outcomes.

The Center’s name or logo appears on joint material only after roles, rights, and the final version are approved. A meeting, memorandum, or joint proposal is not interpreted as permanent partnership or endorsement.

Interference, conflicts, or misleading name use may be reported through the complaints channel. Facts and records are reviewed, reporters are protected from retaliation, and action may include correction, name withdrawal, project suspension, disclosure, or legal referral.

• The Center’s right to apply professional and ethical standards.
• No guarantee of a particular result, percentage, or conclusion.
• Distinction between factual review and editorial control of findings.
• Documentation of scope and methodological changes.
• Publication, confidentiality, and data rights defined in advance.
• Right to pause work where interference or unacceptable risk arises.

Published material identifies the commissioner or funder where relevant and describes its role in questions, access, review, or publication. Naming an organization alone is insufficient where it had a material role a reader needs to understand.

A client or partner may receive a copy to review facts, confidentiality, and contract compliance. The review period and comment type are defined. Disagreement does not require removal of a finding. Where publication rights prevent release, the Center should not publish a misleading description implying no findings existed.

The Center selects personnel according to competence, availability, conflicts, and safety, subject to legitimate contractual requirements. A commissioner may not impose a person to direct the result or gain inappropriate data access.

Personnel may hold personal opinions as individuals, but may not use a project, participant data, or the Center’s identity to support a campaign or organization. External activities and conflicts are managed to prevent reasonable doubt about assignment integrity.

1. Record the request or pressure, timing, and source.
2. Explain the professional or contractual boundary.
3. Escalate to an authorized person as independent as possible.
4. Assess effect on data, participants, and publication.
5. Decide on refusal, legitimate amendment, suspension, or withdrawal.
6. Disclose material interference where permitted.

Fees, budgets, changes, and invoices are managed through clear procedures. Payment is not tied to a particular finding, and “independent” is not used to conceal funding or a relationship a reader needs to assess the work.

A bias allegation is reviewed against questions, sample, instruments, data, code, changes, and conflicts. Criticism is not dismissed because it is political, and a valid conclusion is not changed merely because some parties consider it inconvenient.

Joint research identifies organizations, roles, methodological and editorial authority, and responsibility for data protection and complaints. A logo should not appear in a way implying review or approval that did not occur.