The Methods and Research meetings are a joint seminar series of SSP (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, UNIL) and FORS (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences, Lausanne). The meetings are a platform where members of SSP and FORS as well as guest speakers present their research.

They are open for the public and take place online:

Check out the programme 2020-21 of the Methods and research meetings.

Detailed information on the Methods and research meetings

FORS makes an important contribution to the evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on the Swiss population. Questions on COVID-19 were included in various FORS surveys and then made available to researchers in Switzerland.

One survey is MOSAiCH, which this year was devoted to the theme of environment and climate. MOSAiCH is conducted in two parts. The second part contained questions about COVID-19 and the actions taken by the Confederation. In addition to some policy questions, the effects on well-being, work status and family/work compatibility were studied. The questionnaire was completed by just over 2,000 people between the end of April and the end of May.

Results of the MOSAiCH survey, summarized in factsheets

The following factsheets are avaiable in German and French:

Well-being and worries during the lockdown. Factsheet N°1.

Policy, fundamental rights and environmental concerns during the lockdown, Factsheet N°2.

Work situation during the lockdown. Factsheet N°3.

Reconciling family and career during the lockdown. Factsheet N°4.

The factsheets in German

The factsheets in French

The ISSP team at the GESIS Data Archive is glad to announce the publication of a second partial data release of the ISSP 2018 on Religion IV, including data from 33 countries across the world. The final release, with additional countries and the full set of documentation, will be published in the Autumn.

An overview information on this release can be found at: https://www.gesis.org/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/religion/2018

Data from Swiss Household Panel wave 21 and Cohort wave 7 are available on request (swisspanel@fors.unil.ch). For these waves, the standard questionnaire were used as well as the two rotating modules social networks and leisure and culture.

Please note that the beta-version does not contain constructed variables and weights.

FORS makes it possible for researchers in Switzerland to have access to LIS data and services.

The LIS: Cross-National Data CenterLuxembourg announces the launch of DART – the new LIS data visualisation tool.
DART is a powerful web-based interactive tool that allows users to select and visualise income and wealth indicators, countries, and time periods, and to decompose them by a multitude of individual and household characteristics, all based on the LIS harmonised databases.
With the launch of DART, LIS breaks new ground with data provision, as a broader base of users, including scholars, journalists, teachers, NGO staff, other analysts, and the general public, will be able to easily obtain and visualize a rich array of income and wealth indicators disaggregated across several dimensions.

DART Main Features

• Richness of overtime and cross-county inequality measures disaggregated by different social strata.
• No prior knowledge of statistical packages or coding skills required.
• Visualisation of data through different charting types (Trends, Scatter plots, Distributions, and Maps).
• Table format display of the aggregated data used to generate the plotted graph(s).
• Export of all the graphs/tables produced in pdf and excel formats.

ACCESS to DART

For more information about DART, see here.

For more information about the list of aggregates, indicators, and decompositions, see here.

For more information on the methodology, view the methodological note.

You can read the report online. The report is written in German, French and Italian.

https://forscenter.ch/selects_reports/slc-2020-00001 (German)

https://forscenter.ch/selects_reports/slc-2020-00002 (French)

https://forscenter.ch/selects_reports/slc-2020-00003 (Italian)

Authors: Tresch, Anke, Lauener, Lukas, Bernhard, Laurent, Lutz, Georg und Laura Scaperrotta (2020). Eidgenössische Wahlen 2019. Wahlteilnahme und Wahlentscheid [Swiss Federal Elections 2019. Turnout and vote choice]. FORS-Lausanne.

Selected results and a press release can be found on the website of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The Swiss Election Study Selects

The Swiss Election Study Selects has been investigating turnout and electoral behaviour in federal elections since 1995. In order to gain a better understanding of how citizens form their opinions and decide whom to vote for, Selects also collects data on media coverage and candidates’ campaign activities. Selects is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and conducted by FORS in Lausanne. 

Data

As part of Selects, comprehensive surveys were carried out for the 2019 elections:

• Post-election survey of 6,664 citizens
• Three-wave panel survey of the same individuals, before and after the elections, with 5,000 to 8,000 survey participants per wave
• Survey of 2,158 candidates for the National Council and the Council of States
• Media study: content analysis of 87 traditional (print and online) media as well as of candidates’ social media accounts (Twitter and Facebook)

All datasets are documented and freely available for scientific purposes from FORS.

Lijphart/Przworski/Verba Dataset Award

The European Social Survey (ESS) has been chosen as the winner of the Lijphart/Przworski/Verba (LPV) Dataset Award 2020. Chosen by the Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) for the best dataset in comparative politics, the award is a significant honour for everyone involved with the ESS.

Check this news on the ESS website

Questions on COVID-19 were included in various FORS surveys and then made available to researchers in Switzerland.

One is SHARE, the survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In Switzerland, SHARE is run jointly by FORS and the University of Lausanne. At the request of the European Commission, a telephone survey investigating the impact of the epidemic among SHARE respondents was set up. Data collection started in early June and will last until the end of July. A first set of questions concerns the impact of the epidemic on physical health, mental health, medical follow-up and compliance with health measures. A second aspect concerns the impact of the epidemic on employment, working conditions and the financial situation. And a final component investigates the impact of the epidemic on social contacts and social support. These data may be linked to other data collected in the framework of SHARE and will be made available to the scientific community at the beginning of 2021.

Another survey is MOSAiCH. The MOSAiCH survey, which this year was devoted to the theme of environment and climate, is conducted in two parts. The second part contained questions about COVID-19 and the actions taken by the Confederation. In addition to some policy questions, the effects on well-being, work status and family/work compatibility were studied. The questionnaire was completed by just over 2,000 people between the end of April and the end of May. The first results should be presented in July 2020.

The Swiss Household Panel has also launched a special wave to assess living conditions during COVID-19. Thanks to this intermediate measuring point, the SHP will offer a unique opportunity to observe the impact of this period on the daily life of the Swiss population. The additional wave focuses on well-being and health, changes in work and financial situation, time use, family and social life. The survey is currently in the field and has had a very successful start in terms of response rates.

The second edition of data and documentation for Round 9 of the European Social Survey (ESS) has now been published.

The first edition of our Round 9 dataset – published in October 2019 – included survey responses collected from 19 countries during late 2018 and 2019. This included data from: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In this second edition, data and documentation for an additional eight countries has been added: Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Many of these countries have participated in the ESS after missing some rounds. In addition Montenegro participated for the first time.

This newest release of data and documentation also includes post-stratification weights (PSPWGHT) for all countries.

With the addition of these eight countries, it means that the integrated ESS9 file now includes data for 27 countries.

In addition to the core questionnaire two topics were covered in Round 9 specifically – questions were asked on the timing of life events (repeated from Round 3, 2006/07) and justice and fairness, in the context of income.

The data can be analysed on-line or downloaded from our website https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/round-index.html

Data anonymisation: legal, ethical, and strategic considerations (FORS Guide N°11)

Data anonymisation or pseudonymization? How to craft a coherent anonymization strategy compliant with legal requirements and ethical norms? Drawing on the Swiss context, this Guide illustrates key considerations in crafting a coherent anonymization strategy that is compliant with legal requirements and ethical norms. It shows how to strike the right balance between anonymization and other data protection measures, namely informed consent and access control, given the nature of a project’s data and their anticipated use. This guide is written by FORS researchers Dr. Brian Kleiner and Dr. Alexandra Stam.

All FORS Guides to survey methods or data management are available for free on our website. They are written by experts inside and outside of FORS and offer practical knowledge for researchers and students of social sciences.

We are happy to announce the publication of the latest special issue entitled Fieldwork Monitoring Strategies for Interviewer-Administered Surveys. 

Edited by Katharina Meitinger, Daniela Ackermann-Piek, Michael Blohm, Brad Edwards, Tobias Gummer & Henning Silber

The special issue is published in the free online journal Survey Methods: Insights from the field.

Open access: Special issue: Fieldwork Monitoring Strategies.

This special issue spotlights the lessons learned when working with different fieldwork monitoring strategies in various settings. It provides a platform to share valuable best practice knowledge and provides insights on which fieldwork strategies and tools are employed in the field.

Survey Methods: Insights from the Field is a peer-reviewed online journal. Its goal is to promote professional exchange on practical survey research issues and discussion on new and promising paths in survey research. The journal is edited jointly by FORS, GESIS and PUMA and supported by a multi-national panel of Associate Editors, an Advisory Board and an Editorial Board.

The 24th Summer School in Social Science Methods will take place in Lugano on 14-28 August, 2020.

The Summer School in Social Science Methods has been conceived for those who feel the need to refresh, deepen and widen their methodological knowledge and skills, whatever their professional situation: student, researcher or practitioner.

Given the COVID-19 situation, the summer school will take place as foreseen in Lugano, with the option of attending the courses at distance for those who cannot travel. Should the situation require it, the summer school will also be able switch to remote mode.

The following workshops are confirmed:

Preliminary workshop (14. – 15.08.2020)
E. Horber – SPSS and Statistics Refresher
S. Kernbach – Visual Thinking for (PhD) researchers

Week 1 (17 – 21.08.2020)
E. Horber – Quantitative methods for Social Research
M. Bergman – Qualitative Interviewing

Registration and all other workshops!

For your next research project, consider pre-registration as a push to be clear and precise about your research plan.

The new practical FORS GUIDE to data management written by FORS collaborator Marieke Heers entitled Pre-registration and registered reports

shows that pre-registration is increasingly advocated to improve the credibility and rigor of empirical research.

Pre-registration and registered reports (FORS Guide N°09), Marieke Heers

All FORS Guides to survey methods or data management are available for free on our website. They are written by experts inside and outside of FORS and offer practical knowledge for researchers and students of social sciences.

The Annual Report 2019 showcases our research in social sciences, our data services, collaboration programs and publications. The report further summarizes all of the activities associated with our surveys.

The report includes a foreword from the FORS Director Prof. Georg Lutz on the Swiss Research Data Infrastructure.

FORS Annual Report 2019

We are happy to announce the release of the new SHP data. Wave 20 and the data of the pilot study for the forthcoming refreshment sample of the SHP are now available on FORSbase!

In collaboration with the NCCR LIVES we also release the new wave of the LIVES FORS Cohort Survey as well as the data of the additional SHP Vaud sample, a conjoint project of the Department of Health and Social Action of the canton of Vaud, the NCCR LIVES and the SHP.

Follow the links below to access the data:

Swiss Household Panel https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/16898/0/

Swiss Household Panel additional Vaud sample https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/16880/0/

LIVES FORS Cohort Survey https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/16900/0/

Swiss Household Panel – Pilot SHP_IV https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/16879/0/

In view of the Coronavirus pandemic and the exceptional measures taken by the cantonal governments and the Federal Council, we inform you about the following:

FORS remains operational and we are responding to your requests.
FORS has implemented home office in order to comply with all the measures in force.
Our data service continues without interruption. We continue to accept the deposit of your data files via FORSbase.

In a recently published article based on data from the Swiss Household Panel, Caroline Fischer and Carina Schott try to understand why people enter and stay in public service careers. It is crucial to know why individuals engage in public sector jobs, as labour shortage in the public sector is expected in Switzerland and in many other European countries.

Their results show that parental socialization is a strong predictor of public sector choice and that people with parents working in the public sector tend to stay longer in these jobs. In contrast to the authors’ hypotheses, political interest is neither a good independent predictor nor serves as a mediator to understand such a career choice. Consequently, the authors advice is not to focus on applicants’ interest in politics in the recruitment process but to stimulate public service motivation after job entry.

Image: Copyright CDC on Unsplash

In October 2019, the General Assembly of the European Social Survey (ESS) has appointed Professor Caroline Roberts from the University of Lausanne and FORS to serve on the ESS Methods Advisory Board.

We are delighted to announce that Caroline Roberts has now been elected as Chair of the ESS ERIC Methods Advisory Board.

The Methods Advisory Board of the ESS is involved in the design of the core questionnaire consultation with ESS data users and was integral in the implementation of a fieldwork management system during survey data collection.

Effects of topic distribution and topic importance on interest and follow-up response

Authors: Oliver Lipps and Alexandre Pollien (FORS)

Nº 2019-2

Effects of topic distribution and topic importance on interest and follow-up response

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 www.forscenter.ch.

The first edition of European Social Survey (ESS) Round 9 data was published on October 31, 2019.

Data included in this initial release was collected during late 2018 and early 2019 in 19 countries, including Switzerland:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Survey data collected in this round includes two rotating modules: on the timing of life events (repeated from Round 3, 2006) and a new module on justice and fairness, in the context of respondents’ income. The questionnaire also includes regular ESS questions on: media and social trust, politics, subjective well-being, social exclusion, religion, national and ethnic identity, the human values scale and a wide range of socio-demographic measures.

READ MORE >>

FORS is proud to present SWISSUbase and linkhub.ch at the Swiss Open Science Action Plan Kick-Off Forum. The event is organised by swissuniversities and takes place on October 17, 2019 at the Forum Rolex (EPFL). We are invited to present a poster outlining our vision for Open data in Switzerland and our projects in this area. SWISSUbase will offer a solution for the long-term preservation and accessibility of research data to the universities in Switzerland and has therefore the potential to boost the implementation of Open data.

For registration and programme visit the website of the event.

Image:  ID 149505197 © Profitimage / Dreamtime

Based on the Swiss Household Panel, Jehane Simona-Moussa and Laura Ravazzini explored how the dot-com crisis and the Great Recession affected vulnerable people in Switzerland. As such, the authors looked at migrants, unemployed people, low-educated individuals, single parents, large families, young people and solo self-employed. Studying both objective and subjective indicators, results suggest that the dot-com crisis had a stronger negative effect on vulnerable groups than the Great Recession. This was particularly the case for single parents and large families. Whereas they were amongst the most affected by the dot-com crisis, their condition improved during the Great Recession. Find all the results here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-018-1957-5

Image: Dreamtime

Call for rotating modules

The call for teams of academics to apply to field questions in Round 11 (2022/23) of the ESS has been published. Each rotating module covers a single academic and/or policy concern within Europe and is primarily drafted by an external cross-national team whose proposal is chosen by the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) following an open competition. Deadline for Step 1 is 17 January 2020. The selection process will be completed by July 2020, with work on the chosen Round 11 rotating modules due to begin in September 2020.

http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/methodology/ess_methodology/source_questionnaire/call_for_proposals.html

Le 20 octobre, les citoyens suisses éliront leur nouveau Parlement. Qui vote, avec quelle régularité, pour quel parti, sous l’influence de quels paramètres ? L’analyse de Georg Lutz.

Réponses dans le dernier Allez savoir ! le magazine de l’Université de Lausanne.

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Les chiffres cités dans l’article sont tirés de SELECTS 2016.