SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, is a research infrastructure for studying the effects of health, social, economic and environmental policies over the life-course of European citizens and beyond. In Switzerland, SHARE is conducted by FORS and the University of Lausanne.

In its SHARE-ERIC Council Meeting on 17 May 2022, the members of the SHARE-ERIC Council therefore unanimously adopted the decision to extend the duration of SHARE-ERIC beyond 2024.

Foundation for the Council’s decision and a first step to long-term sustainability was the creation of the SHARE Berlin Institute  in March 2022, which will house the international coordination of SHARE. Both processes – the move of SHARE from Munich to Berlin with the founding of the SHARE Berlin Institute and the continuation of SHARE-ERIC beyond 2024 – are key steps to sustain the SHARE research infrastructure.

Read the entire press release: http://www.share-project.org/home0/news/article/share-becomes-long-term.html

Are you currently working with social science data you got from FORS? Or are you planning to do so in the next few months? Then consider submitting your paper to the FORS Data Re-use Award 2022 and get the chance to win up to 1’000 CHF.

The Award will be given to young researchers who carry out excellent research that is based on secondary data from SWISSUbase.

The deadline for submission is October 1, 2022.

Further information: https://forscenter.ch/fors-data-reuse-award-2022/

Lamprecht & Stamm conducted a study on the impact of the pandemic on volunteering on behalf of the Migros Culture Percentage and with data from the FORS COVID19-MOSAiCH study.

People who volunteer have weathered the pandemic better in several ways than those who do not do any volunteering. Although not every person who volunteers is more trusting of political and social institutions, they are more satisfied with their lives, receive more social support, are less socially isolated and suffer fewer bouts of depression.

More information on the study

The summary of the study

Further information on the MOSAiCH survey.

The next SHP workshop entitled “Panel Event Designs and Panel Regression Models” will take place in Lausanne on June 7-9, 2022. Dr. Marco Giesselmann from the University of Zurich will introduce you to Panel Event Designs, Fixed Effects and Multilevel Analysis.

Participation in this workshop costs 200.- CHF.

The SHP-team will also give an introduction to the Swiss Household Paneldata on June 10 2022: “The Swiss Household Panel: an introduction to the survey and data management with SPSS”. We will present the structure of the SHP and the organization of the SHP data files. In hands-on sessions, we will construct several data files that are helpful for the analysis of SHP data.

Participation in this workshop is free of charge.

You will find more information and the prerequisites here:

https://forscenter.ch/shp-methodological-workshop/

The registration is now open online via the following link:

Please note that the number of participants is limited to guarantee optimal learning and teaching conditions. The application deadline is May 31, 2022.

The SWISS Houshold Panel SHP has just published wave 22.

You can find all the data sets on our platform SWISSUbase (Living in Switzerland Waves 1-22 + Covid 19 data).

Wave 22 contains the two modules Social participation and Political behavior and values and three new questions on feelings towards LGBTIQ+ individuals.

Data access

You can access the new data here: https://doi.org/10.48573/h4k0-2g41

The 2021 Annual Report showcases our research, our data services, infrastructure and collaboration programs and publications. The report also summarize all of the activities associated with our national and international surveys.

In the editorial of the report, FORS Director, Prof. Georg Lutz, highlights the fact that research infrastructures are becoming increasingly important to enable and facilitate research and that FORS rightly contributes to the construction, connection and operation of research infrastructures in a variety of ways.

Consult the FORS Annual Report 2021.

SWISSUbase, the new research data service for the archiving and sharing of research data was launched for the social sciences community on December 14, 2021. FAIR compliant, SWISSUbase provides archiving aligned with international standards; multi-lingual search capability; connectivity with European Research Infrastructures such as CESSDA for the social sciences; and support and consultation for data management and sharing.

SWISSUbase replaces the original FORSbase for the social sciences and will be expanded to include additional disciplines. The objective of SWISSUbase is to ensure that research data and metadata across different disciplines are preserved and accessible for the long-term.

Explore accessing and depositing data on SWISSUbase.

To receive more news and updates on SWISSUbase, you can subscribe directly on your SWISSUbase account profile.

For more information, contact support@swissubase.ch

Save the date ! A live webinar will take place on March 31 (1-2 pm) to present SWISSUbase to the Swiss social sciences community. Registration for the webinar will open soon.

After a very successful 2021 edition, we are happy to publish the 26th Summer School programme.

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.

Even in COVID-19 times, researchers should take care of improving your methodological skills: we guarantee the organization of the 26th Summer School again this year. Our goal is to organize it in presence but should the situation require it, the summer school will also switch to remote mode.

Read the USI COVID-19 Protection provisions

Register here!

Organised by USI, supported by FORS.

We are happy to announce the release of the MOSAiCH/ISSP 2021 data on “Health and Health Care” and related topics, fielded in spring 2021.

The data and documentation on this release can be found here: https://www.swissubase.ch/fr/catalogue/studies/20040/17948/overview

The thematic focus of the 2021 edition lies on “Health and Health Care II”, the current module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) which is repeated for the second time. This international part is supplemented by selected socio-demographic questions, as well as a module composed of Switzerland specific questions.

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/

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