The Practice of Survey Design and Implementation

About

Workshop content and objectives

In this workshop, participants will learn how to design and implement a state-of-the-art social science survey project. The instructors will provide first-hand insights into the whole life cycle of a survey project based on their experience spanning from large international general population survey infrastructure projects, such as the European Social Survey, the International Social Survey Programme and the European Values Study, to small-scale project-driven surveys focusing on specific subpopulations. The course will focus on practical aspects and will give hands-on insights into issues that occur in survey projects through practical applications and exercises. The course’s characteristic is that it does not separate methodological questions from substantive/research questions but conceives survey research as a hole, integrating research questions and methodology. The instructors will focus on what the survey methodologists do not publish about and thus prepare the participants to face the different pitfalls and complications a survey project can (and most often will) bring and will offer a toolbox to overcome such issues. The course will complement the methodological literature rather than repeat it. Participants will be well equipped to start their own scientific survey project after having been walked through the life cycle of a survey project in practice.

Workshop design

The workshop will walk participants through the process of designing a survey from the initial idea to the publication of the data. It will, however, not cover the analysis of survey data, there are many other courses on this matter at the Summer School. Each day will focus on several aspects in the life cycle of a social science survey project, consisting of theoretical and practical input and hands-on exercises. Morning sessions will consist of sessions of short input presentations and short exercises, while afternoon sessions will consist of group work applying what has been discussed in the morning session. The day will end with a short “food for thought” input. Participants can bring their own survey idea(s) to the workshop for the use in some of the group exercises, but the instructors will provide material for exercises for those without an own project.

Detailed Lecture Plan (daily schedule)

Day 1 – Introduction: Design of survey
Introduction into surveys:

What kind of research questions require surveys?
Types and modes of surveys
Survey Life Cycle

Different steps of survey implementation
Planning of a survey
Statistical basics of survey research

Sampling
Representation
Errors and bias – Total Survey Error Paradigm
Day 2 – Questionnaire design
From research questions to survey questions

Analysis and question formulation
Latent concepts and measurement
Elements of a questionnaire

Types of questions
Response scales
Recurring issues

Typology of issues in question formulation
Day 3 – Fieldwork preparation
Cross-cultural / cross-language issues in survey research

How well do concepts travel?
Approaches to cross-cultural survey development
Translation of surveys

Issues of translation
TRAPD-Approach
Fieldwork design and preparation

Data protection
Letters
Day 4 – Questionnaire testing
Testing questions

Qualitative and quantitative pre-tests
Testing surveys

Contextual tests and programming
Day 5 – Data preparation and publication
Data preparation:

Data cleaning
De-identification
Documentation

Basic documentation
Response rate, analysis of risk of bias
Data publication:

Types of repositories

**The Summer School cannot grant credits. We only deliver a Certificate of Participation, i.e. we certify your attendance.**

If you consider using Summer School workshops to obtain credits (ECTS), you will have to investigate at your home institution (contact the person/institute responsible for your degree) to find out whether they recognise the Summer School, how many credits can be earned from a workshop/course with roughly 35 hours of teaching, no graded work, and no exams.

Make sure to investigate this matter before registering if this is important to you.

Course leader

Michael Ochsner (FORS, the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences) & Alexandre Pollien (FORS)

Target group

graduate students, doctoral researchers, early career researchers

Prerequisites

The course addresses researchers who want to improve their knowledge on survey design and to acquire or deepen their skills in survey implementation. No particular knowledge is required except for a basic understanding of quantitative social research using survey data and basic knowledge on the notion of probability. All levels of expertise, from PhD students to senior researchers, are welcome.

Fee info