Quality assurance framework - the concept of quality assurance applied to fisheries data and its operationalisation under the ICES scope

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Why assessments should have a quality check. Quality assurance of input parameters for stock assessment is a major subject promoting the confidence of scientists and stakeholders in the advice provided by ICES. Issues about quality assurance are included in the current MoU between EC and ICES. ICES is responsible for quality control of the aggregated data used in assessments and shall decide which data are considered a useful basis for advice. The decision process must be transparent, based on scientific information and fully documented. Institutions and individuals involved on providing input data to ICES must be informed about the processing, usage and shortcomings of the data.