We are pleased to announce that the beta-version of wave 25 of the Swiss Household Panel has been published on SWISSUbase. Wave 25 contains the two modules “Social Participation” and “Political Behaviour and Values”.

You can access this preliminary data set here: https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/6097/latest/datasets/932/3254/overview

Valérie-Anne Ryser and her colleagues at FORS have published a new study on the well-being of older adults before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found that older people experienced increased stress levels as well as decreased life satisfaction and positive affect after the pandemic. The authors conclude that older people face more difficulties adapting to the new uncertain post-pandemic world.

Please find the detailed results here: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00127-024-02706-1.pdf

The Swiss Political Science Review (SPSR) invites paper submissions for a Special Issue on the 2023 Swiss National Elections, guest edited by Line Rennwald, Marlène Gerber, and Elie Michel.

Contributions are sought that explore new theoretical, methodological, or empirical aspects of election campaigns and voting behavior in Switzerland, with a preference for studies using Swiss Election Study Selects data, though studies using other data sources (e.g., political campaign ads, EFK/CDF campaign funding) are also welcome. Work with a longitudinal or comparative perspective and contributions related to new questions and modules in the 2023 surveys (e.g., affective polarization, perceptions of social groups) is encouraged. Innovative use of various datasets is highly valued. Proposals (max. one page) should be sent to the Guest Editors by September 23, 2024. Accepted papers will be presented in a workshop in April 2025 and published in June 2026 following peer review.

For more details, visit https://forscenter.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/cfp_selects_2023.pdf

On 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.

Further information on Selects: www.selects.ch

Lesen Sie den Bericht online: https://forscenter.ch/selects_reports/slc-2024-00001/

Zitierweise: Tresch, Anke, Rennwald, Line, Lauener, Lukas, Lutz, Georg, Alkoç, Nursel, Benvenuti, Romane und Oscar Mazzoleni (2024). Eidgenössische Wahlen 2023. Wahlteilnahme und Wahlentscheid. FORS-Lausanne. DOI: 10.24447/SLC-2024-00001.

Die Schweizer Wahlstudie Selects sowie die Übersetzung dieser Publikation wurden unterstützt durch den Schweizerischen Nationalfonds, Projektnr. 198472.

Die Schweizer Wahlstudie Selects

Die Schweizer Wahlstudie Selects untersucht seit 1995 die Wahlteilnahme und das Wahlverhalten bei eidgenössischen Wahlen. Zu einem besseren Verständnis von Meinungsbildung und Wahlentscheid der Bürgerinnen und Bürger werden auch Daten zur Medienberichterstattung und den Kampagnenaktivitäten der Kandidierenden erhoben. Selects wird vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds (SNF) gefördert und von FORS in Lausanne durchgeführt.

Datengrundlage

Im Rahmen von Selects wurden zu den eidgenössischen Wahlen 2023 umfangreiche Erhebungen durchgeführt:

• Nachwahlbefragung von 5033 Wahlberechtigten
• Dreimalige Befragung derselben Personen vor und nach den Wahlen mit zwischen 8000 und 5500 Wahlberechtigten pro Befragung
• Befragung von 2527 Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten für den National- und Ständerat
• Medienstudie: Inhaltsanalyse von 116 Print- und Online-Medien (Tages- und Wochenzeitungen)

Sämtliche Datensätze sind dokumentiert und für wissenschaftliche Zwecke frei zugänglich via SWISSUbase: https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20738/latest

Der Bericht ist auf deutsch, französisch und italienisch erhältlich: https://forscenter.ch/projects/selects/#Publications

Based on the structure of the SPSS version of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) data, a new R package developed by Gilbert Ritschard, Professor Emeritus at the University of Geneva, provides a function that searches for user-specified variable data in each of the wave files and assembles them into sequences. The function also matches the sequences with variables from unique files such as the personal and household master files (MP, MH), social origins (SO), or calendar of activity (CA) data.

https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/seqSHP/seqSHP.pdf

Survey data collected in the latest round of the European Social Survey (ESS) is now available for 13 countries.

Round 11 data has been published for Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The data is available from the ESS Data Portal and is published with design weights only. Post-stratification weights will be added when data from the majority of countries is available later this year.

There are 31 countries who have participated in this latest round of our survey – a second data release including a larger number of countries will be published in November / December 2024.

Following on from a mixed mode approach implemented in the previous round due to the pandemic, Round 11 (2023/24) data collection has been conducted using face-to-face fieldwork (including video interviewing)[1].

Data is available for more than 200 questions asked in all countries, including respondents’ ancestry; education; employment; financial circumstances; household composition; and other socio-demographics including sex, age as well as information about their partners and parents.

Attitudinal data collected in every round focuses on climate change and energy; crime and justice; democracy and government; immigration; health and wellbeing; institutional and social trust; media and internet use; European, national and ethnic identity; perceived discrimination; political affiliation, interest and participation; religion; social exclusion; and values.

Round 11 includes two rotating modules that focus on gender, for the first time, and social inequalities in health, with many questions repeated from Round 7 (2014/15).

Proposed by a team led by Susan Banducci (University of Exeter), the gender module explores attitudes towards feminine and masculine identities, sexism, gender discrimination and gender equality.

The health proposal was submitted by the majority of researchers involved in the initial module and was led by Mirza Balaj (CHAIN Scientific coordinator Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

A combination of repeat and new items examine the social determinants of health in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are related to income and wealth inequalities.

Further information: https://europeansocialsurvey.org/news/article/round-11-data-now-available

[1] Only one country (Czechia) has been forced to collect data using self-completion methods in this round, due to restrictions in the capacity of in-person interviewers.

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 and get the chance to win up to 1’000CHF. The FORS Data Re-use Award is given to young researchers who carry out excellent research that is based on secondary data.

Young researchers, notably doctoral students and postdocs can apply for the award.

Up to three prices will be given.

First price: 1’000 CHF

Submission

• The manuscript must be based on data accessed via SWISSUbase.
• The data were not produced by any of the authors.
• The manuscript is a full paper. It can still be a work in progress but is not yet published. The author(s) plan(s) to submit it to a peer-reviewed journal.
• Research teams can submit papers. The first author must be an early career researcher (doctoral student or postdoc).
• The dataset is properly cited.
• The manuscript is written in English.

Evaluation

• Innovative use of the data
• Quality of the research design
• Quality of the empirical analysis
• Originality
• Relevance/impact
• Quality of writing and presentation
• Career stage
• Composition of the research team

Representatives of different units at FORS and researchers from the the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lausanne will evaluate all the submission and discuss them. All submissions should be sent to PD Dr. Oliver Lipps: oliver.lipps@fors.unil.ch

The deadline for submission is October 1, 2024

The award will be given in November 2024 and the winner will be invited to present the paper in the FORS Lunch Seminar.

Further information: https://forscenter.ch/fors-data-reuse-award-2024/

On April 24, 2024, during a meeting involving over 60 representatives from national research infrastructures, the Swiss nodes of European ERICs and long-term projects, we launched the “Social Science and Humanities Open Cluster Switzerland (SSHOC-CH)”. This initiative aims to enhance collaboration, find synergies among social sciences and humanities infrastructures, and coordinate national resources to better support SSH scholars in their research and in managing their data in the spirit of Open Science and FAIR principles.

Beat Immenhauser, General Secretary of the Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, commended the bottom-up formation of SSHOC-CH, noting its broad-based membership from the very beginning. This new organization seeks to streamline coordination across research infrastructures concerning European and national roadmaps, ERICs (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), and the creation of joint tools, platforms, and services.

Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch, Director of CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives) and Chair of the SSHOC Open Cluster, praised the initiative, reflecting on SSHOC’s evolution from a top-down European Commission project to a sustained collaborative effort backed by a Memorandum of Understanding among European Research Infrastructures that is now also reaching out to the national level.

The founding meeting participants discussed a whitepaper contextualizing SSHOC-CH within the broader national and European framework, outlined the mission and potential activities, which include participating in the ongoing national policy dialogues, developing joint policies especially with respect to data management and sharing, creating an inventory of existing resources, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, enhancing community engagement, and coordinating funding strategies and training programs.

The founding assembly also formalized the organization by approving its Statutes, electing a Board with 10 members, and appointing Georg Lutz, director of FORS to the President position.

In his concluding remarks, Georg Lutz emphasized the need for the SSH community to leverage existing resources effectively. The SSH community should design and build robust, valuable projects and infrastructures that bring added value and services to the different research communities and that are professionally managed.

However, he also stated that this should lead to a better recognition of SSH infrastructure needs and ongoing clustering efforts by key policy makers in Switzerland. In the last round of the national roadmap process, only two new rather small projects made it on the infrastructure roadmap, and they still struggled to get funding, the entire roadmap process was biased against SSH projects. The SSH community in Switzerland is now at the forefront of building such a coordinating organisation.

In the coming months, the SSHOC-CH Board will start working on the priorities and thus lay the foundation for a stronger and better coordinated national infrastructure landscape.

For more information and to become a member: www.sshoc.ch

The Kohli Foundation for Sociology has recently announced this year’s laureate of the Infrastructure Prize for Sociology. The prize goes to the European Social Survey (ESS). “With its European focus and excellent accessibility, the ESS is one of the outstanding infrastructure projects for sociology and related fields”, says the Kohli Foundation.

For details see:

Infrastructure Prize for Sociology 2024: European Social Survey – Kohli Foundation

Members of the Swiss Household Panel team have published a call for contributions in Frontiers in Sociology for the Research Topic “Exploring Social Stratification Dynamics: Insights from Longitudinal Survey Data”. Interested researchers can submit their abstract until 31 July 2024.

The editors welcome substantive contributions from different conceptual and theoretical approaches, addressing topics such as education, employment, material reward, health, social networks, integration, political behaviour, or attitudes and values. Articles based on the SHP data and comparative analyses using the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) are particularly welcome.

Please find all the information here: fro.ntiers.in/RT64137

Der Jahresbericht 2023 dokumentiert unsere vielfältigen Aktivitäten im Laufe des Jahres und unterstreicht unser Engagement für die Förderung der Sozialwissenschaftsforschung in der Schweiz und darüber hinaus. Der Bericht bietet umfassende Einblicke in verschiedene Aspekte unserer Tätigkeiten, darunter Erhebungen, Datenmanagement, Infrastrukturentwicklung, wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit, methodologische Forschung, Datensammlung und -analyse, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Governance, Mitarbeiterstatistiken und Finanzinformationen.

Im Editorial beschreibt der FORS Direktor Georg Lutz das 15-jähriges Jubiläum von FORS, ein bedeutsamer Meilenstein, welcher mit vielen geladenen Gästen gefeiert wurde. Diese Gelegenheit bot die Möglichkeit zur Reflexion über den aktuellen Stand von FORS und dessen zukünftige Ausrichtung.

Der Jahresbericht 2023 können Sie hier nachlesen.

The ISSP is pleased to announce the publication of the first partial data release of the ISSP 2021 Health and Health Care II (ZA8000_v1.0.0), which includes data from Switzerland and 18 other countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Thailand).

The ISSP 2021 addresses critical themes including health status, beliefs, and behaviors, examining the right to healthcare, trust in and satisfaction with healthcare systems, while also assessing attitudes towards e-health, vaccinations, and governmental responses during epidemics.

Data and documentation on this release can be found here:
https://search.gesis.org/research_data/ZA8000

Wir freuen uns, die Veröffentlichung der MOSAiCH/ISSP Daten 2023 zum Thema Nationale Identität und Staatsbürgerschaft bekannt zu geben. Die Erhebung wurde im Frühjahr 2023 durchgeführt. Daten und Dokumentation zum aktuellen Release können hier gefunden werden: https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20527/latest

Der thematische Schwerpunkt der MOSAiCH-Studie 2023 liegt auf dem Modul “Nationale Identität und Staatsbürgerschaft” des International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Dieses Modul ist eine Kombination aus zwei bestehenden ISSP-Studien, die in der Schweiz bereits 2003 und 2013 (Nationale Identität) sowie 2004 und 2014 (Staatsbürgerschaft) durchgeführt wurden. Ergänzt wird der internationale Teil durch ausgewählte soziodemografische Fragen und ein Modul, das aus schweizspezifischen Fragen besteht.

In 2024 in response to requests from past editions’ participants, we are introduction three new courses:

Bayesian modelling

Visual data and visual methods for the Social Sciences

Agent-based modelling

Check out the programme

Register here.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is seeking applications from multinational research teams to design modules of questions for its upcoming rounds. The ESS questionnaire comprises a fixed core module of substantive and socio-demographic questions, alongside two rotating modules of around 30 questions each.

Previously, these rotating modules, which cover specific academic or policy concerns in Europe, have been selected for each round. These modules are designed by competitive Question Module Design Teams (QDTs) collaborating with the Core Scientific Team (CST) of the ESS.

In the latest call for Round 13 Rotating Modules, the ESS is inviting research teams to apply for the creation of either 15 or 30-item modules. This novel addition of a 15-item module option aims to encourage submissions on pertinent topics that may not necessitate a full 30-question module.

To the call

Das 15. Jubiläum von FORS fand am 16. November 2023 an der Universität Lausanne statt. Die Jubiläumsfeier brachte viele ehemalige und derzeitige Mitglieder von FORS zusammen, um Diskussionen über die bemerkenswerte Reise von FORS und dessen zukünftige Ausrichtung zu führen.

Estelle Doudet, Vorsitzende des FORS-Stiftungsrats und Vize-Rektorin der Universität Lausanne, hob die Geschichte und den Einfluss von FORS hervor. Vor 15 Jahren nach einem nationalen Wettbewerb als unabhängige Stiftung an der Universität Lausanne gegründet, hat FORS massgeblich zur Förderung der hochwertigen Datensammlung und empirischen sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung in der Schweiz und darüber hinaus beigetragen.

Eine Diskussionsrunde mit Expertinnen und Experten betonte die Beiträge von FORS zu den Sozialwissenschaften. FORS spielte eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Unterstützung der Forschungsgemeinschaft der Sozialwissenschaften, indem sie die Bedürfnisse in Bezug auf Datenproduktion und -zugänglichkeit erfüllte, Archive effizient verwaltete und die Vernetzung von Forschenden förderte. Die Expertengruppe diskutierte die Herausforderungen bei der langfristigen Finanzierung von FORS. Dabei wurden die Erfolge von FORS anerkannt und gleichzeitig die Notwendigkeit von Innovation sowie Stabilität betont, um die Qualität der Erhebungen und Datendienste aufrechtzuerhalten. In Anbetracht aktueller Trends diskutierten die Expertinnen und Experten die zukünftige Rolle von FORS bei der Koordination von Initiativen über die Sozialwissenschaften hinaus und erkannten ihre Expertise im Umgang mit fairen und offenen Forschungsdaten an.

Der FORS-Direktor Georg Lutz betonte die Bedeutung der Anpassung an sich entwickelnde Herausforderungen im Bereich der Forschungsdaten und drückte seine Dankbarkeit gegenüber den Personen aus, die FORS über die Jahre hinweg unterstützt und zu seinem Erfolg beigetragen haben.

FORS behält eine massgebliche Rolle im Schweizer Forschungsumfeld bei, indem es den Schwung vergangener Erfolge nutzt und sich auf zukünftige Veränderungen einstellt um seine Position als führende Infrastruktur für die Sozialwissenschaften zu bewahren.

Zur Pressemitteilung

The CESSDA Country Spotlight series showcases national service providers and holds interviews with representatives of the national service providers and members of the CESSDA community.

This time the series portrayed FORS. Discover the interview with Brian Kleiner, Head of Data & Research for Social Sciences at FORS. It sheds light on the power of CESSDA to foster teamwork in data archives.

The whole interview and further information:

https://www.cessda.eu/News/CESSDA-Newsitem-nid3592

Georg Henning from the German Centre of Gerontology in Berlin, Germany, and his colleagues have published their research on historical and cross-country differences in life satisfaction across retirement between 2000 and 2019 in Germany and Switzerland. They used data from the SHP and the SOEP and found that life satisfaction trajectories around retirement age have improved over the last 20 years. Their findings may be explained by general improvements in the health and psychosocial functioning of older people.

Please find the detailed results here: https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad066

Call Social Surveys

Are you working on topics such as crises, risks, uncertainty and vulnerability and are using MOSAiCH-data or other Swiss surveys on attitudes? Then this is for you! FORS organizes a session entitled “MOSAiCH and attitudinal surveys in Switzerland: a tool for measuring crisis, uncertainty and Vulnerability?” at the Congress of the Swiss Sociological Association 2024 (9-11 September in Basel). We are looking for papers that either are based on MOSAiCH data or discuss collecting data using general population surveys in Switzerland such as MOSAiCH.

Organizers:
Alexandre Pollien (FORS / UNIL), Michèle Ernst Stähli (FORS / UNIL), Marlène Sapin (FORS / UNIL), Karin Nisple (FORS / UNIL), Michael Ochsner (FORS / UNIL)

Contact: Michèle Ernst Stähli et Alexandre Pollien

Deadline: January 5, 2024

All info: https://www.fhnw.ch/plattformen/sgs-kongress/wp-content/uploads/sites/342/WS_MOSAiCH_pollien-1.pdf

Call on Analysing Gender

Exploring Innovative Measures in Quantitative Surveys / Analyser le genre : exploration d’indicateurs innovants dans les enquêtes quantitatives

The main objective of this workshop is to move beyond the binary thinking and the traditional approach to gender roles. To capture diversity more comprehensively in quantitative surveys, it is essential to develop new measures (or integrate established ones) regarding sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, attitudes and behaviours related to gender, as well as lived experiences.

Organizers:
Christina Bornatici (FORS – Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Jérôme Blondé (University of Lausanne (UNIL), Jacques-Antoine Gauthier (University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lavinia Gianettoni (University of Lausanne (UNIL), Jean-Marie Le Goff (University of Lausanne (UNIL), Stephanie Steinmetz (Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS) / University of Lausanne (UNIL)

Contact : christina.bornatici@fors.unil.ch

Deadline: January 5, 2024

All info: https://www.fhnw.ch/plattformen/sgs-kongress/wp-content/uploads/sites/342/WS_Analysing_Gender_bornatici-2.pdf

Call on (De)gendering vulnerabilities

The workshop will critically discuss this relationship between gender and vulnerabilities in different research contexts. To what extent is gender
(ir)relevant with regard to vulnerable groups and how does the category influence the perception and construction of vulnerabilities in the first place (e.g., single parents, employees in the low-wage sector, sex workers, welfare recipients)? How do organizations or national contexts (re)poduce vulnerabilities and how is gender linked to it (e.g., science, school, labor market, social work)? How can we do methodological justice to the current complexity of change and persistence of gender differences?

Organizers: Stephanie Steinmetz (University of Lausanne, Quartier UNIL-Mouline), Nathalie Pasche (Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit FHNW), Christina Bornatici (FORS – Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences), Irene Kriesi (Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training, SFUVET), Lucia Lanfranconi (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts); Isabelle Zinn (University of Lausanne), Martina Peitz (Independent researcher)

Contact:  stephanie.steinmetz@unil.ch
Deadline: January 5, 2024

All info: https://www.fhnw.ch/plattformen/sgs-kongress/wp-content/uploads/sites/342/WS_Degendering_vulnerabilities_pasche-1.pdf

Die Schweizer Wahlstudie (Selects) untersucht seit 1995 das Wahlverhalten von Schweizer Bürgerinnen und Bürgern bei eidgenössischen Wahlen. Sie untersucht die Dynamik der Meinungsbildung, Faktoren, die die politische Beteiligung und Wahlentscheidungen beeinflussen, und sammelt Daten zu den Kampagnen der Kandidaten, Politikinhalten und Meinungen. Selects wird vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (SNSF) finanziert und ist seit 2008 bei FORS angesiedelt. Selects stellt Datensätze für Langzeitvergleiche zur Verfügung und integriert kontinuierlich neue Forschung.

Nachfolgend finden Sie einige Links zu Artikeln, in denen die Selects-Studie und/oder Mitglieder des Selects-Teams erwähnt werden:

The 2023 Swiss Federal Elections: Last Time’s Winners Lose and Losers Win (Who Governs Europe, 03.11.2023)

Mit der SVP wollen sie nichts zu tun haben – weshalb die ausscherenden Frauenparteien keine Überraschung sind (NZZ, 02.11.2023)

Wo sind all die Liberalen hin? (NZZ am Sonntag, 28.10.2023)

«Seuls contre tous» (Le Courrier, 24.10.2023)

Fédérales 2023: la victoire du parti «seul contre tous» (Le Nouvelliste, 24.10.2023)

Anke Tresch, politologue: «Il faut du contenu qui parle aux jeunes, pas uniquement de la forme» (Le Temps, 04.10.2023)

Les élections ne changent in fine pas grand-chose (20minutes, 26.09.2023)

Signora Tresch, come riesce un partito a vincere le elezioni? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)

Frau Tresch, wie wird eine Partei zur Wahlsiegerin? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)

Madame Tresch, comment un parti devient-il victorieux aux élections ? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)

Signora Rennwald, l’UDC è il partito dei lavoratori? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)

Frau Rennwald, ist die SVP die Partei der Arbeiterschaft? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)

Madame Rennwald, l’UDC est-elle le parti des travailleurs ? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)

La chute de l’identification partisane en Suisse et ses conséquences pour les échéances électorales (Le Temps, 03.07.2023)

In einem Papier aus dem von der Swiss Data Alliance koordinierten Expertenkreis für die Sekundärnutzung von Daten, formulieren FORS/linkhub.ch und Interpharma die Anforderungen an ein «Rahmengesetz für die Sekundärnutzung von Daten» aus Sicht der sozialwissenschaftlichen und pharmazeutischen Forschung.

Im Juni dieses Jahres hat das Parlament die Motion «Rahmengesetz für die Sekundärnutzung von Daten» dem Bundesrat zur Umsetzung überwiesen und damit einen wichtigen Richtungsentscheid gefällt: Sie fordert den Bundesrat auf, in einem Rahmengesetz die nötigen Grundlagen zu schaffen, um Infrastrukturen für die Sekundärnutzung von Daten in strategisch relevanten Bereichen rasch begründen und aufbauen zu können. Damit sollen zukünftig Daten in vielen Bereichen für die evidenzbasierte Forschung und politische Entscheidungsfindung miteinander verknüpft und genutzt werden können. Dies ist insbesondere auch für die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung in der Schweiz von grosser Bedeutung.

Ansprüche an ein Rahmengesetz aus Sicht der sozialwissenschaftlichen und pharmazeutischen Forschung

Are you involved in the provision of data management support to social science researchers in Swiss research institutions? Do researchers ask you for advice on how to comply with open data requirements? Are you dealing with questions such as:

• “Do my research materials include personal data?”
• “Can research materials including personal data be shared with other researchers or for teaching?”
• “What are the conditions for sharing research materials including personal data in a data repository?”
• “What are the different options for complying with open data requirements?”

Format: Presentations by FORS and Unil staff members + Q&A sessions
Audience: Support staff, data stewards, librarians, research consultants, anyone involved in the provision of data management support

During this half-day event, the FORS data management support team, in collaboration with the research office of the University of Lausanne, will provide you with practical guidance on how to assess the shareability of research data, including personal and sensitive data, both quantitative and qualitative. The focus of the workshop will be on data that have already been collected, and which are intended to be shared in a data repository, such as SWISSUbase.

Detailed information and registration:  https://forscenter.ch/sharing-personal-data-through-a-data-repository/

We are proud to announce that our Data Service has obtained, for the second time, the CoreTrustSeal certification.

The CoreTrustSeal is a globally recognized certification awarded to organizations that have demonstrated their dedication to responsible data stewardship and excellence in data management practices. By obtaining this seal, the FORS Data Service has officially confirmed its adherence to rigorous international standards and best practices for ensuring the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of research data.

The CoreTrustSeal is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and recognizing trustworthy data repositories and services. Their comprehensive certification process evaluates an organization’s data management policies, practices, and infrastructure to ensure they meet international criteria for data trustworthiness. CoreTrustSeal certification is highly regarded in the research and data management community as a mark of excellence.

We are honoured to be among organisations dedicated to providing sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. This achievement reaffirms our commitment to the data community, our stakeholders, and the pursuit of knowledge. As we continue to serve our community, researchers, and data users, we look forward to leveraging this certification to further enhance data quality, transparency, and collaboration.

Further information: https://www.coretrustseal.org/about/

Arbeiten Sie derzeit mit sozialwissenschaftlichen Daten, die Sie von FORS erhalten haben? Oder haben Sie vor, dies in den nächsten Monaten zu tun? Dann bewerben Sie sich mit Ihrer Arbeit für den FORS Data Re-use Award 2023 und erhalten Sie die Chance, bis zu 1’000 CHF zu gewinnen.

Der FORS Data Re-use Award 2023 wird an junge Forschende vergeben, die exzellente Forschungsarbeiten durchführen, die auf Sekundärdaten basieren. Die Einreichungsfrist ist der 1. Oktober 2023.

Weitere Informationen: https://forscenter.ch/fors-data-reuse-award-2023/