There is a need to improve the validity, reliability, and replicability of social and health science research and its applications through raising the quality of measurement. An important step is to establish and implement a clear and useful standard for reporting and assessing psychometric properties of measures. We propose five basic criteria as a minimal checklist to help end users assess the quality of psychometric studies: unidimensionality; ordered response categories, invariance; targeting; and, contingent upon the previous four being fulfilled, reliability. An expanded and detailed reporting guideline is also presented, intended for use in reports and scientific publications of psychometric analyses. Additionally, we present a freely available R package to streamline psychometric analysis with Rasch Measurement Theory and its documentation in line with the reporting guideline.

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This paper presents a metrological approach for constructing reasonable and meaningful measurements of social sustainability in municipalities. The approach builds on rigorous conceptual definitions of the attributes to be measured, includes a usability focus, and extends the recently developed model ‘man as measurement instrument’ – including the application of item response theory (IRT) – into social sustainability metrics in municipalities. To achieve this, we emphasize the unique metrological properties of the Rasch model as a specific type of IRT. We further illustrate the approach to the sustainability aspect of quality of life (QoL) using data from the Swedish open database, Kolada, where municipality attributes are measured relative to where they have been and where they want to go. This can provide fit-for-purpose metrics to be used in developing more meaningful and effective municipal policies and sustainability programs.