The Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) is about to launch a pilot study of self-managed super funds (SMSFs) that seeks to provide a comprehensive and objective source of data on the industry.

The study will start before June this year and will be conducted over the next three years, SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said during the organisation's annual conference in Adelaide.

The research will focus on fees, governance, performance and adequacy, including the effects of the Henry tax review, and SPAA will publish rolling reports on a quarterly basis.

"The reason for the study is to provide evidential research into the market - good, bad or otherwise - as long as it is based on evidence," Slattery said.

She hopes it will help in the development of adequate policy for the industry.

"So many policies have been made based on anecdotal studies rather than industry data," she said. "Nobody has been able to provide any information on this market."

The study will be conducted by University of Adelaide professors Ralf Zurbrugg and Graeme Hugo. SPAA has also approached a third professor from a university in NSW.

Currently, only the Australian Taxation Office provides statistics on SMSFs, but the SPAA study aims to provide a much more comprehensive overview over the sector.

The study will eventually include several hundreds of thousands of funds, Slattery said.