A Probability-Based Mixed-Mode Access Panel
for the Social Sciences

Submission

Researchers from various social science fields (e.g., sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, economists, and criminologists) at universities and non-commercial research institutes, may submit a regular proposal throughout the year. 

Click here for a Regular Proposal Submission in the GESIS Panel

The GESIS Panel uses a Web-based submission system for managing the submission and peer-review process. Before you submit a proposal, please note the following points:

  • Preparing your proposal involves providing several information about your research project by reading and filling out our submission documents.
  • Your questionnaire must conform to the GESIS Panel Survey Style Guide. The GESIS Panel cannot accept studies that do not conform to the Style Guide. 
  • Further, you can find some examples of "What makes a good questionnaire?" in our FAQ about questionnaire design.
  • Please note that we also consider study submitters as future reviewers.

Submit your proposal on the GESIS Panel Proposal Submission Site. 

 

Please note, that:

  • The GESIS Panel does not accept commercial projects. Moreover, as the aim of the GESIS Panel is to survey people, not to manipulate them, experiments designed to manipulate respondents are not suitable for the GESIS Panel.
  • Accepted questionnaires will be run free of charge, except in the case of funded research projects, which will be required to cover part of the incentive costs.
  • There are limited slots for funded projects. If you intend to run a funded project in the GESIS Panel please let us know as early as possible to adjust timely possibilities of data collection.
  • Funded projects cannot be given priority over other research projects.
  • The GESIS Panel welcomes proposals for single-wave studies (i.e., cross-sectional designs) as well as multiple-wave studies (i.e., longitudinal studies including multiple cross-sectional designs and panel designs).
  • Only studies that take full advantage of the entire panel can be considered; cohort or sub-sample studies are not eligible for consideration.

Pretesting service:

  • Researchers may wish to use the services of the GESIS Pretest Lab prior to submitting their proposals/questionnaires. The GESIS Pretest Lab supports researchers in optimizing their survey questions prior to data collection in order to ensure high quality of the collected data.

Service on already existing Items and Scales (ZIS):

  • ZIS stands for the Collection of Items and Scales for the Social Sciences (German: ZIS - Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen). ZIS contains more than 250 instruments, e.g. items for measuring political attitudes or personality. Click here for more information on the documentation of existing Items and Scales for the Social Sciences.

Click here for a Fast-Track Submission on Current Topics

The fast-track procedure offers researchers an opportunity to collect last-minute data on current topics within the GESIS Panel. Eligible studies should address a current topic, such as important forthcoming events (e.g., elections), contemporary changes in society (e.g., migration), or issues of public discussion (e.g., minimum wages). Please make sure to clearly justify the urgency of your data collection. You could, for example, list current news from the media.

The submitted questionnaire may comprise (a) up to three short single-choice questions, (b) one multiple choice question with a maximum of seven items, or (c) one open-ended question. In contrast to regular proposals, this questionnaire does not have to be submitted as a Unipark questionnaire, nor does it undergo an external review process.

To submit your questions on a current topic, please fill in the Fast-Track-Submission Form (337 kB), and sign the GESIS Panel General Terms and Conditions, and send them to current-topic@gesis-panel.org. Among all eligible proposals submitted before the deadline, the GESIS Panel Team randomly selects one questionnaire for the upcoming wave.

Deadlines for fast-track submissions:

Wave ha (February 2020)December 09, 2019
Wave hb (April 2020)February 17, 2020
Wave hc (June 2020)April 13, 2020
Wave hd (August 2020)June 15, 2020
Wave he (October 2020)August 17, 2020
Wave hf (December 2020)October 12, 2020

Click here for a Data Collection in Four Different Countries (OPPA)

The Open Probability-based Panel Alliance (OPPA) is a collaboration of four probability-based Internet panels: the GESIS Panel in Germany, the LISS Panel in the Netherlands, the Understanding America Study (UAS) in the USA, and the Korean Academic Multimode Open Survey (KAMOS). The Alliance facilitates cross-cultural survey research with probability-based panels across the globe, endorsing joint methodological standards to yield representative data. OPPA is driven by research demand.

Partners in OPPA offer unique possibilities for academic research. Use of their panels is not limited to researchers from the country where the infrastructure is located. Primary researchers are provided a one-stop entry point to submit proposals and then choose whether the data should be collected in all countries participating in the network, or in subsets of it.

Click here to visit the OPPA website.