The Data Centrifuge is aytm's automated data quality engine. It evaluates every respondent in your survey against a set of fraud and inattention checks, quarantining those who fail so they never reach your results.
In This Article
- Terminology
- What the Data Centrifuge Is
- What It Looks For
- Quarantine
- Reviewing Flagged Responses
- Common Questions
Terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Data Quality Report | The panel on your Stats page that brings together everything aytm knows about the quality of your sample. The Data Centrifuge is one section inside it. |
| Vector | A single detection signal—one specific kind of low-quality answering behavior the engine looks for. |
| Quarantine | Setting a flagged respondent aside so they're excluded from your analyzed data. Quarantined responses aren't deleted. |
| Release | Restoring a quarantined respondent to your analyzed data. Your aytm contact can do this for any respondent you believe was set aside in error. |
What the Data Centrifuge Is
Every completed response is reviewed independently against each active check. When enough evidence stacks up against a respondent, they're quarantined from your analyzed dataset. The Data Quality Report shows you which checks fired and how many respondents were quarantined, and depending on your plan you can export the quarantined set or open the evidence behind each one. If you believe a respondent was set aside in error, or you spot one the engine missed, your aytm contact can restore or remove them for you.
To find it, open your survey's Stats page, switch to the Quality tab, and scroll to the Data Centrifuge section of the Data Quality Report.
When It Runs
The Data Centrifuge works in two passes. While your survey is still collecting, it reviews responses as they arrive, so you get a live read on quality mid-field. Once fielding closes, it runs again across your full respondent pool—this is the authoritative pass, and it's what your final quality numbers reflect.
That second pass matters because a number of the checks judge a respondent against everyone else in your sample rather than against a fixed rule. Those comparisons can't be made until the whole sample is in, so they'll show as not applicable until the final run.
Where It Sits in the Data Quality Report
The Data Centrifuge is one of five sections in the Data Quality Report, and it's worth knowing what the others cover:
- Panel—how many responses you collected.
- Traffic Sentinel—suspicious and duplicate entry attempts that were blocked before they ever entered your survey, plus pre-qualification drop-offs.
- Data Centrifuge—quality review and quarantine of the respondents who did get in.
- Human Review—manual rejections, open-end rejections, and reconciliation.
- Performance—completion rate, drop-offs, and the respondent experience rating your survey earned.
Think of Traffic Sentinel as the front door and the Data Centrifuge as the back door. One keeps bad traffic out; the other catches what made it through.
What It Looks For
Checks are organized into categories. Each category holds one or more individual checks, and each one targets a different kind of low-quality or fraudulent answering behavior.
| Category | What it detects |
|---|---|
| Twinned Responses | Respondents who duplicated each other—the same closed answers, the same open-end text, or the same uploaded image. |
| Inconsistent Responses | Answer combinations that almost never occur together in this audience. Each answer alone may be normal; together they form an improbable profile. |
| Random Responses | Answering that looks like random clicking rather than genuine preference. |
| Pacing Anomalies | Respondents who moved far faster—or far slower—than the survey realistically allows for. |
| Response Patterns | Straight-lining—the same answer in the same position on every screen, with no underlying logic. |
| Interrupted Sessions | Sessions with a long unexplained gap, suggesting the respondent stepped away and came back. This check is informational by default and doesn't count toward quarantine. |
| HB Model Fit Issues | MaxDiff answers that look chaotic rather than preference-driven. Applies only to surveys containing a MaxDiff question. |
| Attention Checks | Respondents who failed a quality-control question you planted—for example, one that instructs them to select a specific answer. |
| Verbatim Anomalies | The largest category. Checks on the quality of open-ended text, including nonsense, off-topic answers, repeated answers, and offensive language. |
| Digital Body Language Signals | Signals from how a respondent interacted with the page rather than what they answered. |
⚠️ Note: Some checks depend on your survey containing the right ingredients. Attention Checks only have something to find if you included an attention-check question, and HB Model Fit Issues only apply if your survey contains a MaxDiff question. When a check can't run, it shows a dash rather than a zero—see Common Questions.
Quarantine
A respondent is quarantined when enough evidence stacks up against them. Several independent checks pointing the same way will do it, and so will a single severe finding.
Quarantine happens automatically when auto-quarantine is on for your survey. When it's off, the engine still reviews and reports everything—it simply makes no removals on its own. Auto-quarantine is part of your survey's quality configuration and is managed by aytm.
Quarantined responses are excluded from your analyzed dataset—they won't appear in your charts, crosstabs, or clean-data exports—but they aren't deleted. Depending on your plan, you can export the quarantined set from the Data Quality Report, and your aytm contact can restore any response you believe was set aside in error.
Common Questions
Why does a check show a dash instead of a number?
A dash means the check couldn't run for your survey—usually because a prerequisite was missing, such as no open-ended questions, no MaxDiff question, or not enough respondents for a statistical comparison. A dash isn't the same as a zero. Zero means the check ran and found nothing wrong.
Why did the same respondent get flagged by several different checks?
Several checks look at related behavior from different angles, so one genuinely poor respondent will often look unusual on more than one dimension at once. That's expected. It also means the per-check counts can add up to more than the number of quarantined respondents, because one respondent can appear under several checks.
Why wasn't anyone flagged for speeding when I know I had speeders?
Some of the pacing checks compare respondents against the rest of your sample rather than against a fixed limit, so they only run once fielding is complete. Until then they show a dash rather than a zero. A separate check catches anyone who finished faster than the survey physically allows, regardless of how the rest of the sample paced.
Can I turn a check off?
Not from the report. The set of checks and how much each counts toward quarantine are managed by aytm so every survey is held to the same standard. If your study design doesn't suit a particular check—for example, a deliberately repetitive grid that would look like straight-lining—mention it to your aytm contact before launch.
Does my N drop after quarantine?
Yes. Quarantined responses leave your analyzed base, so your reported N reflects the cleaned data.