Check out our latest guides on survey methods and data management written by our experts at FORS.

Our latest guides discuss the topic of data protection in connection with legal considerations for research in Switzerland, the notion of replication in the social sciences and the idea representativeness of surveys and its analysis.

Representativeness of surveys and its analysis (FORS Guide N°15), Michael Ochsner

Replication in the social sciences (FORS Guide N°16), Marieke Heers

Data protection: legal considerations for research in Switzerland (FORS Guide N°17), Pablo Diaz

All FORS Guides can be consulted here: https://forscenter.ch/publications/fors-guides/

After the success of the first edition, FORS and SWITCH are organising again the virtual Open Research Data (ORD) Hackathon between May 3-5, 2022 to strengthen collaboration around ORD. We aim to bring the research community together to share ideas and pave the way for innovative projects and applications to improve the ORD landscape.

Submit your ideas now and no later than April 14, 2022 and register here.

All information: https://www.ord-hackathon.ch/

Developers, students, academics and service providers from Switzerland and beyond…you are in the right place to innovate, expand your network and use your skills creatively !

Contact: info@ord-hackathon.ch

The hackathon will take place in Zürich (Switch, Werdstrasse 2).

Timeline:

Supported by:

MOSAiCH 2023 – Call for question contributions

We hereby invite scholars to propose questions for the follow-up survey administered after the ISSP 2023 module on “National Identity and Citizenship”. Proposals will be selected according to their scientific quality, thematic relevance and survey applicability. Successful proposals will be fielded in spring 2023 and data will be available early 2024. The deadline for submissions is Monday April 25^th 2022.

Further information and documentation can be found in this document.

Published in the Journal of Economics and Statistics in 2021, Robin Tillmann and colleagues describe the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) as an ongoing, unique, large-scale, nationally representative, longitudinal study in Switzerland (N = 9828 households and N = 15,882 persons interviewed in 2020). Collecting data on households and individuals since 1999, the SHP aims to provide both continuity and innovation in measurement and data collection. Examples of innovation are the combination of retrospective and prospective longitudinal data, the combination of survey modes notably in refreshment samples and additional studies oversampling specific population groups.

This article provides an overview of the SHP – focusing on the survey’s key design features, content, data collection and adjustments, possibilities for cross-national comparisons, data use and accomplishments. Read more.

On December 3, 50 researchers discussed the advantages and challenges of implementing the Generations and Gender Program (GGP, (https://www.ggp-i.org) in Switzerland as part of the SWISS RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES ROADMAP 2023. The proposal for GGP implementation is currently prepared by a team of researchers at the University of Lausanne in collaboration with the Swiss Center of Expertise in Social Sciences (FORS).

Support letter

To show that this endeavor is relevant to the whole Swiss research community, your support is of utmost importance.

We therefore ask you to sign the following support letter which will be attached to the Swiss GGP application: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dtpQO4DhGROSNB5czXY-q5av-P8cBRGI/edit

Deadline: Early January 2022

Detailed information on the GGP program and the presentation slides of the December 3 event:

https://forscenter.ch/generations-gender-programme/

 

The ISSP is glad to announce the publication of a second partial data release of the ISSP 2019 Social Inequality V (ZA7600_v2.0.0), including data from Switzerland and 21 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

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

CESSDA is seeking qualified candidates for the full-time position of Director, starting in March 2022.

Director of CESSDA

The director is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Scientific Officer and legal representative of CESSDA ERIC, leading the team and organisation.

Find out more about the position:

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 (representing Switzerland) was elected by the General Assembly of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) to provide the secretariat for the next term (2021-2024).

The International Social Survey Programme is a cross-national collaboration programme that has been conducting annual surveys on topics relevant to social science research for three decades. Established in 1984, the ISSP has grown to about 50 members from around the world and covers many cultures and languages. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both cross-national and cross-time comparisons laying the base for a vast range of substantial and methodological research.

As a member-led association, the participating countries take on the various organizational and content-related activities of the programme on a rotating basis. The secretariat is appointed for a period of 3 years (renewable once) and handles all organizational and coordination functions of the programme.

The ISSP Secretariat will be headed at FORS by Prof. Stephanie Steinmetz and Dr. Marlène Sapin.

Find more information about the ISSP here: www.issp.org
In Switzerland, the ISSP modules are fielded as part of the MOSAiCH project: 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).

A new cumulated MOSAiCH COVID-19 dataset, including the three COVID-19 panel waves fielded from spring 2020 to spring 2021, is now available on FORSbase. The dataset provides insights into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on society in Switzerland:

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

All information on the MOSAiCH COVID-19 survey can be found here.

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 is delighted that Professor Peter Farago, Founding Director of FORS, has been elected as new honorary member by the Assembly of Delegates of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS).

Peter Farago became honorary member in recognition of his decisive contribution to the development of empirical social research in Switzerland and for his outstanding commitment to the establishment of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences FORS. Peter Farago, professor emeritus at the University of Lausanne, headed the FORS Centre based at the same university until his retirement in 2016. In the 1990s, he led the largest social science research programme ever conducted in Switzerland, “Demain la Suisse”, which revitalised the social sciences at the universities. This programme was launched on the initiative of the “SOWI Club”, which was informally formed by the presidents of some of the member societies of the SAHS in the fields of political science, sociology, psychology and education. Peter Farago is still committed to the development of methodology in the empirical social sciences.

Source and further reading

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.

We are happy to present our Annual Report 2020. It showcases our methodological research in the social sciences, our data and research information services, scientific collaboration programs and publications. The report further summarizes all of the activities associated with our surveys and further mentions all the studies and surveys conducted by the Data Collection & Analysis group at FORS.

Annual Report 2020

We hereby invite scholars to propose questions for the follow-up survey administered after the ISSP 2022 module on “Family and Changing Gender Roles”. Proposals will be selected according to their scientific quality, thematic relevance and survey applicability. Successful proposals will be fielded in spring 2022 and data will be available early 2023. The deadline for submissions is Monday April 26^, 2021.

Further information and documentation can be found in the CALL MOSAiCH 2022  or on our webpage https://forscenter.ch/projects/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.