Analyst questions - what are analyst or 'hidden' questions?

In this article we’ll look at:

What are analyst questions?

Analyst questions are used to communicate information across the analysis team. These are only seen by an administrator/admin when they are logged into Citizen Space. Respondents cannot see these questions when they are filling out the online survey.

These questions are useful to provide additional information which will help with searching and reporting later on. Examples of analyst questions would be:

  • Is this response part of a pressure group campaign?
  • Has this response come from a ‘key respondent’?
  • Does this response require further communication with the respondent?
  • Which department should this response be referred on to?

The answers to analyst questions are stored in the response record alongside the questions answered by the respondent. These questions are only visible to the analyst, the activity owner, the Department Admin and the Site Admin. Analyst questions are not visible to the public.

When creating your activity, every time you add a question, 2 analyst only answer components are added by default: 'analyst notes' and 'tags'. These are used for tagging and making notes in 'Analyse Responses'. Read more about adding questions to online surveys.

How do I set up an analyst question?

You can make an entire question or a single question component into an analyst question. When editing a question or question component, select the Visibility option 'Used for internal reporting and analysis only'.  For more information see Analyst questions - how do I add, move or delete these?

When should I set up my analyst questions?

It is possible to add an analyst question at any stage of an activity, although once the activity is live you would need to retract the activity in order to add or edit them. We therefore recommend that, wherever possible, you set up your analyst questions at the same time that you set up your respondent questions. This will allow for consistent analysis across all responses.

Analyst questions in Responses by Question Table

Analyst questions are visible in the 'Responses by Question' area of Analysis. Analyst questions are included in the question list, making it easier to filter and/or group using analyst question data. Analyst-only questions will be differentiated in the table view with a pale blue highlight — this is the same colouring seen on the Analyse Responses and Add Response pages. Find out more about Responses Organised by Question.