GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences

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GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences
 
Category: research Institute
Membership: Leibniz Association
Facility location: Headquarters: Mannheim
Branch office: Cologne
Subjects: Social Sciences , Applied Computer Science
Basic funding: Federal & State
Management: Christof Wolf
Employee: approx. 300 (as of May 2018)
Homepage: www.gesis.org

The GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences , based in Mannheim and another location in Cologne, is the largest German infrastructure facility for the social sciences . It supports researchers in the social sciences with basic research-based services and advice that covers all levels of the scientific process. Christof Wolf has been the duly appointed President of GESIS since July 1, 2017.

GESIS belongs to the Leibniz Association and is financed by the federal government and the states.

history

In 1986 the "Society of Social Science Infrastructure Facilities" was founded. It initially consisted of three legally independent institutes, the “InformationsZentrum Sozialwissenschaften” (IZ) in Bonn, the “Central Archive for Empirical Social Research ” (ZA) in Cologne and the “Center for Surveys, Methods and Analyzes” (ZUMA) in Mannheim. In 2007 these were merged into one infrastructure facility. It was accepted into the Leibniz Association and has therefore had the addition of "Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences" since November 2008.

In November 2011, the Bonn and Cologne locations were merged into one location in Cologne, Unter Sachsenhausen 6–8.

Services

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The GESIS offer is aimed at scientists who work with methods of empirical social research. It is based on the basic structure of your research projects and is divided into five phases along a research data cycle: research, planning studies, collecting data, analyzing data, and archiving and registering. GESIS advises and supports researchers in every phase with offers, publications and training offers.

Do research

  • Database catalog - Around 6000 studies (as of 2018), mostly representative surveys, can be researched and ordered using the database catalog. They can be used for secondary analyzes or as a reference for your own surveys.
  • Registration agency for social and economic data (da | ra) - All globally registered social and economic data can be searched in the data registration agency.
  • SSOAR (Social Science Open Access Repository) - The open access repository for the social sciences offers free access to more than 55,000 full texts (as of February 2020). Researchers have the opportunity to make their own publications available to the scientific community.
  • Compilation of social science items and scales (ZIS), freely available measuring instruments (questionnaire, test, items, scale, index) for non-commercial research in the social sciences

Plan studies

  • GESIS advises researchers during the entire course of the project or only for certain sub-areas, at national and international level.
  • The GESIS Survey Guidelines contain hands-on texts on central consulting topics.
  • GESIS advises and develops sample designs.
  • GESIS offers a selection of validated survey instruments and develops them itself.
  • GESIS uses cognitive pretests to evaluate survey instruments and offers advice and support for the translation of questionnaires in international studies.
  • GESIS supports you in the creation of data management plans.

Collect data

GESIS advises on interviewer training and interviewer effects and provides guidance and help with control and quality assurance in the field. The institute also offers the option of drawing telephone samples (landline and mobile) using a selection framework that is updated twice a year.

GESIS collects data itself and thus offers best practice examples:

  • ALLBUS (general population survey) - GESIS collects current data on attitudes, behavior and social structure of the population in the Federal Republic of Germany.
  • GLES (German Longitudinal Election Study) - The largest German national election study to date for the observation and analysis of the electorate offers its data free of charge.
  • PIAAC (Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) - GESIS is involved as a partner in the OECD study , which examines the competence level of adults simultaneously in 24 countries as a population survey.
  • Politbarometer on current and long-term trends in political issues in the Federal Republic of Germany.
  • Eurobarometer , public opinion poll in EU countries commissioned by the European Commission at regular intervals.
  • The European Social Survey is a social science survey that examines the social and political attitudes of the population in Europe.
  • EVS (European Values ​​Study) - The empirical long-term study carried out in 47 countries aims to obtain information about the change in values.
  • ISSP (International Social Survey Program) - the international cooperation program conducts a joint survey on social science-relevant topics in almost 50 countries every year.
  • Comparative Study of Electoral Systems - The international election study integrates data from by-election surveys from around 40 countries.
  • GESIS Panel - The panel offers social scientists the opportunity to use a probabilistic omnibus access panel i. d. Usually to collect data free of charge. These data are representative of the German-speaking population aged 18 to 70 years (at the time of recruitment) residing in Germany. The data collected with the GESIS Panel is made available to primary and secondary researchers free of charge.

Analyze data

GESIS offers over 6000 studies for secondary analysis or as reference data and advises and supports you in data analysis. GESIS's own research data centers offer a special service for a number of survey programs in which GESIS partially participates in data collection and / or takes over the tasks of data preparation, archiving and provision on a permanent basis. GESIS is based on the criteria of the RatSWD :

  • FDZ ALLBUS (general population survey of the social sciences)
  • FDZ Elections (German Election Studies)
  • FDZ German Microdata Lab
  • FDZ International Survey Programs
  • FDZ PIAAC (Program for the Assessment of Adult Competencies)

For data analysis, GESIS offers support and services for data harmonization as well as instruments for analyzing digital behavioral data.

Archive and register

GESIS offers a range of services for survey data after the survey process. These data services are designed as a modular system and offer the option of booking individual individual services or entire service packages as required. The data services cover the following seven areas:

  • Secure data
  • Provide data
  • Make data known
  • Check data
  • Enrich data
  • Document data
  • Training for groups

GESIS operates da | ra to make research data permanently identifiable and available using DOI names. In the data repository datorium, your own research data can be described and made available to other researchers.

Training offers from GESIS

GESIS conducts a large number of scientific advanced training events, in particular courses in methods of empirical social research. The focus is on the acquisition of differentiated background knowledge and the learning of practical skills in the field of social science methods for national and international (young) scientists and practical researchers. The GESIS Summer School on data transfer methods for young scientists from all disciplines has been taking place since 2012 . The Spring Seminar for advanced methods of quantitative data analysis and the Methods Seminar for basic knowledge and skills in dealing with quantitative research data, which have been offered for over 40 and 30 years respectively, have an even longer tradition . The offer is supplemented by numerous workshops on current research methods and survey programs. In the area of Computational Social Science (CSS), GESIS offers a summer school on methods in CSS and other courses on methods and data science. The Computational Social Science Seminar is an approximately monthly event for the exchange of experts on the topics of data science and social analytics. CESSDA training is an offer within the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). GESIS thus promotes the introduction and use of standards for research data management and archiving.

GESIS magazines

The GESIS journals contain articles on the following areas:

The online journal Survey Methods: Insights from the Field, published jointly by FORS and GESIS, promotes exchange on practice-oriented questions and developments in survey research.

research

The offers for the research process are based on our own continuous and interdisciplinary research in the four areas of survey methodology, research data management, current social issues and applied computer science as well as within their intersections. GESIS is committed to the open science concept.

Networking in the scientific community

GESIS cooperates with various partner universities and is involved in important European and international projects such as Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA), European Social Survey (ESS), International Social Survey Program (ISSP), European Value Study (EVS) and Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) involved.

As a member of the Leibniz Association, GESIS maintains institutional and project-related collaborations with other institutes of the Leibniz Association and is involved in the following four Leibniz research associations:

Board and committees

GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences is a registered association with the following bodies:

  • General meeting
  • Board of Trustees
  • president
  • Scientific Advisory Board
  • User Advisory Board

The president acts as the head of the institute.

organization

Organizationally, GESIS is divided into five scientific departments which, with their research-based service and product range, cover the research process of empirical social research in its entirety.

  • Data Archive for Social Sciences (DAS)
  • Permanent observation of society (DBG)
  • Computational Social Science (CSS)
  • Survey Design and Methodology (SDM)
  • Knowledge Technologies for Social Sciences (WTS)

The research data centers are placed across the departments, offering not only access to special data, but also special processing of existing data sets , additional materials and context information as well as advice based on one's own research work.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sophie Zervos: Prof. Dr. Christof Wolf is the new President at GESIS. Science Information Service , July 3, 2017, accessed on July 20, 2017 .
  2. ^ Social Science Open Access Repository. In: gesis.org. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 8.5 ″  N , 8 ° 27 ′ 46.6 ″  E