Open Survey Guard from your products. You see your past projects and uploaded files, and a New project button.
Upload the survey
Drop your SPSS export on Drop your .sav file here, or click to browse. Survey Guard reads SPSS .sav files only — they carry the question wording and answer labels the checks use. The project is created and opens on Setup.
The steps along the top are Setup, Findings and Export. Findings opens once a run exists; Export opens once the results are saved.
Setup — choose what to check
Automatic checks. Select a card to include its checks; expand a card to choose individual checks. The cards are:
Card Looks for Speeders & timing Completes too fast to be read Duplicates & identity The same person, or the same answers, twice Straightlining & patterns The same answer down a grid, or a pattern Internal logic Answers the questionnaire says cannot go together Open-end quality Empty, copied or nonsensical open answers Contradictions Answers that contradict each other Statistical anomalies Responses unlike the rest of the sample Demographics Implausible profiles Attention traps Failed trap questions — only if your questionnaire has them Behavioural signals Other signs of a careless or automated respondent Some checks use an AI model; they say so when it is not available.
Your own rules. Turn this on to add contradiction rules: pick an answer, then the answer it contradicts, name the rule, and say whether a respondent who gives both should be excluded or reviewed.
Scoring. Choose how flags affect a respondent's verdict. Calibrated scoring is the default; Use custom scoring lets you decide the weight of each flag yourself.
Press Run Survey Guard. Results fill in as the checks finish, with a provisional verdict while some are still running.
Findings — review the evidence
The summary shows respondents, active flags and what needs review, with charts by check and a warning wherever a check could not cover every respondent.
In Respondent review, filter by verdict — Clean, Needs review or Exclude — and by guard or individual check. Every respondent shows their verdict, their flags and four scores: readiness, integrity risk, effort risk and consistency risk. Show evidence opens each flag with its severity, and marks the ones that were AI-assisted.
You decide what stands:
- Confirm flag — keep it, and its effect on the verdict.
- Ignore flag — remove it from scoring; the verdict is recalculated.
- Ignore rule — set a whole check aside.
- Confirm matching flags — confirm many at once.
Scores CSV downloads every respondent's scores.
Export — download the clean file
In Export reviewed data, choose who to keep — Clean only, or Clean + needs review — and press Prepare SPSS file. The download keeps the original answers, question labels and answer codes. Prepared downloads are available for 24 hours.
Take the file into any tool, or keep it in Crowdmines for the next analysis.