Pre-announcement: Call to lead new areas of work
Later this year, the European Social Survey (ESS) will be inviting institutions to lead three areas of work in the 2025-29 work programme.
The call will be open to new and existing Core Scientific Team (CST) members and will focus on three areas: guidance to analysing the data, survey non-response and academic impact.
The 2025-29 work programme is underpinned by the five-year ESS Strategic Plan which sets out plans to transition data collection from in-person interviews to self-completion modes (online and postal questionnaires).
Round 11 (2023/24) has been conducted in line with rounds 1-9 of the survey using face-to-face fieldwork, other than in one country where this was not possible (Czechia conducted fieldwork using self-completion methods).
Round 12 (2025/26) will be conducted using a parallel run approach: half the sample in each country will be complete interviews alone with the other half interviewed in-person.
This will enable the ESS to better understand mode effects ahead of Round 13 (2027/28), which will be conducted exclusively using self-completion modes.
This mode switch is relevant to how users analyse the data, both in navigating mixed-mode data due to be collected in Round 12, and in assessing the impact of the mode switch on the time series.
Therefore, a new work package - Analysis guidance and training - will be introduced to the 2025-29 work programme.
The successful applicant to this new work package will be expected to produce training materials to help guide data users in general analyses and in the context of potential mode effects.
Up until now, the ESS has only provided limited guidance to the analysis of data and will therefore appoint an institution to provide more detailed training for existing and potential data users.
The mode switch will also have implications on survey non-response - an area that the ESS invested heavily in during the early years of the survey.
This new area of work will cover lower response rates expected from self-completion methods and establish which subgroups maybe underrepresented in using this new approach.
In addition, some ESS countries will use a ‘postal first’ approach to communicating with potential respondents whereas other will rely on fieldworkers visiting addresses.
Understanding survey non-response associated with these two different self-completion approaches will help the ESS reduce this in future.
The work package will analyse non-response, make recommendations for the data collection in forthcoming rounds and scope future research priorities.
The final area of work that will be part of the call will focus on academic impact monitoring and generating impact case studies.
This work package will build on existing work to monitor all academic publications that include significant analysis of our data.
The selected institution will also be responsible for impact case studies (overall and policy) and media monitoring.
They will also be expected to work closely with other CST members to promote ESS data effectively at the national level and with the Scientific Advisory Board to promote greater academic use of the data.
The named lead for each work package is expected to have a strong track record in the area they are applying for, including through academic publications as well as experience of practical implementation in the field.
Full details of the application process and criteria for appointment will be available in the call expected in the autumn / winter of 2024.
Professor Rory Fitzgerald, Director of the ESS, said:
"The ESS is undergoing a major methodological transformation with its data collection moving fully self-completion by 2027.
"There will soon be an exciting opportunity for leading social scientists to join our Core Scientific Team to ensure the success of that transformation."