A better understanding of paradata, or the by-products of the collection of survey data, could help researchers gain insights into issues around survey quality and costs. That's according to a team of NCRM-funded researchers who have been examining the paradata around Peter Townsend’s famous Poverty in the UK study, undertaken in the late 1960s. Professor Ros Edwards explains more about what paradata is, the different ways in which it can be examined and what she and the team have learned about the study, the people involved in it and the implications of the team’s findings for survey research today.