GESIS-ZA

Functions of the Central Archive

The department GESIS-ZA views itself as a service provider to the quantitative social research community. It is the only publicly accessible archive of social survey data in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Its purpose is to make machine-readable original data (mainly survey results) available for further (secondary) analysis. The Central Archive's work spans all academic specialties in which methods of empirical social research are employed, e.g., sociology, political science, market and social psychology, mass communication studies, social politics, economics and technology, and historical social research.

History of social survey archives and of the Central Archive

The GESIS-ZA was established as Central Archive for Empirical Social Research was established in 1960 as an institute of the University of Cologne's Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. Since 1986, the institute has been legally operated by Kölner Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung e.V. (KGS), a registered association.

In December 1996, the Association of Social Science Infrastructure Organizations (Gesellschaft Sozialwissenschaftlicher Infrastruktureinrichtungen e.V., GESIS) was founded. Through GESIS, the Central Archive is a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz Academic Society.

The world's oldest archive of survey data exists in the United States, the Roper Center was set up in 1957. As its first European counterpart, the Central Archive was established by Günter Schmölders just a few years later. Erwin K. Scheuch, who had been instrumental in the founding process, became the Institute's director in 1963 and headed the Central Archive until the late '90s. Today, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Jagodzinski is Director of the Central Archive.

Basic activities of the Archive and usefulness of its material

Empirical surveys are exceedingly time-consuming and costly. It may take months to progress a survey from planning to implementation and, ultimately, analysis. Quite often, primary researchers simply lack the time to exhaust the full information value of the data collected – their analysis will be focused on the issues at hand. But changing research perspectives, as well as advances in theory formation and data analysis, may open up additional possibilities of using the available material and deriving new insights from existing data stocks. Conditioning, storing and documenting these data in a form that facilitates further analysis is usually beyond the primary researcher's capabilities. This is where the Central Archive's services come in: it acquires, conditions and supplies social survey data in a manner that will allow even students to do empirical work on the basis of high-grade representative material.

Additional services for social scientists

Apart from our commitment to archiving and distributing data for secondary analysis, the Archive's services spectrum includes the following:

• Advising users in the context of secondary analysis projects
• Providing data-related training in advanced methods and techniques of analyzing social research data
• Sharing data, information and experience with similar organizations on an international level
• Distributing information on current Empirical Social Research projects in German-speaking countries
• Disseminating information on new acquisitions of the Central Archive and current trends in empirical social research
• Organizing conferences and conventions

User support

Individualized support is provided to prospective users in the following areas:

• Selection of data records
• Methodological-technical problems in secondary analysis
• Collation of specialized literature
• Preparation of new surveys

Supply of data

Data are provided to users according to preference – on floppy disk, CD-ROM or magnetic tape, or via the Internet. A specimen of the original questionnaire, coding plan and code books will likewise be supplied, together with background information on the primary researchers' methodological approach. Information on the technical condition of the data and the circumstances under which they were collected is contained in the so-called "Survey Descriptions". Publications and result reports on a given data record can also be made available.

Key data areas

Users can research directly in selected "question pools", i.e., specially conditioned portions of the archive's standards that are supported by appropriately processed code book series.

Data from the following key areas are available on a continually supplemented basis:

• ALLBUS
  The "General Population Survey for the Social Sciences" is one of the most significant reference studies in Germany and one of the most frequently used for secondary analysis on various topics. Aside from the archiving of datasets by survey years, the cumulation of recurrent topics stored in the so-called ALLBUS-cumulation for the purpose of trend analyses is continuously extended.
• Election surveys
  Here the focus is on surveys carried out in the context of German national elections since 1949. Included are selected Politbarometer surveys conducted by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen e.V.
• Eurobarometer
  This section comprises questions from comparative surveys conducted in European countries. One specific focus area is the EU Commission's Eurobarometer survey.
• ISSP
  Here users can access the responses received from more than 40 countries as part of the "International Social Survey Programme".

Instruction and user training

Conducting theoretical and practical training in data evaluation and analysis is a priority objective at the GESIS. In addition to the data-related methodological instruction offered as part of university programs, our Spring Seminars have been held since 1972 to address the needs of advanced users. Attended by social scientists from all over Germany (and, increasingly, other countries), these three-week events provide insights into new methods of data analysis – as well as the opportunity to practise their application on data material specifically prepared. Our annual Autumn Seminars are specifically aimed at the continuing education of historians.

Research

The range of services to the social science community is supplemented by in-house research, which is invariably closely related to our archived data. The issues examined to date cover a very broad spectrum. Other research is focused on methodological strategies for enhancing the use and facilitating the storage of social survey data. Archiving tools are refined in cooperation with international partners.

Research project documentation

Since 1962, the Central Archive has been releasing its annual research documentation "Empirical Social Research" to provide information on the contents, methods, objectives and status of empirical research in the German-speaking world (to the extent to which data have been collected and are available in machine-readable form). In form of a written poll in Germany, Austria and Switzerland GESIS keep track of current and completed social research projects. The survey is addressed to all institutions working in the social sciences. Responses can be accessed via the SOFIS database.

Apart from serving our objective to distribute information to the interested public, the results of these surveys form the basis for the Central Archive's data procurement activities.

Dedicated empirical research library

The Central Archive's library comprises an extensive selection of monographs,

collections, press releases, institute reports, tabulated data volumes and unpublished research documents from the field of empirical social research. This includes a body of "grey literature" such as the press and information services of major market surveying and opinion polling institutes, as well as project reports.  The library's content is searchable via the Internet.

Services related to Historical Social Research - ZHSF

Historical social research is a field which has featured in the Central Archive's services portfolio since 1987. The Center for Historical Social Research (ZHSF) evolved from its precursor organisation established in 1997 as the research and services unit of the "Working Group for Quantitation and Methods in Historical Social Research" (QUANTUM).

 The spectrum of services provided by ZHSF specifically includes the following:

• Acquisition, processing, conditioning, archiving and distribution of machine-readable data from the field of historical social research.
• Methodological and technical advice on the planning and implementation of quantitative (primary) analyses of historical data, as well as on the secondary analysis of historical research data records already archived at ZHSF.
• Development and application of numerical and non-numerical methods related to the computer-assisted acquisition, processing, and analysis of historical sources.
• Implementation of in-house research projects (specifically as related to methodology, data issues, or data processing)
• Distribution of research-related information through periodical publications such as the academic journal "Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung", the book series "Historical Social Science Research", and the "Data Manuals for Historical Social Surveys"
• Documentation of the contents, methods, objectives and status of ongoing and completed historical social research projects in the German-speaking world (in cooperation with the "Social Sciences Information Center")
• Organization of national and international congresses, conventions, meetings and lecture events on aspects, methods, techniques, data, etc., of historical social research.
• Training of young scientists through annual seminars (held in the last two full September weeks of each year) on methodological issues in historical social research (ZHSF Autumn Seminars).
• Supporting the QUANTUM members' organisation and its international parent, INTERQUANT, in maintaining the international network of quantitative historical social research.

International cooperation

For an interdisciplinary institute, it is essential to remain permanently in touch with the key organizations and institutions working in our field. Apart from extensive links to research facilities, institutions of higher education and market/opinion research institutes in Germany, the GESIS maintains numerous close relations at the international level, specifically with other data archives.

Throughout Europe, data archives are organized in the "Council of European Social Science Data Archives" (CESSDA). The worldwide cooperation of leading data archives is organized within the "International Federation of Data Organizations for the Social Sciences" (IFDO). Their members have agreed upon procedural standards that facilitate the information and data exchange between archives. In addition, the Central Archive acts as a broker in the procurement of data from foreign archives. Its cooperation partners are data archives with IFDO membership status.