We have published Wave 23 of the SHP! You can find all the data sets on SWISSUbase (Living in Switzerland Waves 1-23 + Covid 19 data). Wave 23 contains the two modules Religion and Psychological dimensions as well as new questions on chronic diseases.

You can access the new data here: https://doi.org/10.48573/cm0q-ah20

The third edition of data and documentation for the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 10 has just been published.

Data from all 31 countries who took part in Round 10 (2020-22), including Switzerland, is now available via the ESS Data Portal.

A short briefing can be consulted here: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release.

The Round 10 survey includes the core questionnaire, fielded in every round.

It also includes two rotating modules: Europeans’ understandings and evaluations of democracy and Digital social contacts in work and family life.

Additionally, a special COVID-19 module was fielded by countries on a voluntary basis.

Detailed information on Round 10 data release is available on the ESS website.

Travaillez-vous actuellement avec des données de sciences sociales que vous avez obtenues de FORS ? Ou envisagez-vous de le faire dans les prochains mois ? Alors pensez à soumettre votre article au prix FORS Data Re-use Award 2023 et tentez de gagner jusqu’à 1’000 CHF. Ce prix sera décerné aux jeunes chercheuses et chercheurs qui effectuent d’excellentes recherches basées sur des données secondaires. La date limite de soumission est le 1er octobre 2023. Pour plus d’informations: https://forscenter.ch/fors-data-reuse-award-2023/

The 12th International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland will take place on June 14-15, 2023 at the University of Lausanne.

This edition will include thematic sessions covering a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, families, gender, ethnic minorities and migration, politics and attitudes, survey methodology, and longitudinal methods. The program also includes a session on TREE data and one on health literacy using SHARE data.

Consult the final scientific programme : https://forscenter.ch/12th-international-conference-of-panel-data-users-in-switzerland/

The registration is now closed.

Christoph Zangger from the University of Bern has published a new study based on the SHP Covid-19 study. He investigated how and for whom relations with neighbors changed during the pandemic and how these changes impacted subjective well-being and trust in other people. His study shows that the most vulnerable groups in terms of health and socio-economic status saw their subjective well-being and trust negatively impacted through the challenging circumstances of the pandemic as well as indirectly through a relative deterioration of neighborly relations.

Find the detailed results here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101307

To increase the user-friendliness of the SHP data, we rethought the documentation page of our website. All the information concerning the SHP documentation is now compiled on one page and easily accessible. You can also find a new overview of all variables  included in the SHP and their availability per year.

This is our new documentation page.

Registration for the 27th edition of the Summer School is still open and will remain open until all places are filled or until the 14th of July – whichever is sooner.

To the registration.

In 2023, in response to requests from past editions’ participants, we are introducing three new courses:

• Designing and Conducting Social-scientific Experiments
• Conducting a Grounded Theory Study
• Web Scraping and Data Mining in R

Notre rapport annuel 2022 présente nos recherches, nos services de données, nos infrastructures, nos programmes de collaboration et nos publications. Le rapport résume également toutes les activités liées à nos enquêtes nationales et internationales.

Dans l’éditorial du rapport, le directeur de FORS, le professeur Georg Lutz, souligne le fait que les infrastructures de recherche sont importantes dans de nombreuses disciplines scientifiques, car elles organisent de nombreux projets à long terme qui concernent des communautés de recherche entières. FORS n’héberge pas seulement des projets d’infrastructure tels que les archives nationales de données; FORS contribue aussi activement à renforcer la position des infrastructures de sciences humaines à long terme et à assurer une bonne coordination entre les projets et les initiatives existants.

Consultez notre rapport annuel  2022 (en anglais).

The 6th wave of Selects was fielded  between September 26 and November 6, 2022. This wave provides insights, among others, into vote intention in federal elections, vote decision in popular votes, opinion on various issues related to the implications of the war in the Ukraine (like the reception of Ukrainian refugees, energy policy, security policy, etc.).

The data of waves 1 to 6 of the panel survey SELECTS can be found on SWISSUbase

https://doi.org/10.48573/4my6-rd07

Informaition on SELECTS: https://forscenter.ch/projects/selects/

Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer la publication des données MOSAiCH/ISSP 2022 sur la famille et les rôles liés au genre collectées au printemps 2022.

Les données et la documentation sont disponibles ici : https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20135/18818/datasets/2161/2569/overview

L’édition 2022 de MOSAiCH est construite autour du module « Family and Changing Gender Roles V » de l’International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Ce module, qui est répété pour la cinquième fois, est l’une des séries thématiques les plus anciennes de l’ISSP, pour laquelle des données suisses sont également disponibles pour les éditions 2012 et 2002. Cette partie internationale est complétée par des questions socio-démographiques sélectionnées, ainsi qu’un module composé de questions spécifiques à la Suisse.

The ESS Scientific Advisory Board has completed its selection of rotating modules for the European Social Survey Round 12.

For the first time the Board has selected 2 repeat modules. The successful modules are:

• ‘Personal and social wellbeing’ led by Frank Martela, Aalto University, School of Science (Finland)
• ‘Attitudes to immigrants and refugees’ led by Anthony Heath, University of Oxford (UK).  This module team includes NCs from Portugal (Alice Ramos) and Ukraine (Tymofii Brik).

Both modules address crucial academic and policy relevant topics for Europe and provide both innovation and continuity, thereby supporting new topics as well as time series analysis. For more information and to access the proposals see News | European Social Survey (ESS)

The 12th International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland will take place on June 14-15, 2023 at the University of Lausanne.

This edition will include thematic sessions as well as a poster session. The thematic sessions cover a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, socio-economic inequality and mobility, families, gender, ethnic minorities and migration, politics and attitudes, survey methodology, and longitudinal methods. We also offer the possibility to propose complete sessions on other themes.

We welcome all contributions based on longitudinal data, such as the “Swiss Household Panel” (SHP), the “LIVES-FORS Cohort”, the “Transition from Education to Employment” (TREE), the “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe” (SHARE), and the “Swiss Survey of Children and Youth” (COCON). As the SHP is a member of the Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF), we especially welcome presentations or posters comparing Switzerland with other countries participating in the CNEF. Please note that the language of the conference is English.

Deadline for abstracts and session proposals is February 27, 2023.

The conference is interdisciplinary, and we welcome participants from all areas of the social sciences. Please submit your session proposal or your abstract for a presentation or a poster to swisspanel@fors.unil.ch.

Abstracts for presentations and posters

Please include in the abstract:

• The names and affiliations of all authors;
• The name(s) and e-mail addresses of the attending author(s);
• The session to which the abstract belongs. Please indicate poster session or one of the thematic sessions listed above. It is possible to suggest more than one suitable session;
• The title of the presentation or the poster;
• An abstract of around 250 words (max. 500).

Session proposals

We can only accept complete session proposals that include at least three presentations. Please include in the proposal:

• Name, affiliation and e-mail address of the chair;
• Title of the session;
• Titles and abstracts (250-500 words each) of the presentations in the session;
• Names, affiliations and e-mail addresses of the presenters.

The PDF of the call

MOSAiCH 2024 – Appel à contributions 

Nous invitons les chercheuses et chercheurs à proposer des questions pour l’enquête qui suivra le module ISSP 2024 portant sur les sociétés digitales. Les critères de sélection seront notamment la qualité scientifique, la pertinence pour une utilisation scientifique large et la qualité méthodologique des questions. Les propositions retenues seront administrées en printemps 2024 et les données seront disponibles début 2025. Le délai de soumission est fixé au lundi 24 avril 2023.

Vous trouverez de plus amples informations dans le document PDF CALL MOSAiCH 2024.

The European Social Survey (ESS) has published data from an additional 15 countries who participated in Round 10 (2020-22) of our survey.

This second release – available exclusively through the ESS Data Portal – includes 25 countries whose data has been published alongside post-stratification weights.

Due to measures implemented to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus, some countries fielded our Round 10 questionnaire using self-completion methods for the first time.

This updated dataset therefore includes 19 countries who administered the survey in line with previous rounds: using only in-person interviews.

Data collected in this way is available from 19 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Data from six countries – Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Sweden – was collected through online and postal questionnaires using a ‘self-completion’ design.

As a result of the inclusion of data that was collected using only self-completion modes, we have published a short briefing: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release.

Read the briefing: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release

Download the latest data from the ESS Data Portal

Further information on the release can be found on the ESS website

The « Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Research Infrastructures in Switzerland » initiative is piloted by a coordination group consisting of the directors of national research infrastructures (RIs) in the SSH, the national coordinators of international SSH RIs with Swiss participation (CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS, SHARE, GGP) and one representative of the Swiss Academy for the Swiss Academy for Social and Human Sciences (SAGW).

As a follow up to the first event (31 May 2022) and of the position paper (November 2022), the coordination group of this initiative invites the members of the Swiss SSH scientific community interested in research infrastructures to a second event on 18 January 2023.

This meeting has three main objectives.

• First, to raise awareness on the importance of research infrastructure in the SSH domain and how prioritisation and funding works (national and ESFRI roadmap process).
• Second, to share experiences from other countries and the European level on how collaborations between projects and infrastructures work.
• Third, to give a platform to potential new Swiss RIs in the SSH domain in order to reflect on needs of the SSH community and how to create synergies and join forces.

To reach these objectives, we will welcome four invited speakers from abroad (see the updated Programme), who will share their experience of how collaboration and clustering happened successfully in other countries and at the European level. In addition, the floor will also be given to several Swiss projects of RIs in the SSH field with the aim to reflect on user needs and possible synergies. Finally, the day will end with a Round Table with an open discussion, in which invited guests from the SNSF, the SERI, swissuniversities, the SAGW and all members of the audience will have the opportunity to express themselves.

Register now !

Organizing committee

Prof. Dr. Georg Lutz (FORS)

Dr. Cristina Grisot (DARIAH-CH & CLARIN-CH)

Dr. Elena Chestnova (USI)

Dr. Claire Clivaz (SIB)

Dr. Beat Immenhauser (SAGW)

Further information and registration: https://www.dariah.ch/post/ssh-research-infrastructures-in-switzerland-initiative

To the interview

The ISSP is glad to announce the publication of the final release of the international ISSP 2019 Social Inequality V data file (ZA7600_v3.0.0), including data from Switzerland and 28 other countries from six continents.

The data and documentation on this release can be found here:
https://www.gesis.org/en/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/social-inequality/2019

Data access including download in SPSS or Stata format, is offered online via GESIS Search at:
https://search.gesis.org/research_data/ZA7600?lang=en

In parallel with the final release, the ISSP organizes its first User Conference on Social Inequality on December 12, 2022. Registration is free, but mandatory:
https://issp.org/about-issp/issp-user-conference/

Cette plateforme « Développement de la recherche et des méthodes en sciences sociales » (DReMSS) regroupe des chercheurs·ses de la Faculté des SSP et du Centre suisse d’expertise en sciences sociales (FORS) qui collaborent au sein du programme de recherche FORS-SSP autour de trois axes de recherche :

• Méthodologie d’enquête ;
• Inégalités, genre et parcours de vie ;
• Diversité des données et recherche sur le bien public.

Les objectifs de la plateforme de recherche sont les suivants :

• Développer la réputation de FORS et de l’UNIL en tant que centres de recherche de haute qualité concernant les méthodes des sciences sociales et la recherche substantive au niveau national et international ;
• Développer les compétences et le savoir-faire quantitatifs en Suisse ;
• Contribuer à l’amélioration de la méthodologie d’enquête ;
• Contribuer aux innovations méthodologiques et à la recherche substantielle en sciences sociales ;
• Contribuer à la discussion entre les différents acteurs dans le domaine des méthodes en sciences sociales.

« Ces collaborations ont déjà permis de nombreuses publications basées sur les données collectées ou distribuées par FORS, ainsi que d’autres activités de recherche et d’enseignement » explique Stephanie Steinmetz, Professeure associée de stratification sociale à l’Institut des sciences sociales et responsable de la plateforme.

Grâce à ce programme de recherche, l’enseignement des méthodes quantitatives dans la Faculté des SSP a été développé et renforcé, tant au niveau du Bachelor que du Master, où les principales enquêtes sociales et politiques sont utilisées comme bases de données et outils/exemples pédagogiques.

Consultez le site web du DReMSS

1st ISSP User Conference on Social Inequality

The ISSP is very pleased to announce its first ISSP User Conference on Social Inequality, which will be held online on December 12, 2022.

The Call for Abstracts is now open. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2022.

The call: https://issp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Call-for-Abstracts_ISSP-User-Conference.pdf

Further information on the ISSP: www.issp.org

Over the last few months, a coordination group consisting of the directors of national research infrastructures in the SSH, the national coordinators of international SSH RIs with Swiss participation (CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS, SHARE, GGP) and the representatives of the Swiss Academy for the SSH have been working on a position paper on the situation of Research Infrastructures in the SSH field in Switzerland. We believe that the current situation is unsatisfactory, and we want to raise awareness and ask for a better acknowledgment of the interests of the SSH domain among policy makers.

While the need for research infrastructures is well-established in some disciplines, there is still a partial lack of understanding that the social sciences and humanities (SSH) need well-established and well-funded infrastructures. The national roadmap process disfavours SSH projects and, as a result, financial investment in SSH infrastructures is minimal. Therefore, it is difficult for new national projects to be included in the national infrastructure roadmap.

We call on the bodies responsible for prioritising and funding research infrastructures to recognise the needs of the Swiss SSH community and fund infrastructures in this area. In order to improve the situation for SSH infrastructures and to create a fair and equal funding environment, several steps are needed:

• Higher education institutions as well as research policy actors such as swissuniversities and SERI should recognize the need for the SSH to advance research through infrastructures and create respective funding and governance models.
• Switzerland should systematically participate in European SSH infrastructures once the relevance for the Swiss research community is established.
• The national roadmap process should create fair and equal conditions for prioritizing infrastructures in all disciplines.
• Stronger emphasis should be placed on data preservation and reuse.
• The SSH research community needs to coordinate well, create synergies between existing infrastructures and long-term projects, and make sure that newly proposed infrastructure projects for future roadmap processes are well linked to existing RI at the national and international level.

If you support the position paper and are willing to sign the letter, please do so before 30 September 2022 using this form: https://researchprojectjb.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9sLXT8MRxmjClZc

On behalf of the coordinating team,

Prof. Dr. Georg Lutz, Directors of FORS

Dr. Cristina Grisot, Scientific Coordinator CLARIN-CH and DARIAH-CH

Does your research involve data collection in a social science discipline or involve human participants? Do you want to learn more about key data management practices throughout the research process?
If so, this series of four free webinars is for you.

The topics are the following:

• Informed consent (27.09.2022)
• Data documentation (11.10.2022)
• Quantitative data anonymisation  (1.11.2022)
• Qualitative data anonymisation (22.11.2022)

The webinars are given by experts in the field at FORS. The participation is free, yet registration is required.

Further information and registration: https://forscenter.ch/data-management-webinar-series/

La reproductibilité et la transparence sont des principes importants de l’open science pour l’interprétation et la compréhension des résultats de recherche. Le nouveau service de réplication de FORS, disponible sur SWISSUbase, est une solution gratuite pour les journaux et les chercheuses et chercheurs afin de faciliter le partage des matériaux de réplication liés aux publications. Les matériaux de réplication sont entièrement citables par l’attribution d’un DOI et sous licence CC.

Comment déposer vos matériaux de réplication

FORS replication service

Pour toute question, vous pouvez contacter le service de données de FORS dataservice@fors.unil.ch

This Special Issue brings together a large variety of contributions dealing with the influence of issues and issue competition, the structure of attitudes towards immigration and international cooperation and a series of non-policy factors such as campaign consultants and the rise of female representation in Switzerland. In this introduction we place the contributions in the broader framework of current debates in the international literature and stress the substantial and methodological innovations of the articles. Last, we offer some more general thoughts on almost 30 years of Swiss electoral research taking stock of the historical development.

Special Issue:The Swiss National Elections 2019

Issue edited by: Nathalie Giger, Denise Traber, Anke Tresch in the Swiss Political Science Review.

We are looking for a Junior Scientific Collaborator (80-100%) to strengthen the team of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP).

_________________________________

Le FNS a approuvé le projet Swiss Direct Democracy in the 21st Century (SDD-21). Concrètement, il s’agit d’étudier l’influence des campagnes publicitaires et des médias numériques sur la mobilisation et la formation d’opinion des citoyennes et citoyens, ainsi que l’effet des conceptions morales individuelles et des connaissances politiques sur la décision de vote. Pour l’analyse, des données seront collectées à partir des enquêtes de suivi en ligne représentatives qui seront réalisées pendant la durée du projet pour chaque votation populaire fédérale. En outre, un panel à long terme sera constitué et des groupes de discussion seront organisés pour certaines votations.

Des politologues de huit universités suisses, le Liechtenstein-Institut et FORS participent au SDD-21. FORS sera responsable de la collecte des données.

Le projet doit non seulement contribuer à l’intégration de la recherche sur les votations en Suisse et à sa visibilité internationale, mais aussi créer les bases pour la mise en place d’une infrastructure de recherche à long terme sur le comportement de vote.

Requérant principal: Prof. Daniel Kübler (UZH) ; co-requérants : Prof. Anke Tresch (FORS/UNIL), Prof. Marc Bühlmann (UniBE), Prof. Denise Traber (UniBS), Dr. Lionel Marquis (UNIL).

Durée du projet : 1er février 2023 – 31 janvier 2027