Methodology & Editorial Standards
How Rocberg collects, anonymises, and analyses its data
Independence is not a claim. It is a set of practices. This page sets out exactly how our data is gathered, who is involved, and how editorial decisions are kept separate from any commercial interest.
Data collection
Survey responses are gathered in partnership with specialist organisations operating directly within the unmanned systems and aerospace sectors — including recruitment practices and operational consultancies with direct access to the professional population being studied.
This partnership model exists because frontier sectors are thin and specialist. Reaching a credible sample size requires relationships that only operators inside the industry can provide. Rocberg discloses these partnerships on every report it publishes. We do not estimate or model the headline figures. They come from the people in the roles.
- Respondents are recruited through partner organisations’ professional networks, never purchased or scraped
- Participation is voluntary and unpaid
- No respondent is offered or promised any commercial benefit for participation
Anonymisation standard
No personal identifiers are collected as part of any survey instrument. Respondents are never asked for their name, employer, or any detail that could identify them individually.
- All results are aggregated before analysis begins
- Any data cell representing fewer than five respondents is suppressed or merged with an adjacent category to prevent identification
- Raw response data is never shared with partner organisations, sponsors, or any third party
- Only aggregated, anonymised findings are published in any Rocberg report
Analysis and editorial independence
Data collection and data analysis are kept as distinct functions. Partner organisations that assist with respondent reach have no role in how findings are interpreted, framed, or published.
Rocberg’s editorial team determines what is reported, how it is contextualised, and what conclusions the data supports. No partner organisation reviews or approves findings prior to publication. Where a finding reflects unfavourably on any sector, region, or practice, it is published as found.
Rocberg reports on patterns, never on cases. No client, contract, programme, or individual is ever identifiable in any published finding.
Operational insight, disclosed
In addition to survey data, some Rocberg publications draw on anonymised operational pattern observations contributed by industry practitioners — for example, recurring structural or staffing patterns observed across multiple programmes over time.
Where this occurs, it is disclosed in the relevant report. These observations are always presented at the level of pattern and trend, never as case-specific, client-specific, or contract-specific detail. No classified, contractual, or commercially confidential information is ever referenced or implied.
Relationships, disclosed in full
Rocberg is a research and publishing division of Nicoll Global Holdings Limited. The following relationships are disclosed in the interest of full transparency.