Interactive tools for large-scale social surveys Sarah Butt (ESS ERIC) and Brian Kleiner (FORS) 8th ESRC Research Methods Festival 5th July 2018 Developing and running large scale surveys is costly and complex often involving many different stakeholders and stages/processes taking place over a prolonged period of time Increasingly survey producers are looking to harness technology and identify online tools to help them increase the efficiency and effectiveness of data collection. The EC funded SERISS project – Synergies for Europe’s Infrastructures in the Social Sciences – has invested heavily in developing a suite of online tools to support different stages of the survey lifecyle Today we want to showcase some of these tools which we hope may be of interest and could potentially be adopted by other survey infrastructures Project has a particular focus on cross-national surveys such as ESS but tools also relevant to large scale national surveys Main body of session – presentation of three different tools for questionnaire design, fieldwork management and survey management but first by way of intro want to say a bit about the SERISS project as a whole and also reflect on some of the opportunities and challenges which working with interactive online tools can present

Tools are becoming increasingly important Increased emphasis on developing research infrastructures Requirement for data to be F(indable), A(ccessible), I(nteroperable), R(eusable) Cost pressures and the need to do more with less Second answer to this is that online tools can help to overcome some of the challenge

Interactive tools can meet surveys’ needs to … Share info/co-ordinate activity across multiple stakeholders Transfer and process large amounts of data quickly Streamline different stages of the survey lifecycle Document complex and lengthy decision-making processes Share/reuse information across survey waves, different countries, etc. First question is Why develop and use online tools? First answer to this is that online tools can help to overcome some of the challenges faced by large scale social surveys

Developing tools is resource intensive It requires: A large-scale team and close collaboration between tool developers and content experts i.e. end users Careful documentation (e.g. in event the team changes) Investment in promotion and training for users Ongoing development and maintenance Developing tools is, however, resource intensive. Individual survey infrastructures need to consider relative value of developing own tools vs purchasing commercial products/adapting existing tools – and once developed consider how to recoup investment by for e.g. making tools available to other tools. So SERISS project - money and combined expertise to develop tools. Focus on developing tools which can be adapted and adopted by different survey infrastructures.

A collaboration between: www.seriss.eu @SERISS_EU A collaboration between: European Social Survey (ESS ERIC) Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE ERIC) Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA ERIC) Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) European Values Study WageIndicator Survey 2015-2019 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

SERISS aims to … Address key challenges for cross-national data collection e.g. accurately representing the population, achieving equivalence through translation Break down barriers between social science infrastructures via training and networking events and the development of shared online tools to facilitate harmonised data collection and documentation. Embrace the future of the social sciences by examining the legal and ethical challenges associated with new forms of data, developing a cross-national probability-based web survey and exploring automated coding for socio-economic variables Aims to strengthen social science research across Europe and beyond and equip social science infrastructures to play a major role in addressing key societal challenges and ensure that national and European policy making is built on a firm socio-economic evidence base

Questionnaire Fieldwork Survey Management Data harmonisation Questionnaire Design and Documentation Tool (QDDT) Translation Management Tool (TMT) Fieldwork management system (FMS) Survey Management portal Questionnaire Fieldwork Question variable Database (QVDB) Survey Management Coding module for socio-economic variables Variable harmonisation hub Data harmonisation

Focus today on… Questionnaire Design and Documentation Tool (QDDT) Fieldwork management system (FMS) Survey Management portal (SMaP) Focus on….

https://github.com/DASISH/qddt-client/wiki QDDT: https://github.com/DASISH/qddt-client/wiki FMS: https://seriss.centerdata.nl/seriss/page2.php Survey management portal: Contact Eveylyn Can find out more about these tools via SERISS website and also dedicated sites shown on slide Presenters happy to stay and answer questions./give you a demo of the tools in the break

www.seriss.eu @SERISS_EU seriss@city.ac.uk Find out more www.seriss.eu @SERISS_EU seriss@city.ac.uk