This free online series of webinars introduces you to the context of open research data. Learn about the requirements of funders and journals with respect to data sharing, get a better understanding of the legal and ethical framework in which your research is embedded. The next and last webinar is on

• Archiving & data sharing (4.11.21)

This webinar takes place on November 4 and will be presented by Marieke Heers.

You will be introduced to the importance of data sharing and some key requirements to make data sharable, such as consent, documentation and anonymization. It will then present different solutions for data sharing and present in greater depth the new FORS online repository SWISSUbase. By the end of the workshop you will have a better understanding of the key data management practices needed in order to make your data sharable and the advantages of choosing SWISSUbase as your repository.

The webinar will take place online during lunch time (12-1 pm) and will consist in a 45-minute presentation, followed by 15 minutes for questions.

Further information and registration

The studies MOSAiCH and SHARE present results on the willingness to get vaccinated.
A new study using SHARE data reveals which factors influence the willingness for vaccination across Europe.

Consult the press release
Consult the scientific article

The following contribution in DeFACTO, based on the FORS COVID-19 MOSAiCH survey, focuses on issues around vaccination in Switzerland.

The willigness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Switzerland: Who wants it, who does not and why? by Gian-Andrea Monsch, Karin Nisple, Stephanie Steinmetz.
The German and French versions are published on the DeFacto platform.

Technical information on the FORS MOSAiCH COVID-19 survey

All information on the MOSAiCH survey including how to access the free data.

FORS (représentant la Suisse) a été élu par l’Assemblée générale de l’International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) pour assurer le secrétariat pendant le prochain mandat (2021-2024).

L’ISSP est un programme de collaboration internationale qui mène depuis trois décennies des enquêtes annuelles sur des thèmes importants de recherche en sciences sociales.  Créé en 1984, l’ISSP compte aujourd’hui une cinquantaine de pays membres dans le monde entier, couvrant de nombreuses cultures et langues. Comme les enquêtes sont répétées, elles peuvent être utilisées non seulement pour des comparaisons internationales, mais aussi pour des analyses de l’évolution dans le temps, ce qui permet de jeter les bases d’un large éventail de recherches substantielles et méthodologiques.

L’ISSP est organisée en association, les pays membres assument à tour de rôle les diverses activités d’organisation et d’élaboration de contenu. Le secrétariat est nommé pour une période de 3 ans (renouvelable une fois) et assure toutes les fonctions d’organisation et de coordination du programme.

Le secrétariat de l’ISSP sera géré à FORS par la Prof. Stephanie Steinmetz et la Dr. Marlène Sapin.

De plus amples informations sur l’ISSP sont disponibles ici : www.issp.org.
En Suisse, les modules de l’ISSP sont collectés dans le cadre du projet MOSAiCH : www./forscenter.ch/mosaich

Sandrine Morel from the University of Lausanne has created a new household typology that takes account of the diversity in Swiss families (single parents, unmarried parents, blended families). The new variable identifies whether children are from the current relationship, a previous relationship, or from both.

You can use the syntax for the year 2018 (wave 20) or adapt it to your needs. Find the new family typology here (constructed variables > family typology).

Un nouvel ensemble de données cumulées MOSAiCH COVID-19, comprenant les trois vagues du panel COVID-19 menées du printemps 2020 au printemps 2021, est désormais disponible sur FORSbase. Ce jeu de données mesure l’impact de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur la société en Suisse :

https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17243/0/

Toutes les informations sur l’enquête MOSAiCH COVID-19 se trouvent ici.

Toutes les informations sont disponibles ici : https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17516/1/

L’édition 2020 de MOSAiCH est construite autour du module « Environnement IV » de l’International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). C’est la quatrième fois que ce module de l’ISSP portant sur l’environnement est répété (1993, 2000, 2010, 2020). Il est complété par des questions socio-démographiques sélectionnées, ainsi que par un module composé de questions spécifiques à la Suisse et un supplément COVID-19.

Mandated by the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO), FORS and the HETSL have published a report on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the semi-lockdown in spring 2020 on the living conditions of households in Switzerland. Based on the Swiss Household Panel data, the report shows that social inequality has increased in some respects: Low-income families had a higher risk of running into financial problems and many of them had to draw on their savings, scale down their standard of living or apply for social assistance.

For more information download the report here or contact Philipp Dubach by email: philipp.dubach@bsv.admin.ch.

FORS est ravi que le professeur Peter Farago, Directeur fondateur de FORS, ait été élu nouveau membre honoraire par l’Assemblée des délégué·e·s de l’Académie suisse des sciences humaines et sociales (ASSH).

Peter Farago est élu membre d’honneur, en reconnaissance de sa contribution décisive au développement de la recherche sociale empirique en Suisse et pour son remarquable engagement pour la mise sur pied du Centre de compétences suisse en sciences sociales FORS. Peter Farago, professeur émérite de l’Université de Lausanne, a dirigé jusqu’à sa retraite en 2016 le Centre FORS basé auprès de cette même université. Dans les années 1990 il a notamment été à la tête de « Demain la Suisse », le plus vaste programme de recherche en sciences sociales jamais réalisé en Suisse, grâce auquel les sciences sociales ont été revitalisées dans les universités. Ce programme a été lancé sur une initiative du « Club SOWI », qui a été constitué de manière informelle par les président·e·s de certaines sociétés membres de l’ASSH du domaine des sciences politiques, de la sociologie, de la psychologie et des sciences de l’éducation. Peter Farago s’engage encore aujourd’hui pour le développement de la méthodologie dans les sciences sociales empiriques.

Source et lire la suite

When: June 10, 2021
Where: Online on zoom

This edition will include thematic sessions that cover a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, families, migration, or politics and attitudes. We also welcome a special session organized by TREE as well as by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

Scientific programme

The EVS Trend File 1981-2017 is constructed from the five EVS waves and covers almost 40 years. In altogether 159 surveys, more than 223.000 respondents from 48 countries/regions were interviewed.

It is based on the updated data of the EVS Longitudinal Data File 1981-2008 (v.3.1.0) and the current EVS 2017 Integrated Dataset (v.4.0.0). The Trend File follows a new concept agreed between EVS and WVS to transfer their large longitudinal data files into leaner and easier to handle files based on the Common EVS/WVS Dictionary (v.2021). The next release is planned in cooperation with the World Value Survey (WVS) for the beginning of July 2021. From these new Trend files, it will be easy for data users to build the Integrated Values Surveys 1981-2021. For more information, please go to the EVS Trend File 1981-2017.

The data and documentation are accessible through the GESIS data collection at GESIS- Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The ISSP team at the GESIS Data Archive is glad to announce the publication of the first partial data release of ISSP 2019 Social Inequality V (ZA7600_v1.0.0), including data from Switzerland and 14 other countries.

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

In March 2021, SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe celebrated its 10th anniversary as the first European Research Infrastructure Consortium ever. SHARE has set new standards in research and scientific data collection: Over the years, it built an operative infrastructure with research teams in 27 European countries and Israel. One of these research teams is SHARE Switzerland that managed by FORS and the University of Lausanne.

The survey’s large-scale design has encouraged the SHARE team to come up with constant conceptual improvements, bearing plenty innovations in the fields of methodology. Furthermore, SHARE data enabled researchers all over the world to practice in-depth and topical research in a variety of research fields, from biology to demography, economics, epidemiology, gerontology, medicine, psychology, public health, sociology, and more. To date, more than 12,000 researchers in 75 countries are working with SHARE data and have produced more than 3,000 SHARE-based publications. The number of publications and users are steadily increasing. In 2020, SHARE registered one new publication every day on average. Research based on SHARE data can be used as a valuable tool for evidence-based policy making – among others – for the European Commission, the OECD, the WHO and several national governments.

SHARE-based research over the past 10 years. A summary.

For more information and the main milestones, have a look at this page.

Nous sommes heureux de vous présenter notre Rapport annuel 2020. Il présente nos recherches méthodologiques en sciences sociales, nos services d’information de données et de recherche, nos programmes de collaboration scientifique et nos publications. Le rapport résume également toutes les activités liées à nos enquêtes et mentionne en outre toutes les études et enquêtes menées par le groupe Data Collection & Analysis.

Le Rapport annuel 2020

Nous invitons les chercheuses et chercheurs à proposer des questions pour l’enquête qui suivra le module ISSP 2022 portant sur la famille et les rôles homme-femme. 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 2022 et les données seront disponibles début 2023. Le délai de soumission est fixé au lundi 26 avril 2021.

Vous trouverez de plus amples informations dans le call MOSAiCH 2022 ou sur la page web MOSAiCH.

The 21st wave of the SHP data is now available. Check out the SHP_I data for the years 1999-2019, the SHP_II data for the years 2004-2019, the SHP_III data for the years 2013-2019 as well as additional data such as imputed income, wealth, and CNEF data. 

We strongly recommend that all users, also those who analyze previous waves, download the newest release as we constantly improve the quality of our data. You will also find the Covid-19 data; an intermediate wave conducted during spring 2020 with many repeated measures as well as new variables related to the pandemic.

See https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17411/1/.

The Swiss Covid-19 Data Symposium organised by FORS will give social science researchers an overview of different Swiss datasets that can be analyzed to assess the impact of the Covid-19-pandemic on numerous aspects of individuals’ everyday lives.

COVID-19 data from the following surveys and studies are presented: MOSAiCH, Swiss Corona Stress Study, Selects, Swiss Household Panel, COVID-19 Social Monitor ZHAW, SHARE and the COVID-19 Edition of the Science Barometer Switzerland.

Researchers also get the chance to talk to the producers of the data and ask detailed questions. The event takes place online and all presentations are held in English.

All detailed information on the COVID-19 data, the surveys, studies and presenters and the registration are to be found on the Symposium website.

The event is organised by FORS.

Registration

Questions regarding the organisation: info@forscenter.ch
Questions regarding the content of the symposium: Dr Marieke Heers

The Selects team has now added data from wave 4 to the Selects 2019 Panel Survey. Data from wave 4 was collected between September 28, 2020 and November 2, 2020.

https://forsbase.unil.ch/datasets/dataset-public-detail/17396/2250/

All data from Selects 2019 can be found here :

https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17396/2250/

Information on Selects:

The Swiss Election Study (Selects) has been investigating the electoral behaviour of Swiss citizens in national elections since 1995. The project sheds light on the dynamics of the citizens’ opinion formation as well as on the determinants of their political participation and voting choice for a specific candidate or party.

More information on www.selects.ch

One of the primary aims of Selects has been to systematically combine the new survey data with data collected by its precursor research projects. The product of these efforts is presented here: A pooled set of Swiss election survey data which covers the period between 1971 and 2019 and includes most of the variables that have been included at least twice in the data collections.

Cumulative Selects dataset: https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17384/0/

Election Surveys Used:

All the available Swiss election surveys were used to build up this database. Each of them is separately archived and documented at DARISS:

Political Attitudes and Behaviour in Switzerland 1971/72, conducted by the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/13036/0/)
Political Attitudes in Switzerland 1975 (Political Action), conducted by the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/10710/0/)
National and Federal Council Elections 1979, conducted by the Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, on behalf of the Tages Anzeiger (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/2551/0/)
National Elections 1987 (VOX), conducted by the Research Center for Swiss Politics, University of Bern, and GfS
National Elections 1991 (VOX), conducted by the Research Center for Swiss Politics, University of Bern, and GfS
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 1995: Post-Election Survey, conducted by the Departments of Political Science, Universities of Bern, Geneva, and Zurich (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/1993/0/)
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 1999: Post-Election Survey, conducted by the Departments of Political Science, Universities of Bern, Geneva, and Zurich (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/5937/0/)
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2003: Post-Election Survey, conducted by the Departments of Political Science, Universities of Bern, Geneva, St. Gall, and Zurich, DARIS and OVP/USTAT (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/11328/0/)
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2007: Post-Election Survey, conducted by the Departments of Political Science, Universities of Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, St. Gall, and Zurich, FORS, OVP/USTAT, FSO and the Federal Chancellery (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/8436/0/)
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2011: Post-Election Survey, conducted by FORS (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/12631/0/)
Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2015: Post-Election Survey, conducted by FORS (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/13882/0/)
Swiss Election Study (Selects) 2019: Post-Election Survey, conducted by FORS (see https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/16968/0/)

Measuring party affiliation (FORS Guide N°12), Georg Lutz, Lukas Lauener

Party affiliation is a key concept used in many social science surveys. To measure such affiliations, one can either ask about previous, current or future voting behavior, about party identification or about party proximity. Moreover, there are questions that ask about an evaluation of different parties simultaneously. This guide provides an overview of the different concepts to measure party affiliation, shows examples of their use in Swiss surveys and outlines the implications for researchers who have to choose among them.

Preparation of survey data (FORS Guide N°13), Alexandre Pollien, Jessica M. E. Herzing, Erika Antal

This guide focuses on the data preparation phase, which starts after data collection and ends before their analysis. This first assessment of the “raw” survey data is crucial since data preparation can affect the quality of the data in a positive or negative way. After an overview of the different types of errors, the guide discusses the remedies and issues related to these editing procedures.

Le jeu de données cumulatif  VOTO contient toutes les 13 enquêtes VOTO, y compris toutes les dates et tous les objets de votations. Les chercheuses et chercheurs peuvent accéder gratuitement à toutes les données sur https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/17219/0/.

Le projet de recherche VOTO a examiné les motivations de la participation et les décisions des électeurs suisses après chaque votation populaire fédérale de septembre 2016 à septembre 2020. Tous les rapports d’analyse ont été publiés sur www.voto.swiss. Les données anonymisées sont maintenant disponibles pour des analyses secondaires.

La Chancellerie fédérale a chargé FORS, le Centre pour la démocratie Aarau et l’institut de sondage LINK de mener les enquêtes VOTO de septembre 2016 à septembre 2020. De plus amples informations et tous les rapports de VOTO sont disponibles à l’adresse suivante : https://www.voto.swiss/

Sequentially mixing modes in an election survey

Authors: Oliver Lipps and Nicolas Pekari (FORS)

In this paper, the authors analyze to what extent a sequential mixed mode survey, consisting of push-to-web, telephone and mail-paper modes, is able to improve representativeness in terms of socio-demographic variables and reduce bias in terms of voting behavior compared to a single mode survey. In addition, they study whether changes in mode lead to measurement error issues by focusing on income. They find that adding the telephone mode improves sample representation in terms of socio-demographic variables. Meanwhile, adding the paper mode does not show further improvements in this respect. However, adding the telephone, and in particular the paper mode, turn out to reduce bias in voting behavior when compared to official figures. As for measuring income, the web and the telephone mode perform similarly well. Finally, they find little evidence of measurement differences of income when the same respondents are interviewed first by web or telephone and subsequently by paper questionnaire.

The FORS Working Paper series presents findings related to survey research, focusing on methodological aspects of survey research or substantive research. Manuscripts submitted are papers that represent work-in-progress. This series is intended to provide an early and relatively fast means of publication prior to further development of the work.  A revised version might be requested from the author directly. Further information on the FORS Working Paper Series can be found on https://forscenter.ch/publications/working-papers/

The ISSP team at the GESIS Data Archive is glad to announce the final publication of the ISSP 2018 data on Religion IV, including data from 33 countries across the world. The full set of documentation on this release can be found at:

 https://www.gesis.org/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/religion/2018

Together with the international ISSP 2018 data set comes the data of “A cross-national and comparative study of religion” in additional 14 Asian and African countries based on the ISSP questionnaire. Overview information on the project (chaired by NORC) can be found at:

https://www.gesis.org/en/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/religion/2018/2018-additional-14-countries

Both data sets together enable cross-national comparisons of ISSP Religion 2018 data with 47 countries.

Robin Tillmann, Monica Budowski, Dean R. Lillard, and Annette Scherpenzeel published a special issue in the Swiss Journal of Sociology in celebration of 20 years of the Swiss Household Panel. After an introduction to the history, the design and the content of the Swiss Household Panel, nine contributions from different fields shed light on social change in Switzerland over the last two decades.

All details and access to the content: https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/sjs/sjs-overview.xml?language=en&tab_body=latestIssueToc-79128.