This paper introduces a set of papers presented at the conference Research on Demographic Aspects of HIV/AIDS in Rural Africa, held at the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, October 28, 2002. The aim of the conference was to provide a forum for the presentation of results, to an audience of experts, on a variety of demographic aspects relevant for the study of HIV/AIDS in rural Africa. The aim of this
volume is to provide these results to a wider audience. Although the topics covered are diverse, ranging from methodological issues in the study of HIV/AIDS such as sample attrition to substantive issues such as fertility, divorce, and women’s autonomy, the papers are united by their use of two similar data sets collected in rural Malawi and Kenya. This introduction thus begins by briefly describing the contents of the volume and the collaborators, and then focuses on a detailed description of the data used by all authors and on the threats to data quality. We conclude that other demographic studies of HIV/AIDS in rural Africa are likely to face similar threats, and that these should be routinely discussed.