The CNES Seminar Series casts a spotlight on different National Election Studies that share their experiences in designing and conducting election studies.

Participation is free and open to everyone interested in the practices and methodological aspects of electoral research.

First edition: Implementing mixed-mode surveys

14 November 2023

15:30-17:00 (Central European time, GMT +1)

PROGRAMME

Chair: Eva Heiða Önnudóttir, Icelandic National Election Study (ICENES)

Participation is free but registration is mandatory.

Click here to register no later than 31 October 2023.

Further information on CNES: https://www.cnes.community/

The ISSP is pleased to announce the publication of the final release of the international ISSP 2020 Environment IV data file (ZA7650_v2.0.0), which includes data from Switzerland and 27 other ISSP member countries around the world.

The data and associated documentation for this release can be found at: https://www.gesis.org/en/issp/modules/issp-modules-by-topic/environment/2020

Parallel to the final release, the ISSP is organizing its second ISSP User Conference scheduled to take place online on December 4, 2023, with a primary focus on the topic of Environment. The Call for Abstracts is currently open for submissions:

https://issp.org/about-issp/issp-user-conference/

Die Ergebnisse des Schweizer Haushalt-Panels wurden in letzter Zeit in den Medien ausgiebig diskutiert. Die NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) und andere Medien haben über den Rückgang der Geburtenrate in der Schweiz berichtet. Waren vor 30 Jahren noch rund 16% der Frauen in der Schweiz kinderlos, so sind es heute 25%. Valérie-Anne Ryser, Senior Researcher beim SHP, wurde in die Fernsehsendung FORUM eingeladen, diese Ergebnisse zu diskutieren. Das ganze Interview finden Sie hier:

Alle Medienmitteilungen finden Sie hier:

https://forscenter.ch/projekte/swiss-household-panel/scientific-activities/?lang=de

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/

Switzerland has been granted full membership in the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA ERIC), as unanimously approved by the CESSDA General Assembly on June 8, 2023. CESSDA ERIC aims to promote social science research and support national and international research cooperation by bringing together social science data archives across Europe. In a data-driven research world, trusted data and service infrastructures such as CESSDA ERIC are crucial in fostering scientific innovation through data sharing and data accessibility across national borders.

Previously, Swiss participation in European research infrastructures was limited to observer status. However, in December 2022, the Swiss Parliament created the legal framework for Switzerland to become a full member of European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs) and allowed Switzerland to request full membership in CESSDA along with five other ERICs. As a result of this development, Switzerland will now have a formal voice in CESSDA decision-making through its member status and voting rights in the CESSDA ERIC General Assembly.

FORS has been nominated as the national CESSDA service provider by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). FORS has been an active member of CESSDA as an observer for many years and will continue to do so with renewed status as a full member. SERI’s Katharina Eggenberger and FORS’s Brian Kleiner will work together to represent Switzerland in the CESSDA General Assembly.

The collaboration between Swiss researchers and research infrastructures with those in other European countries is highly relevant to advance science in many domains, and FORS and CESSDA therefore welcome this milestone with FORS joining CESSDA ERIC as a full member.

For additional information please contact:

• FORS Director: Georg Lutz (lutz@fors.unil.ch)
• CESSDA Director: Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch (wolff-boenisch@cessda.eu)

CESSDA stands for Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives and ERIC stands for European Research Infrastructure Consortium. CESSDA provides large-scale, integrated and sustainable data services to the social sciences. It brings together social science data archives across Europe, with the aim of promoting the results of social science research and supporting national and international research and cooperation.

www.cessda.org

List of all service providers

The third edition of data and documentation for the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 10 has just been published.

Data from all 31 countries who took part in Round 10 (2020-22), including Switzerland, is now available via the ESS Data Portal.

A short briefing can be consulted here: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release.

The Round 10 survey includes the core questionnaire, fielded in every round.

It also includes two rotating modules: Europeans’ understandings and evaluations of democracy and Digital social contacts in work and family life.

Additionally, a special COVID-19 module was fielded by countries on a voluntary basis.

Detailed information on Round 10 data release is available on the ESS website.

The data overview for Round 10 Switzerland can be consulted here: Ernst Stähli, Michèle, Ochsner, Michael, Pollien, Alexandre, Nisple, Karin & Sapin, Marlène (2023). European Social Survey, Switzerland – 2021 (Round 10) (1.0.0) [Dataset]. FORS data service.https://doi.org/10.48573/8p06-0t58

Forscherinnen und Forscher von FORS und der Fakultät für Sozial- und Politikwissenschaften der Universität Lausanne führten vom 1. bis 4. Juni ein Atelier an der Veranstaltung “Mystères de l’UNIL” durch. Ziel war es, Kindern im Alter von 8 bis 12 Jahren eine Einführung in die Analyse von Daten zu geben und unsere Erhebungen, welche Daten zur Gesundheit der Schweizer Bevölkerung sammeln, der breiten Öffentlichkeit besser bekannt zu machen.

Das Atelier wurde von Caroline Roberts konzipiert und organisiert, Forscherin, Dozentin und Umfragemethodologin für quantitative Methoden an der SSP-Fakultät der UNIL. Das Atelier wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit Carmen Borrat-Besson und Michèle Ernst-Stähli sowie der Mediatorin Elodie Cachelin und deren Kolleginnen und Kollegen der Veranstaltung durchgeführt und umfasste 7 interaktive Stationen, die verschiedene Themen im Zusammenhang mit der Messung der Gesundheit der Bevölkerung mit Stichprobenerhebungen behandelten.

An jeder Station wurden verschiedene spielerische Aktivitäten von den FORS-Mitarbeitenden Maud Wieczorek, Robert Reinecke, Louis Durussel und Marc Asensio Manjon, den Organisatoren Caroline Roberts, Carmen Borrat-Besson und Michèle Ernst-Stähli sowie zwei Studentinnen der Fakultät, Camille Haas und Marie Muratori, geleitet. Die Aktivitäten waren so konzipiert, dass sie die Schlüsselkonzepte der Gesundheitsmessung durch Erhebungen veranschaulichten. Folgende Themen wurden erfasst: Rolle von Daten und Statistiken bei der Entscheidungsfindung, die verschiedenen Arten und Quellen von Gesundheitsdaten, die Rolle von Erhebungen, die Visualisierung von Statistiken zum Verständnis von gesundheitlichen Ungleichheiten und die Bedeutung “guter Daten” (Daten für das öffentliche Wohl, aber auch Daten von guter Qualität) in der Forschung im Bereich der öffentlichen Gesundheit.

Während der viertägigen Veranstaltung konnten wir rund 300 Personen begrüssen, darunter auch acht Schulklassen aus der Region Lausanne, die ihre Ausbildung im Bereich der quantitativen Daten begannen.

Copyright: Caroline Roberts

We have published Wave 23 of the SHP! You can find all the data sets on SWISSUbase (Living in Switzerland Waves 1-23 + Covid 19 data). Wave 23 contains the two modules Religion and Psychological dimensions as well as new questions on chronic diseases.

You can access the new data here: https://doi.org/10.48573/cm0q-ah20

Christoph Zangger from the University of Bern has published a new study based on the SHP Covid-19 study. He investigated how and for whom relations with neighbors changed during the pandemic and how these changes impacted subjective well-being and trust in other people. His study shows that the most vulnerable groups in terms of health and socio-economic status saw their subjective well-being and trust negatively impacted through the challenging circumstances of the pandemic as well as indirectly through a relative deterioration of neighborly relations.

Find the detailed results here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101307

To increase the user-friendliness of the SHP data, we rethought the documentation page of our website. All the information concerning the SHP documentation is now compiled on one page and easily accessible. You can also find a new overview of all variables  included in the SHP and their availability per year.

This is our new documentation page.

Registration for the 27th edition of the Summer School is still open and will remain open until all places are filled or until the 14th of July – whichever is sooner.

To the registration.

In 2023, in response to requests from past editions’ participants, we are introducing three new courses:

• Designing and Conducting Social-scientific Experiments
• Conducting a Grounded Theory Study
• Web Scraping and Data Mining in R

Der Jahresbericht 2022 stellt unsere Forschung, unsere Datenservices, unsere Infrastruktur- und Kooperationsprogramme sowie unsere Veröffentlichungen vor. Der Bericht gibt auch einen Überblick über alle Aktivitäten im Zusammenhang mit unseren nationalen und internationalen Erhebungen.

Im Vorwort des Jahresberichts verweist FORS Direktor Prof. Georg Lutz auf die Tatsache, dass Forschungsinfrastrukturen in vielen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen wichtig sind. FORS beherbergt nicht nur Infrastrukturprojekte wie das nationale Datenarchiv und koordiniert nationale und internationale Erhebungen, sondern trägt auch aktiv dazu bei, die Position der Infrastrukturen in den Sozial-und Geistewissenschaften langfristig zu stärken und eine gute Koordination zwischen den bestehenden Projekten und Initiativen zu gewährleisten.

Zum Jahresbericht 2022 (auf Englisch)

The 6th wave of Selects was fielded  between September 26 and November 6, 2022. This wave provides insights, among others, into vote intention in federal elections, vote decision in popular votes, opinion on various issues related to the implications of the war in the Ukraine (like the reception of Ukrainian refugees, energy policy, security policy, etc.).

The data of waves 1 to 6 of the panel survey SELECTS can be found on SWISSUbase

https://doi.org/10.48573/4my6-rd07

Informaition on SELECTS: https://forscenter.ch/projects/selects/

Wir freuen uns, die Veröffentlichung der MOSAiCH/ISSP Daten 2022 zum Thema Familie und Geschlechterrollen bekannt zu geben. Die Erhebung wurde im Frühjahr 2022 durchgeführt.

Daten und Dokumentation zum aktuellen Release können hier gefunden werden:
https://www.swissubase.ch/en/catalogue/studies/20135/18818/datasets/2161/2569/overview

Der thematische Schwerpunkt der MOSAiCH-Studie 2022 liegt auf dem Modul “Family and Changing Gender Roles V” des International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Dieses Modul wurde nun bereits zum fünften Mal wiederholt und gehört damit zu einer der am längsten bestehenden thematischen Reihen des ISSP. Schweizer Daten sind auch für die Ausgaben von 2012 und 2002 verfügbar. Ergänzt wird dieser internationale Teil durch ausgewählte soziodemografische Fragen und ein Modul mit schweizspezifischen Fragen.

The ESS Scientific Advisory Board has completed its selection of rotating modules for the European Social Survey Round 12.

For the first time the Board has selected 2 repeat modules. The successful modules are:

• ‘Personal and social wellbeing’ led by Frank Martela, Aalto University, School of Science (Finland)
• ‘Attitudes to immigrants and refugees’ led by Anthony Heath, University of Oxford (UK).  This module team includes NCs from Portugal (Alice Ramos) and Ukraine (Tymofii Brik).

Both modules address crucial academic and policy relevant topics for Europe and provide both innovation and continuity, thereby supporting new topics as well as time series analysis. For more information and to access the proposals see News | European Social Survey (ESS)

The 12th International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland will take place on June 14-15, 2023 at the University of Lausanne.

This edition will include thematic sessions as well as a poster session. The thematic sessions cover a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, socio-economic inequality and mobility, families, gender, ethnic minorities and migration, politics and attitudes, survey methodology, and longitudinal methods. We also offer the possibility to propose complete sessions on other themes.

We welcome all contributions based on longitudinal data, such as the “Swiss Household Panel” (SHP), the “LIVES-FORS Cohort”, the “Transition from Education to Employment” (TREE), the “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe” (SHARE), and the “Swiss Survey of Children and Youth” (COCON). As the SHP is a member of the Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF), we especially welcome presentations or posters comparing Switzerland with other countries participating in the CNEF. Please note that the language of the conference is English.

Deadline for abstracts and session proposals is February 27, 2023.

The conference is interdisciplinary, and we welcome participants from all areas of the social sciences. Please submit your session proposal or your abstract for a presentation or a poster to swisspanel@fors.unil.ch.

Abstracts for presentations and posters

Please include in the abstract:

• The names and affiliations of all authors;
• The name(s) and e-mail addresses of the attending author(s);
• The session to which the abstract belongs. Please indicate poster session or one of the thematic sessions listed above. It is possible to suggest more than one suitable session;
• The title of the presentation or the poster;
• An abstract of around 250 words (max. 500).

Session proposals

We can only accept complete session proposals that include at least three presentations. Please include in the proposal:

• Name, affiliation and e-mail address of the chair;
• Title of the session;
• Titles and abstracts (250-500 words each) of the presentations in the session;
• Names, affiliations and e-mail addresses of the presenters.

The PDF of the call

MOSAiCH 2024 – Ausschreibung zur Einreichung von Fragevorschlägen

Hiermit laden wir Forscherinnen und Forscher ein, Vorschläge für die Folgebefragung zum ISSP Modul 2024 zum Thema «Digitale Gesellschaften» einzureichen. Bevorzugt werden Themen und Konzepte, die für ein grösseres wissenschaftliches Publikum relevant sind, sowie Instrumente, die mit der geplanten Befragung harmonieren. Die Befragung geht im Frühling 2024 ins Feld und die Daten werden Anfang 2025 verfügbar sein. Die Einreichungsfrist für Vorschläge ist Montag 24. April 2023.

Nähere Informationen zur Ausschreibung finden Sie im PDF Dokument CALL MOSAiCH 2024.

The European Social Survey (ESS) has published data from an additional 15 countries who participated in Round 10 (2020-22) of our survey.

This second release – available exclusively through the ESS Data Portal – includes 25 countries whose data has been published alongside post-stratification weights.

Due to measures implemented to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus, some countries fielded our Round 10 questionnaire using self-completion methods for the first time.

This updated dataset therefore includes 19 countries who administered the survey in line with previous rounds: using only in-person interviews.

Data collected in this way is available from 19 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Data from six countries – Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Sweden – was collected through online and postal questionnaires using a ‘self-completion’ design.

As a result of the inclusion of data that was collected using only self-completion modes, we have published a short briefing: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release.

Read the briefing: Notes on ESS Round 10 data release

Download the latest data from the ESS Data Portal

Further information on the release can be found on the ESS website

The “Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Research Infrastructures in Switzerland” initiative is piloted by a coordination group consisting of the directors of national research infrastructures (RIs) in the SSH, the national coordinators of international SSH RIs with Swiss participation (CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS, SHARE, GGP) and one representative of the Swiss Academy for the Swiss Academy for Social and Human Sciences (SAGW).

As a follow up to the first event (31 May 2022) and of the position paper (November 2022), the coordination group of this initiative invites the members of the Swiss SSH scientific community interested in research infrastructures to a second event on 18 January 2023.

This meeting has three main objectives.

• First, to raise awareness on the importance of research infrastructure in the SSH domain and how prioritisation and funding works (national and ESFRI roadmap process).
• Second, to share experiences from other countries and the European level on how collaborations between projects and infrastructures work.
• Third, to give a platform to potential new Swiss RIs in the SSH domain in order to reflect on needs of the SSH community and how to create synergies and join forces.

To reach these objectives, we will welcome four invited speakers from abroad (see the updated Programme), who will share their experience of how collaboration and clustering happened successfully in other countries and at the European level. In addition, the floor will also be given to several Swiss projects of RIs in the SSH field with the aim to reflect on user needs and possible synergies. Finally, the day will end with a Round Table with an open discussion, in which invited guests from the SNSF, the SERI, swissuniversities, the SAGW and all members of the audience will have the opportunity to express themselves.

Register now !

Organizing committee

Prof. Dr. Georg Lutz (FORS)

Dr. Cristina Grisot (DARIAH-CH & CLARIN-CH)

Dr. Elena Chestnova (USI)

Dr. Claire Clivaz (SIB)

Dr. Beat Immenhauser (SAGW)

Further information and registration: https://www.dariah.ch/post/ssh-research-infrastructures-in-switzerland-initiative

To the interview

Die Plattform “Developments in Research and Methods of the Social Sciences” (DReMSS) vereint Forschende der Fakultät für Sozial- und Staatswissenschaften (SSP) und des Schweizerischen Kompetenzzentrums Sozialwissenschaften (FORS), die im Rahmen des Forschungsprogramms FORS-SSP zusammenarbeiten. Ziel der Plattform ist es, Synergien zwischen den von FORS und der Fakultät entwickelten Aktivitäten zu fördern und zu entwickeln. Die beteiligten Forschenden haben gemeinsame thematische und methodologische Interessen.

Die Forschung findet im Rahmen von drei Forschungsschwerpunkten statt:

Umfragemethodik

Ungleichheiten, Gender und Lebenslauf

Datenvielfalts-und Gemeinwohlforschung

Die Ziele der Forschungsplattform sind folgende;

• Ausbau des Bekanntheitsgrades von FORS und der Universität Lausanne als erstklassige Forschungszentren für sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden und inhaltliche Forschung;
• Entwicklung von quantitativen Kompetenzen und Know-how in der Schweiz;
• Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Umfragemethodik;
• Beitrag zu methodischen Innovationen und inhaltlicher Forschung in den Sozialwissenschaften;
• Beitrag zur Diskussion zwischen den verschiedenen Akteuren im Bereich der sozialwissenschaftlichen Methoden.

Diese Zusammenarbeit hat bereits zu zahlreichen Veröffentlichungen geführt, die auf von FORS erhobenen oder verbreiteten Daten beruhen, sowie zu weiteren Forschungs- und Lehrtätigkeiten”, erklärt Stephanie Steinmetz, Privatdozentin für soziale Stratifikation am Institut für Sozialwissenschaften und Leiterin der Plattform.

Dank dieses Forschungsprogramms wurde der Unterricht in quantitativen Methoden an der Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften sowohl auf Bachelor- als auch auf Master-Ebene ausgebaut und gestärkt, wobei große soziale und politische Erhebungen als Datenbanken und Lehrmittel und -beispiele verwendet werden.

Besuchen sie die DReMSS Webseite auf Englisch oder Französisch.

1st ISSP User Conference on Social Inequality

The ISSP is very pleased to announce its first ISSP User Conference on Social Inequality, which will be held online on December 12, 2022.

The Call for Abstracts is now open. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2022.

The call: https://issp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Call-for-Abstracts_ISSP-User-Conference.pdf

Further information on the ISSP: www.issp.org

Interview mit den Professoren Eugène Horber und Benedetto Lepori an der diesjährige Summer School in Social Science Methods an der Universität der italienischen Schweiz (USI)

Over the last few months, a coordination group consisting of the directors of national research infrastructures in the SSH, the national coordinators of international SSH RIs with Swiss participation (CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS, SHARE, GGP) and the representatives of the Swiss Academy for the SSH have been working on a position paper on the situation of Research Infrastructures in the SSH field in Switzerland. We believe that the current situation is unsatisfactory, and we want to raise awareness and ask for a better acknowledgment of the interests of the SSH domain among policy makers.

While the need for research infrastructures is well-established in some disciplines, there is still a partial lack of understanding that the social sciences and humanities (SSH) need well-established and well-funded infrastructures. The national roadmap process disfavours SSH projects and, as a result, financial investment in SSH infrastructures is minimal. Therefore, it is difficult for new national projects to be included in the national infrastructure roadmap.

We call on the bodies responsible for prioritising and funding research infrastructures to recognise the needs of the Swiss SSH community and fund infrastructures in this area. In order to improve the situation for SSH infrastructures and to create a fair and equal funding environment, several steps are needed:

• Higher education institutions as well as research policy actors such as swissuniversities and SERI should recognize the need for the SSH to advance research through infrastructures and create respective funding and governance models.
• Switzerland should systematically participate in European SSH infrastructures once the relevance for the Swiss research community is established.
• The national roadmap process should create fair and equal conditions for prioritizing infrastructures in all disciplines.
• Stronger emphasis should be placed on data preservation and reuse.
• The SSH research community needs to coordinate well, create synergies between existing infrastructures and long-term projects, and make sure that newly proposed infrastructure projects for future roadmap processes are well linked to existing RI at the national and international level.

If you support the position paper and are willing to sign the letter, please do so before 30 September 2022 using this form: https://researchprojectjb.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9sLXT8MRxmjClZc

On behalf of the coordinating team,

Prof. Dr. Georg Lutz, Directors of FORS

Dr. Cristina Grisot, Scientific Coordinator CLARIN-CH and DARIAH-CH

Does your research involve data collection in a social science discipline or involve human participants? Do you want to learn more about key data management practices throughout the research process?
If so, this series of four free webinars is for you.

The topics are the following:

• Informed consent (27.09.2022)
• Data documentation (11.10.2022)
• Quantitative data anonymisation  (1.11.2022)
• Qualitative data anonymisation (22.11.2022)

The webinars are given by experts in the field at FORS. The participation is free, yet registration is required.

Further information and registration: https://forscenter.ch/data-management-webinar-series/