Question 2.8

Are missing values and the way they are imputed in PECBMS typical for bird monitoring?

Answer

No. Missing values are apparent in any survey data, and in many statistical fields, these need to be taken into account. E.g. in economic statistics, the European Commission supports developing a set of handbooks on applying the best international statistical principles, methods, and practices by all producers of European Statistics to enhance their quality. Imputation, such as applied in PECBMS, is among the important methods in these handbooks because “ignoring missing values can seriously affect the quality of data, potentially leading to biased conclusions and loss of precision” (quoted from ISTAT, CBS & SFSO, 2007).