The way the sample is collected is crucial to obtaining a valid estimate, and this is an important subject which will be dealt with in this course. The main criteria for selecting a sample will be that the sample is representative of the population and that there is no or very little subjectivity in the choice of the sampling units. Sampling is not only conducted by survey researchers on human populations, but also by auditors on a company’s accounts, by agricultural researchers on different pieces of land, and by quality control inspectors on products in a factory, to name only a few examples.