Support and consultation in archiving self-conducted surveys

GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences archives machine-readable datasets from all areas of social science, if the study:

• permits conclusions about the German population or parts thereof,
• was conducted by German researchers, regardless of whether or not the survey in fact refers to Germany,
• could be of general interest to users with a social science background.

GESIS offers data depositors the following archiving services for their data sets:

• Agreement on the terms of access for secondary analyses by third parties through defining access categories.
• Routine inspection of data and, if found to be necessary, processing according to the standards of the Data Archive.
• Study descriptions for the data catalog.
• Long-term preservation of digital and printed study material.
• Making studies available online or on CD-ROM through the data service section.

Advantages include:

• Free access to the own studies archived at GESIS.
• Free access to data from the Archive’s data holdings to approximately the same extend as the own studies, unless restricted access regulations apply (see terms of use).

For a complete archiving the Data Archive requests all materials necessary for a secondary analysis. This includes at least the data itself, prepared for direct use in statistical software packages if possible, the instrument (e.g. questionnaire) and a methodological description. The materials should not underlay any copyright restrictions (e.g. copies of books).

Cooperation with data depositors

The GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences (formerly known as Central Archive for Empirical Social Research) is used as a survey archive by numerous academic institutes and market and opinion research agencies. It enables scholars to work empirically without having to conduct their own surveys and thus to build upon an established stock of data. This way, existing knowledge is used in an optimal and economic fashion.

Your contact

For inquiries concerning issues archiving of social science data sets please contact:
Gesis data service, Tel. +49 (0)221- 47694-420, E-Mail