Growing knowledge in the social sciences

Our mission is to grow, promote and support social science research so that socially relevant questions can be answered on the basis of the latest scientific methods, high-quality data and research information.

How do we do it? With our research-based services and infrastructures:

You are planning a study?

We support you with the following offers:

Our team of experts will advise you individually on study planning and data collection of survey data and digital behavioral data.

In the GESIS Survey Guidelines you will find „best practices“ on common questions that arise when planning and conducting a survey.

In the GESIS Guides to DBD you will find our expertise and structured information on digital behavioral data and the methods with which it can be collected and analyzed.

In our Cognitive Pretest Lab we optimize your survey instruments by cognitive pretesting in combination with eye tracking, by cognitive online pretests (web probing) or by coordinating intercultural pretests.

We provide you with systematically documented and evaluated measurement instruments in the Compilation of Social Science Items and Scales (CIS).

You can rely on our years of experience when it comes to sampling plans, drawing telephone samples, and implementing complex sample designs.

With the GESIS Panel, our probabilistic mixed-mode access panel, you can collect representative data at short notice and flexibly.

Looking for suitable data?

For many social science questions, data, that have already been collected, are available and can be used for secondary analyses without effort in our data archive. A special data selection for analyses across time and national borders as well as the direct path to our data catalog are presented here:

Almost 7000 studies with collected data are available in our data archive and can be used for secondary analyses without any effort.

Learn more

Since 1980, the ALLBUS have surveyed the German population in representative cross-sectional samples at regular two-year intervals, using constant and variable questions.

Commissioned by the European Commission, the Eurobarometer surveys have been monitoring public opinion in the European Union since the early 1970s.

The EVS is cross-national cross-sectional survey research program on values and attitudes, conducted at nine-year intervals since 1981.

Since 1984 the ISSP has conducted a joint annual survey on topics of relevance to the social sciences. It is currently fielded in about 50 countries.

The GLES has been observing and analyzing the electorate in methodologically diverse surveys since 2009.

The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems CSES contains post-election surveys in around 40 countries since 1996.

In the Service Web Data for the Social Sciences , you will find collections of digital behavioral data from the web, especially from online platforms, including social media.

The path from processing to analyzing data

Special expertise is required for dealing with missing values or different types of data, for comparison with reference data or for linking to other data sources. Take advantage of our experience and services and get your data ready for analysis.

We advise you on weighting, imputation of missing values and non-response bias analysis and also carry these out for you (for a fee).

We offer you comprehensive consulting services and tools with the help of which you can subsequently improve the comparability of existing data.

We offer comprehensive information, tools and setups for processing and analyzing official German and European microdata.

To support the analysis of digital behavioral data with computational methods, we provide tutorials for analysis, standard tools for social entity mining and data enrichment.

Share your research output!

Archive and share your data and syntax! You have questions about research data management? We have the answers.

Archive and share your publications.

We share our knowledge!

We pass on our expertise in various formats - from individual consulting to practice-oriented guidelines and support you in conducting your studies based on survey data or digital behavioral data.

The GESIS Training offers courses on all topics of empirical social research with a focus on data analysis, survey methodology and computational social science.

Our journals Historical Social Research HSR with articles on new methods in historical social research and the journal methods, data, analyses with articles on the methods of survey research are specifically tailored to topics.

Growing knowledge in the social sciences

You are planning a study?

Customized support – our consulting

Best Practices in the GESIS Survey Guidelines

GESIS Guides to DBD

Valid responses - survey instruments

Tested items and Scales

Adequate sampling for meaningful inferences

Collecting data with the GESIS Panel

Looking for suitable data?

Click here for our data catalog

German General Social Survey ALLBUS

Eurobarometer

European Values Study EVS

International Social Survey Programme ISSP

German Longitudinal Election Study GLES

Comparative Study of Electoral Systems CSES

GESIS Web Data

The path from processing to analyzing data

Advice and service on weighting & more

Advice and tools for data harmonization

Tools for the preparation and analysis of official microdata,

Tutorials, tools, methods to analyze digital behavioral data

Share your research output!

Data services

Social Science Open Access Repository SSOAR

We share our knowledge!

Information Hub - our knowledge for you

GESIS Training

GESIS Journals