Research on questionnaire design in the assumed mono-cultural context is extensive and many faceted. Research on questionnaire design for cross-cultural purposes is considerably more limited. While the literature describes several general models of procedure, detailed examinations of implementations following specific models or contrastive research evaluating one approach against others are rare.
Cognitive research continues to unravel the roles various contextual factors play in how questions are processed and perceived. In cross-cultural research many of these factors change from context to context and a systematic discussion of question meaning across cultures is long overdue. Little design-oriented research is available on comparative surveys at the level of individual question content, formulation, and measurement properties. 
The work group aims first to provide clear descriptions of existing procedural models, outlining their potential and requirements and providing examples at study and item level. In terms of basic research, the work groups wants to outline the fundamental issues to be considered in designing questions for cross-cultural projects. Since questions are often taken from existing projects and used in new contexts, design in the comparative context will also need to cover issues of selection, testing and adapting questions for new contexts. Co-operation with groups working on translation and testing issues will be necessary.
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